The Works, Literary, Moral, and Medical, of Thomas Percival, M.D.: Volume 3
To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of his Life and Writings, and a Selection from his Literary Correspondence

The diverse works of physician and medical reformer Thomas Percival are gathered together in this four-volume collection, published in 1807.

Thomas Percival (Author)

9781108067355, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 November 2013

534 pages
21.6 x 14 x 3 cm, 0.67 kg

A physician and medical reformer enthused by the scientific and cultural progress of the Enlightenment as it took hold in Britain, Thomas Percival (1740–1804) wrote on many topics, including public health and demography. His influential publication on medical ethics is considered the first modern formulation. In 1807, his son Edward published this four-volume collection of his father's diverse work. Some of the items here had never been published before, including a selection of Percival's private correspondence and a biographical account written by Edward. Volume 3 contains the first two parts of Essays Medical and Experimental, the revised edition of which has been reissued separately in this series in one volume in addition to his Medical Ethics (1803). The essays reflect Percival's wide range of interests, such as the application of philosophical methods to medical questions, the importance of accurate record keeping, and the risks of inoculating very young children against smallpox.

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Part I: Preface
The empiric, or man of experience
The dogmatic, or rationalist
Experiments and observations on astringents and bitters
On the uses and operation of blisters
An inquiry into the resemblance between chyle and milk
Experiments and observations on water, particularly the hard pump water of Manchester
On the disadvantages of inoculating children in early infancy
On the efficacy of external applications in the angina maligna, or ulcerous sore throat
Part II: Preface
Observations and experiments on the Columbo root
On the preparation, culture, and use of the orchis root
Experiments and observations on the waters of Buxton and Matlock
Observations on the medicinal uses of fixed air
On the antiseptic and sweetening powers, and on the varieties of factitious air
On the noxious vapours of charcoal
On the atrabilis
On the septic quality of sea salt
On coffee
Select histories of diseases with remarks.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]