Velpeau, Operative Surgery. 1846-1856, Text & Atlas.
New Elements of Operative Surgery: By Alf. A. L M. Velpeau. Carefully Revised, Entirely Remodelled, and Augmented with A Treatise on Minor Surgery; Illustrated by over 200 Engravings Incorporated with the Text: Accompanied with An Atlas in Quarto of Twenty-Two Plates Representing the Principal Operative Process, Surgical Instruments, Etc. First American, from the Last Paris Edition. Translated by P. S. Townsend, M. D. Augmented by the Addition of Several Hundred Pages of Entirely New Matter, Comprising all the Latest Improvements and Discoveries in Surgery, In America and Europe, up to the Present Time. Under the Supervision of, and with Notes and Observations by Valentine, Mott, M. D. In Three Volumes, Vols 1 and 2 (1846), and Vol 3 (1847).
with:
New Elements of Operative Surgery: By Alf. A. L M. Velpeau. Carefully Revised, Entirely Remodelled, and Augmented with A Treatise on Minor Surgery; Illustrated by over 200 Engravings Incorporated with the Text: Accompanied with An Atlas in Quarto of Twenty-Two Plates Representing the Principal Operative Process, Surgical Instruments, Etc. Translated with Additions by P. S. Townsend, M. D., Under the Supervision of, and with Notes and Observations by Valentine Mott, M. D. Fourth Edition, With Additions by George C. Blackman, M.D., in Three Volumes, Atlas. 1856.
A married set of three text volumes of the first American Edition as well as the atlas volume of the fourth American edition.
Atlas volume in half brown leather binding with marbled paper over boards. Black author and title plates on spine. Corners bumped. Boards chipped and scuffed. Ffep creased. Interior extensively foxed, and some leaves browned.
Text volumes uniformly bound in full brown leather with black title plates on spines. Leather dry, flaking, and cracking. Some hinges cracking. Interiors clean, bright, and tight throughout with mild foxing. A few leaves slightly browned.
Garrison-Morton 5592: Velpeau, Alfred Armand Louis Marie (1795 – 1867) Nouveaux elements de medecine operatoire. 3 vols. And atlas. Paris: J.-B. Bailliere, 1832. “In its time this was the most comprehensive work on operative surgery in France; it contains some useful historical information. The first English translation appeared in New York, 1835. The atlas for that edition was never published. The best edition was the English translation annotated and significantly expanded by Valentine Mott (1785-1865), 3 vols. and atlas, New York, 1845-47.”
We note that Garrison-Morton states with first English translation was New York 1835, yet the title pages in our volumes of 1846/7 also read First American Edition and were published in New York.
Of interest, Valentine Mott was consulted during his career on an impoverished patient of great fame—none other than Edgar Allan Poe. T. O. Mabbott records this in his critical edition of Poe’s Poems (page 401 in our copy), citing Ingram List, no. 197. This is a letter of January 23, 1875, written by Mrs. Marie Louise Shew to John H. Ingram, who was, at that time, collecting materials for his biography of Poe. Mrs. Shew diagnosed Poe with a regularly irregular heart beat (supposedly regularly beating ten times then skipping a beat). She consulted with Valentine Mott regarding the diagnosis. Mrs. Shew claims to have saved Poe’s life, though looking back on this from the 21st century, it unclear what treatment she could possibly have offered which saved his life.
