The Naval Surgeon;

original boards

First edition in the original boards, rare in commerce. This substantial guide includes chapters on illnesses specific to service in the English Channel, the West and East Indies, the coast of Africa, and the Arctic, as well as general medical and hygiene advice, and specific treatments for afflictions such as bone fractures, gunshot wounds, venereal disease, and drowning. It is illustrated with six plates depicting surgical instruments, tourniquets, and braces.

'Low pay, low status and the difficult and dangerous working conditions combined to bring about an acute shortage of naval surgeons in the years leading up to Trafalgar. After repeated representations from naval surgeons and in recognition of the need for action if the Navy was to be able to combat the Napoleonic threat effectively, the Admiralty in January 1805 authorised a wide-ranging series of measures designed to improve the lot of the naval surgeon and thus to make the profession more attractive to suitably qualified applicants. Rates of pay and pension levels were increased, a uniform (similar to that of ship's physician) was introduced and surgeons no longer had to pay for drugs acquired from the ship's apothecary. Turnbull's work, a comprehensive manual for "professional men at sea", reflects the improved status of the naval surgeon' (King's College Special Collections).

First edition; 8vo, 6 engraved plates, 2 unopened leaves of undated ads preceding the plates, and an additional 16-page publisher's catalogue dated March 1, 1808 inserted after the plates, text untrimmed, pencilled inscription to the front free endpaper, contents lightly mottled; original blue boards, white paper backstrip, printed paper label to spine, contemporary price in ink to the corner of the upper board, some wear to the corners and spine ends, very good condition; 412 pp.