The Human Brain: Its Structure, Physiology and Diseases.

oliver sacks's copy

Second edition, presentation copy inscribed by the author on the title, 'Christopher Hennings [?] MD, with the author's kind regards'. From the library of neurologist Oliver Sacks, with his octopus bookplate.

The Human Brain was the major work of London surgeon Samuel Solly (1805-1871). In it 'he decried the practice usual in British medical schools of the period of teaching the anatomy of the brain and nervous system without reference to function, development, and comparative studies. Solly believed that there was a unity of structure that unified the most complex with the simplest examples of nervous organization evident in the animal kingdom... Solly tried to bring his clinical experience to bear on certain contentious physiological questions, though he was well aware of the perils of seeking to make inferences about normal function from phenomena exhibited in disease. He was elected FRS in the same year as his book was published' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Second editon; 8vo; author's presentation inscription on the title, bookplate of Oliver Sacks, engravings within the text, 24-page publisher's ads at rear, contents lightly toned but overall clean; original purple cloth blocked in blind, titles to spine gilt, red coated endpapers with publisher's ads on the pastedowns, Westley's & Co. binder's ticket, spine and edges of boards browned, corners and edges bumped, cloth a little rubbed and scuffed with some small worm spots at the extremities, a very good copy; 688pp.