Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/329

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n s. x. OCT. 24, i9ii] r NOTES AND QUERIES.


323


names in the catalogue: Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Serapion the Moor, Averrhoes, Paracelsus, &c. ; but a detailed account of them would be out of place from one who is not a member of the faculty. It is, perhaps, interesting to be able to record that his edition of Dioscorides was that of 1598, Greek and Latin, by J. A. Saracenus, with copious and learned notes.* He had also a French translation of the famous ' Commentary ' of Matthiolus. b The references in his letters to medical books are very numerous. After Edward Browne had settled in London he carried on a regular correspondence with his father, and fre- quently consulted him upon matters con- nected with his profession. His father sends him long letters full of advice, tells him all the local news, and lends him books. Lacunus's ' Epitome of Galen ' Ed. Browne seems to have taken away to London, and there is nothing to show that he ever returned it. c ' Bartolinus his centuries of rarer observa- tions ' must have been a favourite book of Browne's. " Mine are in three volumes in 12mo or small octavo," he writes. " I cannot be without them." d T. Love Morley's ' De Morbo Epidemico,' 6 " a very pretty booke," Browne was reading in August, 1680; and "Sir Geo. Ent's booke lately printed in answer to Dr. Thurston " f was in his hands in January, 1680, as soon as it was published. The ' De Vulgi Erroribus ' of Joubertus, 8 a book which attracted a great deal of attention when it appeared, is also in the catalogue, and no doubt influenced Browne in the choice of a title for his ' Vulgar Errors.' He had also Daniel Beckher's ' Mcdicus Microcosmus,' and the same writer's ' Dissertatio de Cultrivoro Prus- siaco,' 1636, h a curious tract, which contains


  • Pedac. Dioscorides, ' Opera, Gr., Lat., a J. Ant.

8araceno cum ejusd. Scholiis,' 1598.

b 'Commente de P. Andr. Matthiole sur les 6 Livres de Ped. Dioscoride, inise en Francois par J. de Moulins, avec fig.,' Lyon, 1572.

1 'A. Lacunse Epitome Rer. & Sententiar. in Comment. Galeni in Hippocratem,' Lugd., 1554. See letter, Wilkin, i. 212.

u "Tho. Bartolini Historiar. Anatomic, rarior. Cent. VI.,' 3 vols., Hafn., 1654. Seeletter, Wilkin,

9 ' Ch. Love Morley de Morbo Epidemico, 1678- 107!),' Lend , 1680. See letter, Wilkin, i. 281.

' ' ( ieo. Kntii Animadv. in M.Thurston de Respira- tione,' Lond., 1679. See letter, Wilkin, i. -111.

  • 'Laur. Joubertus de Vulgi Errorib. Medicime,'

Ant., 1600.

h That Browne had this tract appears from .k. ii. cli. iii. of the 'Vulgar Errors' (Wilkm, n. 318), but it is not catalogued separately. Evelyn saw the knife at Leyden in 1641 ('Diary,' Globe Ed., pp. IS. -JIT).


an account of the treatment of a patient who- had swallowed a knife ten inches long. Considerable difficulty seems to have been experienced in removing the obstruction,, but eventually a powder of loadstone was applied, and the knife, having been attracted to a convenient situation, was cut out. It is interesting to know that the patient recovered, and at the time the tract was written was in the best of health, and was- living at Lansberg in Prussia. M. LETTS.

(To be continued.)


A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS HOLCBOFT.

(See ante, pp. 1, 43, 83, 122, 163, 205, 244,

284)

1789. " Essays on Physiognomy ; for the pro- motion of the knowledge and the love of man- kind. Written in the German language by J. C. Lavater, and translated into English by Thomas Holcroft. Illustrated by three hundred, and sixty engravings. London : Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Bo w r 1789." Octavo. I., 8+1-241 ; II., 6 + 1-324? III., 6+1-314+10 pp.

The fact that Holcroft did not know- German at all at this time (cf. discussion under ' The German Hotel,' 1790), coupled with his variation from the original phrasing- of the German title, ' Physiognomische- Fragmente,' toward the French, makes me certain that Holcroft used the following book as his source :

" Essais sur la physiognomic, destine" a faire connaltre et a faire aimer. Trad, de 1'alle- mand par Mme. de la Fite, Caillard et Heur, Reufer. La Haye, 1781-87, 3 vols." (Querard r 4: 633.)

And so I smile when I find the London correspondent of Der neue Deutsche Merkur r Weimar, for July, 1797 (p. 283), saying of Holcroft : " Als er Lavaters Fysiogonomik uebersetzte ; war es hier ein Fanomen, teutsch zu konnen, und ein so schweres Buch z dolmetschen."

I have seen several copies of the first edition of Holcroft's translation, but none of the three-volume edition in London, octavo, 1793, nor the one-volume abridg- ment, London, duodecimo, 1793, both of which are indicated in the ' D.N.B.' Watt ('Bibliotheca Britannica ') gives 1793 as the initial date, but seems to be in error. The work was noticed in The Town and Country Magazine, November, 1789 (21: 508), in The Universal Magazine for July, 1789 (85: 55), and in The Monthly Review* appendix to April, 1783 (10: 583)