The Gold-Headed Cane.
London: John Murray, 1827.
8vo, [8], 179, [1] pp., wood-engravings in the text. Original boards, with later paper backing, worn, tear at backstrip head, upper joint cracked and barely holding, occasional foxing within.
§ First edition. An unusual medical biography of five 18th century English physicians, narrated by a walking cane that in real life had belonged to them all. "A short time before the opening of the New College of Physicians, Mrs. Baillie presented to that learned body a Gold-Headed Cane, which had been successively carried by Drs. Radcliffe, Mead, Askew, Pitcairn, and her own lamented husband. The arms of these celebrated Physicians are engraved on the head of the Cane, and they form the Vignettes of the five Chapters into which this little Volume is divided."
The subjects are Sir John Radcliffe (1650-1714), Richard Mead (1673-1754) an early epidemiologist, Anthony Askew (1722-1774) now best known as a book collector, William Pitcairn (1712-1791) distinguished as a botanist, and Matthew Baillie (1761-1823) a nephew of the Hunter brothers and himself a morbid anatomist.
The author was William MacMichael, a physician and graduate of Christ Church, Oxford. The cane itself now resides in a glass case in the library of the Royal College of Physicians of London where it can be viewed by appointment. Garrison Morton 6709. Norman 1409. Item #5302
Price: $375.00