Heading: (Medical)
Author: Adams, Dr. Hiram
Title: Manuscript medical and surgical notebook
Place Published: [Fabius, New York]
Publisher:
Date Published: c.1845
Description: 238 pp. + 7pg. index. 8x5", original half calf and marbled boards.Clipped signature "Hiram Adams" affixed to the front pastedown. The handbook is comprehensive, covering 150 subjects of medical and surgical procedures as experienced by a middle-aged country doctor.The 150 subjects listed in the index range from the simple and conventional - rheumatism, bone fractures, dislocation of the wrist, ulcers, hernia, enlargement of the tonsils - to more foreboding maladies such as gunshot wounds, brain injuries, and cancerous breasts. There are also technical notes about instruments and devices such as the form of the knife to be used in amputation, a fermenting poultice, artificial joints, methods of post-operative dressing, and the preference for a catheter made of silver.
The text is not copied from a book, but records firsthand experience, as evidenced by the writer occasionally lapsing into the first person and making in-line corrections. It's presumed the writer was Dr. Hiram Adams whose signature has been glued to the pastedown, (despite one curious page titled "Adams mode of operating" but this may simply be one of the writer's occasional references to other medical authorities. Adams was born in 1803 in the village of Hamilton, New York, southeast of Syracuse, studied medicine in Sherburne, and began practice in Clinton, but finally settled in the town of Fabius (population 2500) - all within 25 miles of his birthplace. Dr. Adams - or whoever presented this manuscript to him - did his best to keep up to date with medical progress. One sentence that begins with "They used to say ...", is the writer's acknowledgment of some new development in medical science.

Wear to spine and boards; endpapers foxed; good or better.