De Scorbuto Liber Singularis. Autore Gualtero Charleton by CHARLETON, Walter (1619-1707)

Octavo. Recent quarter calf binding, trace of library stamp to title, margins browned, some spotting. Pagination pp. [14], 270, collated and complete with the final blank. WALTER CHARLETON (1619-1707), was educated Magadalen Hall, Oxford, where he was noted for his attainments in logic and philosophy. He was physician to Charles I., and to Charles II. during his exile and after his Restoration. In 1689 he was chosen President of the College of Physicians. He was one of the original members of the Royal Society. Charleton was an unusually gifted physician, zoologist, and archeologist who studied physics, theology, and natural history. His work influenced such figures as Gassendi, Boyle and Newton. His De Scorbuto, published in 1672 was an essay on scurvy together with an attack on quack medicine. Charleton believed that scurvy originated in chemical components, and (in this work at least) shows his indebtedness to Thomas Willis.