Hunterian Lectures. Lectures on Comparative Anatomy,

rare and inscribed

First edition, presentation copy inscribed by the author, 'with Professor Owen's kind regards to Colonel H. Smith'. These lectures are rare, with only six copies located by WorldCat and none appearing in recent auction records. The recipient, Charles Hamilton Smith (1776-1859), was a British army officer, natural historian, illustrator of scientific works, and close friend of Owen.

Comparative anatomist Richard Owen (1804-1892) was hired by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1827 to describe the specimen collection of John Hunter, which remained uncatalogued 27 years after its purchase by the government. The position was 'much more than that of a technician; the loose definition of his role allowed him opportunities to explore the new territory of comparative anatomy and zoology whose boundaries were being expanded primarily by French savants and their continental colleagues... In 1836 Owen was appointed Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology at the Royal College of Surgeons. One of his first tasks after the inauguration of the renovated and expanded museum in 1837 was to deliver the first of what was to be an annual series of twenty-four lectures' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

It was from the mid-1840s that Owen 'extended his territory from the zoo-anatomical analyses of the living to fragmented evidences of those from a bygone past; from the position of laboratory scientist to that of theorist; and from the position of scientist to that of government consultant and spokesman for natural science to the public at large' (ODNB).

These notes were recorded by William White Cooper (1816-1886), a surgeon and occulist who, as he explains in the preface, had studied at St. Bartholomew's during the period when Owen regularly lectured there. He rose to become surgeon-occulist in ordinary to Queen Victoria.

First edition, inscribed presentation copy; three parts bound in 1, 8vo (22 x 14 cm); publisher's wrappers bound in, woodcuts throughout the text, contents a little toned with occasional small spots, a few small creases and chips affecting the edges of the text block; contemporary marbled wrappers bound with string, manuscript title to upper cover, some wear to the wrappers and loss from the spine, very good condition; 96pp.