Jeancon, Pathological Anatomy, 1885
Pathological Anatomy, Pathology and Physical Diagnosis. A Series of Clinical Reports Comprising the Principal Diseases of the Human Body. Systematically arranged in One Hundred Full-page illustrations and One Hundred Pages Text. By J.A Jeancon, M.D. author of Atlas of Human Anatomy. Cincinnati, O. Progress Publishing Company, 1885.
Black half leather over brown cloth. Original spine laid down over repairs. Gold text on front board and spine. Raised bands with gold rolls on spine. Scattered scuffs and chips. Corners bumped. Shelf wear. Black end papers followed by faint blue fly leaves. Bookplate of James Tait Goodrich on front paste down. Library stamp on title. Plate I of sections IV and VI trimmed somewhat obliquely at fore-edge. Small marginal tears at bottom of a few plates, not involving images. Library stamps on blank back of each plate. Otherwise, clean, bright, and tight throughout.
Plates are vibrantly colored with the exception of the black and white plates in the last two sections of the book.
Ffep, fly leaf, blank, title, (6), I, 16 pages/XVI plates, 8/VIII, 16/XVI, 8/VIII, 4/IV, 16/XVI, 8/VIII, 4&8/XII, 8/VIII [2 bifolium (plates I/II and III/IV)], 4/IV, bank, flyleaf, rfep.
Complete.
This book is the only English translation of any portion of Cruveilhier’s famous Anatomie Pathologique du corps humain (apart from a few short paragraphs by Long in the 20th century). In the “Names of Authors Referred To In This Work,” Cruveilhier is listed among many other authorities, but no credit is given as the source of the text and plates. The book is entirely neglected among bibliographers. Not in G-M, Guerra, Waller, Heirs, or Osler. Not mentioned by Long, even in his translations. Likely because the work qualifies as a plagiarism.
Jean (or John) Allard Jeancon remains an apparently enigmatic figure. We find by way of the Library of Congress, he was a surgeon in the American Civil War (32nd Indiana Volunteers). Stitching together from several secondary and tertiary sources, he appears to have been a French immigrant, and was faculty at the Eclectic Medical Institiute in Cincinnati.
Jean Cruveilhier (1791-1874), in contrast, is well known in the history of medicine. He was a graduate of Paris and professor of surgery at Montpellier, then chair of descriptive anatomy at Paris. He was also a physician to important Paris hospitals, and chair of Pathology at the University of Paris. He believed phlebitis was the driving force behind all pathology (later debunked by Virchow). Cruveilhier published volume 1 of his Anatomie pathologique du corps humain in 1829, then vol 2 followed in 1842 (Esmond Long gives the timeline slightly differently). That work contained over 200 lithographs, being the greatest pathological atlas up to that point (Singer and Underwood). It was the first to describe multiple sclerosis, pyloric stenosis, and ulceration of the stomach due to hyperacidity (G-M 2286), “This atlas contains some of the finest illustrations of gross pathology every made. They are colored lithographs, done by the anatomical illustrator, Antoine Chazal” (Heirs). Chazal was “an experienced illustrator of normal anatomy” [and his] “objective spirit and faithful reproduction of important and perhaps at the time understood detail, made the figures of value lasting even to our own time” (Long, 1928). Chazal was apparently also a contributory artist for Ambroise Tardieu, though we confess our knowledge of this work is limited by the references being in French.
