Billard

1837 · rif. M13453 — Paris:: J.-B. Bailliere Libraire de l'Academie Royale de Medecine; Londres: Meme Maison 1837. 1837. 22 cm. 8vo. vii 1 502 2 pp. Half-title index errata; occasional light spotting. Contemporary quarter blind and gilt-stamped calf marbled boards. Near fine. First edition posthumously published. "The most important pediatric treatise of this period was that of Charles-Michel Billard . . . of Pelouaille France who studied medicine at the Ecole secondaire of Angers 1819-23 and came up to Paris in 1824 having acquired the funds by a prize essay on the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane 1825. He was very poor had to eke out a living by translations journal articles and other hack-work and did not get his medical degree until 1828. In the same year he published his treatise on the diseases of newborn infants and sucklings with an atlas 1828 3rd ed. 1837. . . " Though not this work the emphasis is the same on pathology and observation. "Billard performed several hundred autopsies on infants and children and correlated the data obtained with clinical observations he had done. This pioneer work on the pathological anatomy of infants includes interesting observations on cerebral congestion intestinal disturbances the pulse teething etc." Berton born in Dinant was a French military surgeon. He also wrote prior to this work Traite des maladies des enfants nouveaux-nes et a la mamelle etc. Paris 1828 xv 653 pp. -- also issued in 1837 pagination differs. Abt-Garrison gives fine detail of that publication not mentioning this posthumous one. The orientation of Billard was based first on his vast experience of autopsies of children the influence of Bichat and Laennec. It was thus the "first pediatric treatise in which a uniform classification of diseases is attempted. . . " The present work is surely an extension of that effort. REFERENCES: Not in Grulee. FFrye C188 J.-B. Bailliere, Libraire de l'Academie Royale de Medecine; Londres: Meme Maison, 1837. hardcover books