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BELL, Benjamin. WATERS, Nicholas B. (editor). A System of Surgery. Extracted From the Works of Benjamin Bell, Of Edinburgh: By Nicholas B. Waters. Illustrated with Notes and Copperplates.
Philadelphia: Printed by Archibald Bartram, For Thomas Doubson... 1806. Third edition (first US edition published 1791). Recently rebound in full brown panelled calf, raised bands, gilt compartments, leather spine label (after the period), viii, (1)-570, xxix pp. (description of the plates and index). With twelve engraved plates. Some browning and foxing throughout but o/w a very good copy in an attractive modern binding after the period.
This later American abridgment of Bell's much longer work on surgery first appeared in 1791. In his preface Waters states: ‘For some years past it has been a subject of regret with the medical part of the public, and particularly among students, that we have had no work on this important branch of medicine, which gives a view of the present state of the art, in a moderate compass: Mr. Bell's system, although a most valuable production, being extended to so great a length, as to be not only expensive, but exceedingly inconvenient. To supply this defect, I have repeatedly heard a wish expressed, by some of the most eminent of the profession, that a selection of the more essential parts of Mr. Bell's treatise were made; in which, however, nothing useful, immediately relative to the Surgery, would be omitted.' Waters notes that two other physicians, Dr. William Shippen and Dr. Jones, both looked over the manuscript. Austin: Early American Medical Imprints, 173; Evans 23170.