Collation: 8vo: a–c¹² d⁸ A–Q¹² R⁴, 240 leaves, pp. lxxxvii[1] 392.
Condition: 164 x 95mm. Faint scattered foxing.
Binding: Contemporary red morocco, gilt spine with raised bands, lettered direct in second compartment, tripple gilt fillets to sides with acorn tools at the corners, almost invisible restoration to headcap, gilt edges, decorated endpapers with printed stars and dots in gilt.
References: RCOG catalgoue p. 3; Wellcome II, p. 65; Heirs of Hippocrates 803; not in Waller.
Price: £850

First edition.
¶ A fine copy of a work based on a course for midwives which Astruc had prepared for the Faculté de Médecine, published as a kind of supplement to his six volume Traité des maladies des femmes (1761–5, Garrison-Morton 6019). The long preliminary section is a history of obstetrics. Osler (who had only the 1771 edition) draws attention to Astruc’s report on the ‘Décision des Docteurs de Sorbonne sur la validité du Baptême, conféré par injection’ (i.e. through the vagina on the undelivered foetus) and notes that the decision is quoted in full by Stern in Tristram Shandy. The letter concerning Adam and Eve mentioned in the title discusses how Adam and Eve knew how to deal with the umbilical cord and afterbirth.