Nouvelles Experiences sur la Vipere, ou l'on verra une description exacte de toutes ses parties, la source de son venin ses divers effets, et les remedes exquis (the rare first edition, first issue)

Paris: L'auteur et Olivier de Varennes, 1669. First edition, first issue.. Mild damp stain to the rear attached endpaper and to the rear outer corner of the last few pages of the text, a bright and clean copy in near fine condition in a very attractive binding.. Pp. illustrated frontis leaf (1), title leaf (1), dedication & epistre (4), preface (6), 1-200, fin (with 3 double plates and 1 illustrated frontis plate), 201-218 (echiosophium), table des titres (4), privilege du rot (2).  Early acid-etched brown calf, spine rebacked with original calf laid on, sm 8vo.  This classic work began the debate with Italian physician Francesco Redi on the mechanism of viper envenomation.  In this volume, Charas disputed Redi's view that the injection of venom under the skin was the cause of death in snake bite.  Charas thought the viper's venom was harmless and that the true cause of death was by spirits driven into the mind of the victim by an enraged viper.  Redi's view prevailed and was confirmed in 1781 by the Italian biologist Felice Fontana (see Adler, History of Herpetology, volume 2, p. 17).  This is the very rare first edition of the Charas work which went through three Italian printings and three English printings.  From the private research collection of Cornell University herpetologist Kraig Adler with his small bookplate on the front attached endpaper.