Précis Historique, Physiologique Et Moral, Des Principaux Objets En Cire Préparée Et Coloriée D'Apres Nature

Only Complete Edition of this exhaustive account of the author's medical museum, exhibiting the wax specimens he made himself over a quarter century. The objects were divided into three classes - human anatomy, human diseases, natural history -  and thirty-eight sub-categories, each beginning with a description of the models on view with special emphasis on pregnancy, child birth, reproductive organs, venereal disease and newborns. Larded with case histories, personal opinion, ethnography, legislative recommendations and medical advice, the text shows the universal application to which the author put his cabinet of curiosities. For instance, his models of young women and men both prior to and after their first act of masturbation unleashes his views on the evils of onanism. The one-hundred-twelve-entry table of contents provides access to every class of specimen. In good condition (pale stain to the bottom margin), contemporary manuscript note after the description of the bearded baby (p. 168).
¶Le Minor, "Le Cabinet de cires médicales du céroplasticien J.F. Bertrand à Paris" in Histoire des sciences médicales 33 (1999) 275-286; Murray, Museums II: 117; Monglond, La France révolutionnaire V: 887.