Thomas Cadwalader | An important, early American medical work on lead poisoning, printed by Franklin

Thomas Cadwalader

An Essay on the West-India Dry Gripes; with the Method of Preventing and Curing that Cruel Distemper. To which is added An Extraordinary Case in Physick. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, M.DCC.XLV (1745)

Small 4to (190 x 145 mm). Woodcut tailpiece ornament (Miller, appendix B, no. 19); head of the title-page trimmed with loss to the tops of letters "AN," light foxing and spotting, some dampstaining, tiny chips at fore-edge of leaves A1 and A2, a marginal tear in leaf F1 not touching the text, a témoin at upper corner of F3, and a small chip at the upper corner of F4. Early nineteenth-century quarter calf over speckled paper boards, red morocco spine label, with original rear wrapper bound in; rebacked, wear to extremities, a few small losses to the speckled paper along the board edges. Half morocco slipcase, chemise.

"One of the earliest significant contributions to clinical medicine made by an American physician" (Norman).

Thomas Cadwalader (1708-1779), an eminent Philadelphia physician, was among the founders of the Pennsylvania Hospital and an inaugural trustee of the University of Pennsylvania medical school. He was also a founder and director of the Library Company, and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge. Later in life, when the Revolution broke out, he emerged as a strong supporter of the Continental Army and formed a committee to examine candidates for positions as surgeons in the Navy.

This treatise, the only work Cadwalader published, deals with lead colic and lead palsy, two forms of lead poisoning that were increasingly common in colonial America. The doctor argues that the source of these ailments was Jamaican Rum, often distilled through lead pipes and served in punch. He recommends mild cathartics and opium as remedies for "dry-gripes." The second part of the treatise, "An Extraordinary Case in Physick," deals with an autopsy that Cadwalader undertook on a woman who had suffered from a severe case of osteomalacia (softening of the bones), one of the first such cases recorded in the United States.

A landmark work in American medicine — the earliest text by an American physician based on original research that deals with the pathology of a specific illness and its treatment, and the earliest published description of an autopsy in America.

Exceedingly rare, with only a handful of copies in institutions and, according to RareBookHub, one of only two copies (this one and the Norman—Snider copy, last auctioned at the Bloomsbury Snider sale in 2008) to have appeared at auction since 1998.

REFERENCES

Miller 369; ESTC W20303; Evans 5553; Hildeburn Norman, 385

PROVENANCE

Freeman's, 19 September 19 2002, Lot 869 (undesignated consignor)