POUTEAU, [Claude].

3 volumes, 8vo, pp. (ii)half-title, x, 633, engraved frontispiece portrait; 2 leaves, pp. 536; 2 leaves, pp. 428. Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt in compartments, marbled edges and endpapers. Heads of spines chipped, a few scuffs in the leather, otherwise a fine set.

FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. Pouteau studied surgery in Paris under Petit and Le Dran, but returned to his native Lyon to practise. He became famous for his improvements in the operation of lithotomy — his record with perineal lithotomy was probably never excelled, achieving only 2.5 percent mortality in 120 consecutive cases. He made several other notable contributions to surgery: he was acutely aware of the need for cleanliness in hospitals, and “a discussion of pourriture d’hopital [vol. 3, pp. 239–269] showing remarkable discernment of the sources of infection was published in 1783... He stated that the best therapy for pourriture was destruction of the infected part by ‘fire’ ” (Wangensteen & Wangensteen 26). He also pointed out in a chapter on dressings [vol. 3, pp. 227–239] the intimate connection between erysipelas and puerperal fever, and numerous instances of infection conveyed by soiled dressings. “His method of disposal of infected dressings is distinctly modern” (Cutter & Viets p. 112). He also described [vol. 2, p. 251] a fracture of the distal end of the radius similar to Colles’ fracture, and stated before Pott that there is an intimate connection between curved spine and tuberculosis (Valentin, Geschichte der Orthopädie).