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DE ANIMA BRUTORUM QUAE HOMINIS VITALIS AC SENSITIVA EST, EXERCITATIONES DUAE.
(London: William Wells and Robert Scott, 1672). 211 x 155 mm. (8 1/4 x 6 1/4"). 28 p.l., 16, 33-565 [i.e., 563], [11] pp. (Numbering erratic but text complete, including the vertical half title preceding p.1. Without the five-page bookseller's catalogue that usually appears at the end of the Oxford Issue, but rarely in the London issue). FIRST EDITION, London Issue.
Contemporary sprinkled calf, raised bands, spine attractively gilt in compartments with central floral spray, curling vines at corners, gilt lettering. WITH EIGHT ENGRAVED PLATES, five of them folding. Title page and vertical half title (g2) with ink signature of [Jean Baptiste] Bouthier de Rochefort; head margin of p. 1 with ink manuscript ex-libris of Jean Bailly, M.D. dated 1674; the chapter on encephalitis ("De Cephalagia," pp. 259-306) with extensive Latin marginalia in Dr. Bailly's hand. Wing W-2827; Garrison and Morton (online) 1544, 4513, 4730, 4793, 4919, 4966; Krivatsy 13015; Norman 2245; ESTC R186611. Extremities somewhat rubbed, with leather gone at three corners and along part of the edge of one board, leather a little pitted and dry (as usual from acid treatment), but the binding entirely sound, with no significant wear to the joints. First plate with short tear to one margin (well awas from image), occasional mild browning or faint foxing, but A FINE COPY INTERNALLY, the text clean and fresh, and THE PLATES EXCEPTIONALLY CRISP AND BRIGHT.
This is a fine, fresh copy of the first edition, London issue, of the earliest English work on medical psychology, by the father of modern neuroanatomy. Considered by Willis (1621-75) to be his greatest work, "Two Discourses on the Soul of Brutes, Which Is Vital and Sensitive," recognized the difference between the symptoms of gross brain disease and those of mental illness, postulating than humans have a "corporeal soul" akin to that of "brute" animals, and a "rational soul" that controls the higher functions. Because he postulated a disturbance of the brain and nerves in terms of disordered "animal spirits" in the absence of pathological findings, Willis is often considered the first to have equated mind disease with brain disease. In the section on comparative neuroanatomy are the first detailed dissections of the earthworm, the oyster, and the lobster, all nicely illustrated. The author's contributions to comparative anatomy were significant: his discovery of the esophageal glands and pouches of the earthworm were later to be of interest to Charles Darwin. Willis traced in detail how vibratory impressions from the five senses are transmitted through the plenum of animal spirits which inhabit the nervous system, and how these impulses are interpreted, processed, and stored in specialized parts of the cerebrum and medulla oblongata. In the chapter "Of Stupidity or Foolishness" appears for the first time a description of schizophrenia. Willis also gives the first description of general paresis of the insane, and the first definite recognition of the condition now known as myasthenia gravis. The 1683 English translation of this work marks the first use of the word "neurology." Willis was both the most successful medical practitioner of his day and a leading light in experimental natural philosophy whose associates included Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Richard Lower, Christopher Wren, and John Locke. His international reputation and influence continued into the next century. In 1727, "History of Physic" author John Freind declared Willis "the first inventor of the nervous system.". (ST19899)
Price: $8,500.00