4 volumes. xvi, 480; (2), x, 605; xiii, (1 blank), 606, viii, 122, (2 ad), 21 (2) pp. With 40 copper-engraved plates (1 folding) in the atlas volume. (8vo) period mottled calf, spines tooled in gilt, morocco lettering pieces.
"Smellie contributed more to the fundamentals of obstetrics than virtually any individual. In his Treatise he described more accurately than any previous writer the mechanism of parturition, stressing the importance of exact measurement of the pelvis. He was the first to lay down safe rules regarding the use of forceps, and personally introduced the steel-lock, the curved, and double forceps. He invented the 'Smellie manoeuvre' to deliver breech cases. His book was followed by two volumes of case reports... It includes the first illustration of a rachitic pelvis."-- See Garrison-Morton 6154, citing the London, 1752 first edition of the first volume. "The celebrated atlas for No. 6154, which is a complete work in itself. The 39 superb engravings include 26 after drawings by Jan van Rymsdyk, which are preserved in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgow Library. The remainder were by Smellie, 'assisted by a pupil called {Pieter} Camper'. Camper's drawings are preserved in the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and Leiden University. Camper's illustrated MS of his studies with Smellie and his third visit to England in 1785 is preserved in Amsterdam University."--See Garrison-Morton 6154.1, citing the London, 1754 first edition of the fourth (atlas) volume. "The greatest figure In English obstetrics was William Smellie...To him are owed the first attempts to measure the fetal cranium in utero, and also important studies on the mechanism of delivery.""--Castiglioni, pp. 629-630. "It was (Smellie) who separated obstetrics from surgery, and imparted to obstetrics the stamp of science."--See Heirs of Hippocrates 825 & 826, citing the first edition. Blake, pp. 420-421. See Norman Library 1954 &1955, citing the first edition. Thoms, pp. 124-129. Cutter & Viets, pp. 26-28. A uniformly bound set, of various printings. Old French (Swiss?) library rubberstamps to title pages along with earlier ownership signatures.