DELPECH Jacques Chirurgie clinique de Montpellier, ou observations et réflexions tirées des travaux de chirurgie clinique de cette école.

Garrison-Morton, 4312 & 5741.1; Waller, 2346; not in Wellcome or Osler.

First edition, very rare.

In the first volume Delpech described the beneficial effect of section of the Achilles tendon for club-foot; he performed the operation on May 9, 1816 and although not first to do so, he was the first to demonstrate the value of tenotomy in the correction of contracture deformities of the extremities. But this work is moreover important for being the first important French contribution to plastic surgery.

“The first account of rhinoplasty in France. On 4 June 1823, Delpech performed the first cases of rhinoplasty by the Indian forehead flap method, and one (unsuccessful) with a flap from the arm following von Graefe (N°5738). Delpech also was the first to restore the lower lip by means of a skin graft from the throat” (Garrison-Morton).

Delpech also describes operations on the eyelid, on the lips, the urethra, scrotum and bladder, and proposes skin transplantation from one person to another. In regard to plastic surgery of the lips, Delpech was the first to successfully form the lips from the skin of the throat with a turn of the skin bridge and doubling of the upper border. The 37 plates (numbered 1-35, 28bis, 28ter) show a variety of pathologies and their reconstructions.

Some light foxing but a very nice copy, present in a prize binding for “École Préparat. de Médecine et de Pharmacie de Lyon” (indication on front cover of volume I).