in the publisher's boards

First and only edition of this uncommon short work by the prominent surgeon and anatomist Charles Bell (1774-1842), in the publisher's boards.

Bell undertook his surgical training in Edinburgh during the 1890s and at the same time studied art with the painter David Allen, publishing his System of Dissections, a guide for anatomy students, while himself still a student in 1798. He worked as a surgeon in Edinburgh before moving to London, where he purchased a share in the Hunterian School of Medicine and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. He published a number of significant anatomical works, many illustrated with his own drawings, and taught anatomy to artists as well as surgeons. By 1807 he had 'developed an ambition to make a grand discovery comparable to William Harvey's demonstration of the circulation of the blood', though focused most of his energy on the nervous system.

First edition; 12mo; 12 page publisher's ads at rear, contents spotted, particularly the early and late leaves; publisher's blue boards, printed paper spine label, bookplate of John Mount, Ulverston, boards worn and marked, joints cracked, some loss from the ends of spine and the paper label, a very good copy; 83pp.