PBA Galleries

2 volumes. xx, 648; 584 pp. (8vo) early half calf and speckled boards, brown and black labels. Second Edition.

Surgeon of the armies of France and professor of general pathology and therapeutics at Paris, Broussais was the most celebrated French practitioner of his day, and, according to Arturo Castiglioni,  the “most sanguinary physician in history.” Broussais believed  that the basis of all pathology was gastroenteritis and that debilitating treatment was called for in nearly every disease.  His most common remedy was the application of leeches to the stomach or the head.  The popularity of his methods is evidenced by the fact that during one year,  over 35,000,000 leeches were imported into France.  Castiglioni, p. 699.  See Heirs of Hippocrates 1265.