GIFFARD, William.

4to, pp. xxxii, 520, 3 engraved plates (1 folding) by Andrew Motte, translator of Newton’s Principia and brother of the printer Benjamin Motte. Contemporary calf, spine richly gilt in compartments (small repairs to spine and corners), new red morocco label. Title-page and last page and plate a little creased and soiled, but generally a fine and clean copy. Early inscription on front endpaper.

FIRST EDITION, rare large paper copy. G&M 6156.3. “Giffard was one of the first, after the Chamberlens, to use the forceps, which he called an ‘extractor’, the first case in which he used the instrument occurring on April 20th, 1726. This is the earliest record of the use of the forceps” (Spencer). His forceps, and Freke’s improved version, are illustrated on the first plate, which is the earliest illustration of the forceps. Giffard’s book contains reports of 225 cases, “carefully described, after the manner of Mauriceau and Smellie, and the work is of interest, not only for the early use of the forceps,…but also for his method of delivering the after-coming head in breech cases [the Smellie manoeuvre], which long preceded Smellie…” (Spencer). Giffard also described the Ritgen manoeuvre almost a century before Ritgen, and a case of ectopic gestation. The illustration on plate 2 is the first known example of this latter condition. Giffard is considered the first English obstetrician to publish substantial contributions to clinical midwifery. See Speert pp. 577–578; Spencer, The History of British Midwifery, pp. 18–22; and Radcliffe, Milestones in Midwifery, pp. 33–34. This book is usually found in octavo format, but a few copies are known printed on large paper in quarto format, as in the present copy. However, this copy in gathered in 4s, whereas other large paper copies seen have been gathered in 8s, as the octavo is. The collation for both is the same, but in this issue the name of J. Nourse is omitted from the imprint. All three plates are normally folding, but in this copy only one is, on account of the larger format.