SENAC Jean-Baptiste Traité de la structure du coeur, de son action et de ses maladies.

Garrison-Morton, 2733; Blake, 414; Norman, 1929; Wellcome, V, 86; Heirs of Hippocrates, 823; not in Waller.

First edition of this famous work by the Jesuit medical doctor.

Jean-Baptiste Sénac (1693-1770) studied in Holland under a disciple of Newton, the physician John Freind (1675-1728). He was appointed assistant anatomist at the Royal Academy of Sciences in December 1723. As King Louis XV’s physician, Sénac studied the lesions of the heart as well as could be done before the discovery of auscultation. It was by means of the pulse, the only means at the time, that the doctor made his observations and turned cardiology into an exact science. Today Sénac is considered the founding father of cardiology.

“The first comprehensive treatise on the structure and diseases of the heart” (Norman).

“Senac’s valuable treatise on the heart added much to the knowledge of the anatomy and diseases of that organ… Senac was the first to use quinine for palpitation” (Garrison-Morton). “Here, in two volumes, is the first comprehensive and systematic treatise on the anatomy,  physiology, and pathology of the heart and its diseases. Sénac described the ossification of the coronary vessels, insufficiency of the cardiac valves, transfusion of blood, and the role of hydrothorax in circulatory failure” (Heirs).

Very good copy, complete with its 17 plates expertly engraved by Robert and Poilly.