Louis Valentin (c. 1758 – 1829). 

Coup-œil sur les différens modes de traiter le tétanos en Amérique.

Paris, Laurens aîné, 1811.

8°. 62 pp.

Sewn as issued, in original wrappers.

Inscribed by the author to Dr Robert.

               Rare first edition of this important treatise on tetanus by Louis Valentin, formerly chief physician to the French armies in Haiti (Saint-Domingue) and later director of the hospitals of Virginia. Valentin surveys the methods of treatment observed in America, and includes a particular notice on the virtues then attributed to Solanum carolinense and to garlic juice in combating the disease.
Valentin’s name recurs in nineteenth-century medical debates on tetanus, especially in connection with the practice of amputation as a means of removing the local irritation thought to trigger the spasms — a method also discussed by Larrey, Jules Roux and Hobart, and frequently cited in contemporary treatises.
A significant and uncommon work of colonial and transatlantic medicine, of particular interest to collectors of early tropical pathology and military surgery.

Condition: covers worn and stained, with name in ink on front. Old library stamps cancelled on half-title and title. Some foxing, light dampstain to the wrapper, but a good, unsophisticated copy in its original state.