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Author: [MacMichael, William]
Title: The Gold-Headed Cane
Place Published: London
Publisher:John Murray
Date Published: 1827
Description:
[8], 179, [1] pp. Woodcut vignette of the cane on the title-page, and numerous wood-engravings in the text. (8vo) period half morocco & marbled boards, spine tooled & lettered in gilt, raised bands. First Edition.

"A gold-headed cane was once a conspicuous part of the physician's adornment, and the particular gold-headed cane of this work was owned by Dr. John Radcliffe (1650-1714), an irascible London physician, who passed it on to a younger contemporary. The custom of passing on the cane continued through a series of five physicians, (Richard Mead, Anthony Askew, William and David Pitcairn) ending with Matthew Baillie, whose widow presented it to the Royal College of Physicians in 1823. The originally anonymous book is written as an 'autobiography' of the cane and, in a series of charming essays, tells the story-actually biographies-of its several owners. Along the way there is much information concerning the state of medicine and its practice in England during the eighteenth century."--Heirs of Hippocrates 1397. Garrison-Morton 6709. Osler 6717. Norman Library 1409. Waller 16091. Cushing M48. Wellcome, IV, p. 16. Ownership signature of J. Foster Jenkins, dated Feb. 13, 1883, on the front pastedown. Also with the ownership stamp of Joseph Hill Hunt, M.D. and his donor bookplate to the Kings County Medical Society (with discard stamp), both on the front pastedown.

Rubbing to covers, front joint cracking; else very good.