[Binding]. Seybert, Adam. An Inaugural Dissertation. 1793

[BINDING]

SEYBERT, ADAM. AN INAUGURAL DISSERTATION: BEING AN ATTEMPT TO DISPROVE THE DOCTRINE OF THE PUTREFACTION OF THE BLOOD OF LIVING ANIMALS. PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED BY T. DOBSON, 1793

8vo (8 x 4 3/4 in.; 203 x 121 mm). Light offsetting and browning. Contemporary tree calf, spine gilt in six compartments divided by red morocco onlays, covers with gilt vine borders, marbled endpapers; some wear to spine and extremities.

An attractive early American presentation binding, inscribed on the verso of the front free endpaper by Seybert, "The Revd. Fredk. Smith with the respectful Complts. of the Author." Smith was a professor of mathematics and atronomy at Penn and a leading Lutheran minister of Pennsylvania,

Adam Seybert was an early American scientist and pioneer in the fields of chemistry and minerology, in addition to serving as a congressman from Pennsylvania. Seybert's thesis, backed by eperiments on dogs, attacked the theory that certain diseases cause breakdown of blood in living animals. It was reprinted in 1805 in a collection of outstanding theses of American medical institutions, and again in 1816 in German.

LITERATURE:

Austin 1734; Evans 26153

PROVENANCE:

Johann Frederick Smith (presentation inscription quoted above)