Justin Croft Antiquarian Books - Rare and Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts

An extensive medical treatise, almost certainly transcripts of medical lectures given by Mathieu Goubin, Professeur Royal at the medical school of the University of Caen. The neatly laid out text, with few corrections, suggest that the volumes were prepared, as was frequently the case in contemporary French universities, by copyists for sale to students attending lecture courses. In this case the owner was one Ludovic Loyau du Coteau, whose manuscript ex libris appears in volume 1 of the Physiologia. Goubin taught at Caen, one of the oldest French universities, from the 1750s and was also director of its Jardin des Plantes. Though an active teacher (presenting frequent anatomical dissections) he does not appear to have published anything under his own name, hence the value of this manuscript collection. While we have identified seven theses bearing his name presented at the university in the later 1750s, these are likely to have been supervised rather than written by him. The Physiologia begins with several short chapters on the nature of medicine, before turning to physiology on p. 16. The first volume describes the various functions of the body, the circulation of the blood, systole and diastole, fluids and secretions and nourishment. The second volume opens with a discussion of wounds and diseases, followed by discussion of the body’s processes, including perception, memory, sight, hearing, taste, smell, sleep, the nervous system, circulation and reproduction. The Pathologia is a complete treatise on physical and mental ailments.