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PRIMROSE (sic) PRIMEROSE, James. Popular Errours Or The Errours of the People in Physick, First written in Latine by the learned Physitian James Primrose... Divided Into Four Parts... To which is added by the same Authour his verdict concerning the Antimoniall Cuppe. Translated into English by Robert Wittie Doctor in Physick.
London: Printed by W. Wilson for Nicholas Bourne, ..., 1651. First edition in English (first published in Latin in 1638). Sm. 8vo., recently rebound in full calf, raised bands, gilt compartments, leather spine label, blind stamped panels on the boards after the period, (24), (1)-461, (15)pp. [1 leaf, A-Hh8, 1 leaf]. Including the four final contents leaves, two final advertisement leaves, and the errata. With an engraved frontispiece signed ‘T. Crofs' and a leaf ‘The explication of the frontispiece'. Some occasional browning and offsetting but certainly a near fine copy of this uncommon work. The work includes the following sections: ‘The first treating concerning physicians. 2. The second of the errours about some diseases, and the knowledge of them. 3. The third of the errours about the diet; as well of the sound as of the sick. 4. The fourth of the errours of the people about the use of remedies. Profitable and necessary to be read of all.'
James Primrose [d. 1659] English physician. Primrose was an outspoken opponent of William Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood, in fact Primrose's first work, Exercitationes et Animadversiones in Librum Gulielmi Harvaei de Motu Cordis et Circulatione Sanguinis, was his attempt to refute Harvey's theory. The above work was first published in 1638 in Latin as De Vulgi in Medicina Erroribus, and was translated into English by Robert Wittie in 1651. In it, Primrose refutes such doctrines as that a hen fed on gold leaf assimilates the gold, so that three pure golden lines appear on her breast; that the linen of the sick ought not to be changed; that remedies are not to be rejected for their unpleasantness; and that gold boiled in broth will cure consumption.' It also touches on the taking of tobacco and opium, and the dubious nature of predictions made in almanacs or with astrology. ESTC R203210 giving the spelling of the author's name as ‘Primerose.' Wellcome IV .438. Not in G & M.