L'ART DE GUERIR LES MALADIES DES OS by Petit, Jean Louis - 1705

1705 . Petit, Jean Louis. L'ART DE GUERIR LES MALADIES DES OS. Paris 1705, full leather, spine with raised bands and gilt within compartments, 304pp. Some wear to head and tail of spine, but a fine copy. First edition. *** GM 4300: "Petit is particularly remembered for his work on bone diseases. He invented the screw tourniquet, gave the first account of osteomalacia, and was first to open the mastoid process." Billings considered Petit "the most distinguished surgeon of the first half of the 18th century. He invented the screw tourniquet, an appliance of almost as much importance as the ligature to the surgeon who has to amputate with unskilled assistants, devised herniotomy without opening the sac, and made an improvement in the circular method of amputation by cutting successively the skin and the muscles, instead of dividing them at one stroke according to the old method. To Petit also is due the credit of having first demonstrated the mechanism of the occlusion of arteries in wounds, showing the chief process to be the formation of a clot." Billings 60. Very rare, especially in such nice condition in a contemporary binding.