Science, Medicine, Natural History, and Early Printing from B & L Rootenberg

Here is a book that could inspire a television series, even if it is more dry medical treatise than exciting novel: Anatomy descriptive and surgical. This is a first edition from 1858 of Henry Gray's book, more commonly referred to as “Gray's Anatomy.” Rootenberg notes that it is “probably the best-known medical book in the English language.” Its detailed descriptions and clear dissections and drawings have made it an immensely valuable educational tool. It has been in publication regularly ever since it was first released, now up to its 40^th edition. Naturally enough, it has been revised many times along the way, but it is still based on Gray's great original work. Item 52. $9,500.

Item 48 is an odd monograph on what may be the earliest example of telecommunications. The title is Expérience sur la propagation du son et de la voix dan des tuyaux prolongés à une grande distance... That translates roughly to experience of the propagation of sound and voice through pipes at a great distance. The anonymous author, almost certainly Emiland-Marie Gauthey, discovered the not all that surprising fact that voices could carry through pipes, sometimes at surprisingly long distances. He devised what was something of a non-electronic precursor of the telephone. Gauthey managed to get a list of important subscribers to this work, including Benjamin Franklin. That helps to identify Emiland Gauthey as author (over another man named Gauthey) as Franklin received a letter from Emiland in the year of publication (1783) asking Franklin's opinion and seeking to have him placed on his list (presumably of subscribers). Gauthey constructed a series of tubes 100 feet long, though one of his subscribers, noted mathematician and philosopher the Marquis de Condorcet, successfully carried voice through pipes for 800 meters. Nothing much beyond this seems to have happened with Gauthey's “telephone.” Gauthey was a noted engineer and architect involved in many notable projects in France during the late 18^th century through his death in 1806. $6,500.

B & L Rootenberg Rare Books may be reached at 818-788-7765 or blroot@rootenbergbooks.com. Their wesbite is www.rootenbergbooks.com.