RICHARD C. RAMER Special List 161 MEDICINE

SPECIAL LIST 161
special list 161 3
Medicine
1. ABREU, Antonio Joaquim Ribeiro Gomes de. A organização dos
estudos medicos de Portugal. Discurso proferido na Sociedade de Sciencias
Medicas de Lisboa. Lisbon: Antonio Henriques de Pontes, 1853. 16°,
original printed wrappers (slight chipping to lower wrapper). Light
browning. Overall very good. 142 pp., (1 blank l.). $100.00
FIRST and ONLY EDITION, part of an ongoing debate over medical education
in Portugal. Gomes de Abreu (1809-1867) took his medical degree at the University of
Coimbra in 1853 and taught there until 1856, when he refused to swear a loyalty oath
to the current regime. D. Miguel invited him to join him in exile in Brombach (Austria),
where he became preceptor to D. Miguel’s children.
j Innocêncio VIII, 192: “Pequeno em volume, mas grande em doutrina.” Lisbon,
Faculdade de Medicina, Catálogo da colecção portuguesa II, 3. Not in Pires de Lima, Catalogo da
Bibliotheca da Escola Medico-Cirurgica do Porto. Grande enciclopédia I, 117. Not located in NUC.
2. AFFONSO, Manoel José, and José Francisco de Mello. Novo methodo
de partejar, recopilado dos mais famigerados, e sabios authores …. Lisbon:
Na Offic. de Miguel Rodrigues, 1772. 8°, contemporary speckled sheep
(slight wear to extremities), spine with raised bands in five compartments,
gilt fillets, crimson leather lettering piece, gilt letter, text block edges
rouged. Some browning. A very good copy. Early scribbles on title-page:
“Manoel” and “Co-adjutor Bragança.” (20 ll.), 171 pp., (1 p. errata).
$900.00
FIRST and ONLY EDITION of this series of dialogues aimed at midwives, covering
all aspects of pregnancy and birth including abortions, symptoms of labor, remedies, the
anatomical structure of the pelvis, uterus, umbilical cord and placenta, a wide range of
complications and malformations including fetuses that are not in the usual position, the
birth of monsters (pp. 109-110), and treatment of the mother after birth. For midwives
and surgeons who have been called in after a fetus or infant died, an advertencia at the
end tells how to determine if the child was stillborn or died after birth, so that they can
give accurate testimony in court.
The title-page describes the authors as brothers, one licensed in surgery and anatomy,
the other a military surgeon. In the preface they assert that there is no other work in
Portuguese on this subject, and promise a second volume if this one is well received:
hence “Fim do I. Livro” on p. 171. OCLC and Porbase offer no record of the appearance
of a second volume, nor do any of the bibliographies cited.
j Innocêncio VI, 24. Lisbon, Faculdade de Medicina, Catálogo da colecção portuguesa
I, 6-7. Pires de Lima, Catalogo da Bibliotheca da Escola Medico-Cirurgica do Porto 26. Ferreira
de Mira, História da medicina portuguesa pp. 217, 227: mentions 3 eighteenth-century
Portuguese works on obstetrics, which he describes as “muito elementares e insuficientes,”
but he notes that this work is “menos incompleto.” Not in National Library of Medicine,