Milestones of Science Books

MALCOLMSON, John Grant.

A Practical Essay on the History and Treatment of Beriberi / With Observations on Some Forms of Rheumatism Prevailing in India.

Madras: Vepery Mission Press, 1835.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002437

Two works in one volume. 8vo (215 x 133 mm). [2], iv, [2], 343, [3]; [2], 98 pp., including advert leaf after title, errata slip, one hand-coloured lithographed plate facing p. 114, and final blank in first work. Contemporary half sheep over marbled boards, spine lettered in black (joints repaired, boards rubbed and soiled, corners scuffed). Text little age-toned, pale brown stain at top gutter of title-page of first work and final gatherings of second work from binder's glue, occasional very minor spotting. ----

FIRST EDITION OF THIS RARE MEDICAL TREATISE ON BERIBERI and "A classic account, in which the author brought together all that was known about the disease in his day" (Garrion-Morton). In 1832 the Madras Medical Board offered a prize for an essay on beriberi as a way of "encouraging scientific investigation into a disease known to be 'insidious in its attack, rapid in its progress, and fatal in its termination', and apparently widespread among soldiers from the northern districts of the Madras. Of the four essays received, all written by army medical officers, the prize was awarded to John Grant Malcolmson, an assistant surgeon in a Madras European regiment. In his Practical essay, Malcolmson suggested that the name 'beriberi' was derived from the Hindustani word for a sheep and referred to the awkward, sheep-like gait that was characteristic of the disease [...] Although, as the Medical Board required, Malcolmson investigated 'the practice of the more intelligent native doctors' and the medicinal substance known as 'treeak farook', beriberi was not a disease in which indigenous testimony and therapeutic practice played much part. [...] The primary symptoms of beriberi, as Malcolmson understood them, included numbness, paralysis of the lower limbs, oedema and dropsy. Drawing on his own experience and that of other army officers, Malcolmson [...] was anxious to establish the likely geographical and climatic influences on beriberi. He noted that it mainly prevailed among troops stationed in the coastal tract of the Northern Circars [... and] helped establish the idea of beriberi in India as a highly localized disease, confined to only a small portion of the Madras Presidency and absent even from neighbouring districts" (David Arnold, British India and the "Beriberi Problem", 1798-1942, Medical History 54(3), 2010, pp. 295-296). References: Garrison-Morton 3738; Wellcome IV, p.34. - Visit our website to see more images!

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