The Virtues of Cinnabar and Musk, against the Bite of a Mad Dog. Printed by John Baskerville

Rare Medical Book Printed by Baskerville

[Baskerville, John (1706-75).] Dalby, Joseph (d. 1784). The virtues of cinnabar and musk, against the bite of a mad dog . . . 4to. [8], 3-56pp. (leaf B1 not present as in all copies). Birmingham: John Baskerville, for the author, 1764. 256 x 203 mm. Full morocco, gilt-ruled, in antique style. Marginal repairs to title and one or two other leaves, not affecting text, but very good. Errata corrected in an early hand.

First Edition, second state, with the title dated 1764. "The title-page is also found in an earlier state, with line 7 set in English instead of Great Primer and ending with a full point instead of a colon, and with the last line reading: M DCC LXII. Both states are printed from the same setting of type (with these exceptions), and neither is found as a cancel" (Gaskell). Dalby's short work on the treatment of hydrophobia is the first of only two medical books printed by Baskerville, the other being William Hunter's Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus (1774). Unlike the Gravid Uterus, Dalby's work is extremely rare on the market, with no auction records over the past 25 years; this is the first copy we have seen in over 40 years of trading. The work was printed for the author and sold by subscription. The subscribers' list (leaves a2-a4) cites fewer than 200 people, it is likely that the edition was not much larger than that. Gaskell, Bibliography of John Baskerville, 29.