The physician's pulse watch or an essay to explain the old art of feeling the pulse and to improve it by the help of the pulse watch. . . / The Pulse Watch Vol. 2. Or, an Essay to discover The Causes of Diseases, and a rational Method of curing them by Feeling of the Pulse. . .

FLOYER, John

Published by Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, London, 1707

About this Item

The physician's pulse watch or an essay to explain the old art of feeling the pulse and to improve it by the help of the pulse watch. London: Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, 1707. The Pulse Watch Vol. 2. Or, an Essay to discover The Causes of Diseases, and a rational Method of curing them by Feeling of the Pulse. London: Printed for J. Nicholson, W. Taylor, and H. Clements, 1710. Two volumes, 8vo (187 x 117 mm, 203 x 117 mm). [26], 440 pp., signatures A? a4 chi1 B-2F?; [8], xxviii, 468 pp., signatures A? a? b6 B-2G? 2H². Including the separate advertisement leaf before p.1. Contemporary non-matching calf, neatly rebacked to match with gilt rules and red leather labels (some wear of extremities). Text very little browned, some spotting and scattered soiling (p.16 of vol. II stronger soiled in margin). Provenances: Denis Gibbs* (armorial bookplate to vol. I), Robert Wells, Wardle Road (ink stamp to free endpaper of vol. I), Geo. Bates, London, Feb. 17, 170? (signature to free endpaper of vol. I); George Paterson of Castle Huntly (1734-1813, armorial bookplate to vol. II). ---- Garrison-Morton 2670; Wellcome III, p.35; NLM/Blake 149; Waller 3092 and Osler Cat. 2618 (vol. I only). FIRST EDITION, with the EXCEPTIONALLY RARE SECOND VOLUME. The author was the first to use a watch to count the pulse-his watch ran for a minute-which made an accurate study of the rate of the pulse possible; his method is now, of course, universal. He also tried to estimate the blood volume and to compare it with the body weight. In the appendix there is a translation of extracts from the rare work on Chinese medicine by Cleyer (1682) dealing with Chinese pulse lore. "Before watches had hands to record the seconds, Floyer invented a pulse-watch which divided the minute. He was the first to count the pulse with the aid of a watch and to make regular observations on the pulse-rate" (Garrison-M.). Volume I has an advertisement for other works by Floyer and 'The pulse watch', printed as a single leaf (chi1) with the note "Place this after the Contents". Volume II has a variant title-page: The pulse watch.; these essays are added as an appendix, I. An essay to make a new sphygmologia., II. An inquiry into.the respirations., III. A letter concerning the rupture in the lungs, which is the cause of the asthma in mankind. with an individual title-page for essay III. The second volume (often lacking) was published in 1710 and contains the first English translation of Michal Piotr Boym's 1682 Specimen medicinae Sinicae, on Chinese pulse lore (see Garrison-Morton 6492). Complete sets of this work are very rare, volume II usually being missing; even the Dr. Bedford copy in the Royal College of Physicians is imperfect. *Denis Gibbs was co-editor with Philip K. Wilson of "Advice to a Young Physician" by Sir John Floyer MD (1649-1734) of Lichfield in Staffordshire, William Sessions Ltd, 2007.- Visit our website to see more images!

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The physician's pulse watch or an essay to explain the old art of feeling the pulse and to improve it by the help of the pulse watch. . . / The Pulse Watch Vol. 2. Or, an Essay to discover The Causes of Diseases, and a rational Method of curing them by Feeling of the Pulse. . .
• Publisher: Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, London
• Publication Date: 1707
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Medicine