Constitutional Syphilis. Being a Practical Illustration of the Disease in its Secondary and Tertiary Stages
Melbourne, F.F. Bailliere, 1872.
Octavo, xii (last blank), [iv] (contents and list of illustrations, both versos blank), 470, [2] (publisher's advertisements) pages plus 20 fine (and graphic) chromolithographs.
Brick-red cloth a little marked and flecked, with the spine heavily sunned; text block expertly reinserted, retaining the original endpapers (with the hinges neatly reinforced, and a short internal tear to the front free endpaper sealed); trifling signs of age and use (including a small light marginal stain to two plates); a very good copy.
James George Beaney (1828-1891), surgeon, politician and philanthropist, settled in Melbourne in 1857, and 'after a period as locum tenens, acquired the practice of Dr John Maund when he died in 1858. Beaney rapidly established himself as a prominent surgeon, a position he maintained although he "outlived many a calumny" in doing so.... Beaney's numerous publications began in 1859 with "Original Contributions to the Practice of Conservative Surgery", one of the first medical books published in Australia. Although not favourably received locally, it was followed by about a dozen others, some in several editions, over the next twenty-five years, dealing in particular with disorders of sexual and genito-urinary function. Some were directed to an interested lay public, a probable factor in Beaney's resignation from the Victorian Medical Society.... Unfortunately a lawsuit brought against Beaney in 1880 by his publisher and erstwhile publicity agent, Ferdinand Bailliere, revealed that some of this literary output was the work of an amanuensis; similar unchallenged assertions had been published in the "Melbourne Medical Record" in 1875' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). Ford 200-201 (neither of them entirely satisfactory entries). Interestingly, Ford 196 makes detailed reference to the alleged plagiarism, which related to an earlier book by Beaney on the same subject: 'Syphilis. Its Nature & Diffusion popularly considered' (1869).
Item #119602
Price (AUD):
$400.00