"REVEALS AN ACCURACY FAR BEYOND ANYTHING THAT HAD YET BEEN PUBLISHED IN ANATOMICAL WORKS": SIBSON'S MEDICAL ANATOMY, 1869 FIRST EDITION, WITH 21 SPLENDID HAND-COLORED LARGE FOLIO PLATES

SIBSON, Francis. Medical Anatomy. London: John Churchill & Sons, 1869. Large folio (15 by 21 inches), full period-style morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers.

First edition of Sibson's splendid anatomy, with 21 lovely hand-colored folio lithographs by Hullmandel after drawings by William Fairland depicting the internal organs within the frame of the male and female torso—seen from front, sides and back—with plates 19 through 21 and the accompanying text notably describing the movements, structure and sounds of the heart. Beautifully bound.

Francis Sibson "is mnemonically remembered by the terms Sibson's fascia (a fibrous band extending from the apical pleura and attaching to the transverse process of the seventh cervical vertebrae) and Sibson's muscle (a part of the scalenus group). Sibson had a special interest in the teaching of anatomy and believed that it was not being properly taught because the functional aspect of the organs, particularly those of circulation and respiration, was being neglected. As a result, he published the present work depicting anterior, posterior, and side views of dissections of male and female cadavers. With the exception of some parts of the neck, only the contents of the thorax and abdomen are shown. The anatomical relationships of the organs, their range of motion, and especially the effects of respiration and cardiac pulsation are described in a unique manner. Sibson makes allowance for the fact that in a cadaver the organ positions are fixed and not, therefore, exactly the same as in the living body. A final commentary on the structure, movements, and sounds of the heart reveals an accuracy far beyond anything that had yet been published in anatomical works. The work was issued in seven fascicles between 1855 and 1869 and is here published complete with a new title page for the first time" (Heirs of Hippocrates). "His election as fellow of the Royal Society in 1849 recognized his painstakingly accurate work on the anatomy of the healthy and diseased viscera. Establishing his own practice in Brook Street in 1849 he began a well-attended series of demonstrations in visceral anatomy… His main interests lay in cardiac, renal, and pulmonary disease. His enthusiastic lecturing and bedside teaching on ward rounds were backed by the relish which this morbid anatomist showed in autopsies. His cases at St. Mary's Hospital provided the raw materials for his 1869 book Medical Anatomy" (ODNB). Charles Hullmandel was a pioneer in the use of lithography and coloring in England in the first half of the 19th century; though this work was published after his death, his firm Hullmandel and Walton continued producing superior lithographs, as clearly demonstrated by the present work. The final three plates (constituting the seventh fascicle) were printed in Paris, lithographed by Léveillé. Garrison-Morton 422. Heirs of Hippocrates 1814. Ex-library Charing Cross Hospital Medical School Library, with ink stamp on title page and "withdrawn" stamp on verso.

Title page and plates neatly rehinged, a few text leaves with expert paper repairs, mostly marginal. Many leaves expertly cleaned, mostly text, final text leaf with repaired closed tear. Morocco binding fine and beautiful, hand-coloring vivid. An exceptional copy.