1878 – Anatomy – Henry Gray | Most Famous Medicine & Surgery Text, Illustrated

“The most comprehensive and detailed textbook on human anatomy!”

Few works go through as many editions as Henry Gray’s Anatomy. In 2015, “Gray’s Anatomy” reached its 41st edition, and even still it is “considered to be the most comprehensive and detailed textbook on the subject!” (O’Neal, USATODAY, 2005.) This rare late 19th-century edition is considered exceedingly rare, and editions printed by Lea Brothers are very desirable to doctors and medical students still today. During the early 20th-century, there was a boom in medical understanding and knowledge. This book was a critical component in that boom, thus the reason for dozens more editions being printed! Thomas Pickering Pick, editor, is known chiefly for his edits of the 10th through 14th-editions of this work.

According to Heirs of Hippocrates,

Gray’s Anatomy still remains a standard textbook, and much of the original text and many of the superb anatomical illustrations have been retained throughout the successive editions… [a work that] must be compared to the ‘Fabrica’ of Vesalius.”

This edition features woodcut engravings throughout!

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Anatomy, descriptive and surgical
• Author(s): Henry Gray
• Contributors: Luther Holden (“Landmarks, Medical and Surgical”)
• Illustrator(s):
• Contributor(s): Thomas Pickering Pick (Editor); William Keen, Luther Holden
• Publisher: Philadelphia, Lea Brothers & Co.
• Edition: 1878 printing.
• Binding: Leather
• Format: (4to), single volume
• Size:  10.75 in x 7.25 in (27 cm x 18 cm)
• Collation: [xxxv], [1], 33-983, [1], 4 pp
• Illustrations: Numerous in text woodcut engravings
• Contents Include:
  • Systematic human anatomy
  • Surgical structures and descriptions
  • Illustrated anatomical figures

• Reference(s): Heirs of Hippocrates 1025/1026; Garrison-Morton 418

Condition:

Very Good. Leather binding tight and secure with professional restoration. Light fraying to page edges and wear with rubbing to boards. Interior shows expected age with stable structure.

Why Collect This?

• Most iconic and famous American anatomy text
• Interest for collectors of surgical and anatomical works

Item Number: #50500