Science, Medicine and Technology

Autograph Letter Signed to "Mr Crow" [W.B. Crow, author of "Contributions to the Principles of Morphology "], essentially reviewing Crow's book, but also givinf a Testament..

Author: 
Arthur H. Church, Chemist, Expert on Pottery and Stones
Arthur H. Church, Chemist, Expert on Pottery and Stones
Publication details: 
246 Iffley Road, Oxford, 2 April 1929.
£165.00
Arthur H. Church, Chemist, Expert on Pottery and Stones

Two pages, 4to, fold marks, four small closed tears. A difficult hand. He thanks Crow for his book, "Contributions to the Principles of Morphology", just published, suggesting that Crow must have enjoyed reviewing "older views", adding, "The Philosophy on which Biology has [?] based is much neglected ...I never came across any Botanist for example who thought the two [?] of Goethe, & his theory of meta-morphosis has been a great curse ... for 100 years. The mistake of [?] was, that we had no 'definitions' of a leaf to begin with. ...

Autograph Letter signed "W.H. Sykes", Indian Army officer, statistician etc, to "Wm. Brown".

Author: 
Colonel William Henry Sykes, FRS (1790-1872), Indian Army officer, politician, ornithologist and statistician.
Autograph Letter signed "W.H. Sykes", Indian Army officer
Publication details: 
28 Marine Sq[uare], Brighton, 24 August 1861.
£125.00
Autograph Letter signed "W.H. Sykes", Indian Army officer

Two pages, 12mo, minor staining, mainly good condition.

[Printed] Copy of a Letter addressed to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department by the General Board of Health, Dated 20th July 1854; with a Digest of the Information [...] with regard to [...] Inventions for the Consumption of Smoke

Author: 
General Board of Health, Whitehall [Tom Taylor, secretary; Inventions for the Consumption of Smoke; Victorian pollution]
Inventions for the Consumption of Smoke
Publication details: 
London: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. For Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1855.
£125.00
Inventions for the Consumption of Smoke

Folio, 29 + [i] pp. Disbound. Text complete and clear. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Faint accession stamp at head of title. 'In accordance with the request of Viscount Palmerston, conveyed in Mr. Fitzroy's letter of the 31st day of October 1853, the Board have instituted very extensive inquiries among those acquainted with the means for the prevention of smoke, a great part of the evidence thus received being given in abstract in the Appendix to this Report.' The appendix runs from p. 11 to p. 29. Scarce: the only individual copy on COPAC at Southampton.

Autograph Letter Signed "R.L. Ellis" to R. Rothman, M.D., applying mathematics to a political economy issue.

Author: 
R.L. Ellis, English polymath (1817-1859), remembered principally as a mathematician and editor of the works of Francis Bacon.
R.L. Ellis, English polymath (1817-1859)
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£500.00
R.L. Ellis, English polymath (1817-1859)

Three pages, 8vo, good condition. He commences with a mathematical supposition (in formula terms) then proceeds with putting the suppositions of "the master" [Malthus, Ricardo or their like?) in mathematical terms, concluding a fall of price to "3/4d or one quarter", adding that "The suppositions he makes are incompatible with the ratio theory ...", doing sums which he concludes with the an answer he describes as "absurd".

[Pamphlet] Address of Alexander W. Williamson, President

Author: 
[Alexander W. Williamson, Chemist, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science]
Address of Alexander W. Williamson, President
Publication details: 
[1873]
£95.00
Address of Alexander W. Williamson, President

27pp., 8vo, sewn as issued, good condition. Scarce. COPAC lists six copies, while WorldCat lists the Glasgow and Edinburgh copies but no American.

Signature and subscription from Autograph Letter, signed W.B. Carpenter, zoologist etc.

Author: 
William Benjamin Carpenter MD CB FRS 813–1885), English physician, invertebrate zoologist and physiologist.
William Benjamin Carpenter MD CB FRS 813–1885), English physician
Publication details: 
No place or date surviving.
£25.00
William Benjamin Carpenter MD CB FRS 813–1885), English physician

Paper, 11 x 5cm, faint traces on reverse of its origin in an album, 99 in bottom corner in another hand (number in collection), mainly good. Believe me to be, Dr Sir, yours most sincerely WB Carpenter.

Part of Autograph Letter Signed Caesar Hawkins, surgeon, to unknown correspondent.

Author: 
Caesar (or Cæsar) Henry Hawkins FRS (1798–1884), British surgeon.
Caesar (or Cæsar) Henry Hawkins FRS (1798–1884), British surgeon.
Publication details: 
31 Half Moon St, 21 July [no year].
£32.00
Caesar (or Cæsar) Henry Hawkins FRS (1798–1884), British surgeon.

Part of letter, 11 x 7cm, fold marks, slightly obscuring a letter or two, marked No. 100 in a collection. The item comprises to subscription and signature, as well, on the reverse, some text, I meant to have said that she might leave off both the [?Steel] & the alkaline drops, but if the irregularity of bowels from acidity should return, she may take the Drops without the [?Steel]. She will not do without the powders, but every fifth or sixth [rest lost].

Part of Autograph Note Signed,JB Owen, chemist, to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
J.B. Owen, chemist
J.B. Owen, chemist
Publication details: 
No place or date given.
£23.00
J.B. Owen, chemist

Paper, 9 x 12cm, small closed tear, good condition, marked at top No. 296 in a collection, saying I wish you success in this & on this & every other [?] that you undertake.

Six Autograph Letter Signed from 'W. B. Ferguson' (William Bates Ferguson) to Sir Henry Truman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
William Bates Ferguson (1853-1937), author, lawyer and chemist, with an interest in photography [Royal Photographic Society; Sir Henry Truman Wood; Ferdinand Hurter; Vero Charles Driffield]
William Bates Ferguson (1853-1937), author, lawyer and chemist
Publication details: 
18 November to 19 December 1916; all on letterhead of 48 Compayne Gardens, South Hampstead, London N.W.
£150.00
William Bates Ferguson (1853-1937), author, lawyer and chemist

All in good condition on lightly-aged paper, and all but one (Letter Five) bearing the Society's stamp. Letters One, Two and Six docketed. Letter One (18 November): 12mo, 2 pp. Hoping that Wood, 'as an Ex President of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain', will 'help the Hurter and Driffield Memorial Fund [of which he is Honorary Treasurer] which is being got up [by the Royal Photographic Society] [...] to do honour to the memory of those famous workers in the Chemistry & Physics of Photography'. Letter Two (26 November): 4to, 2 pp.

Handbills and other ephemera relating to the Great Northern Railway Company.

Author: 
[Irish Railways ephemera]
Ephemera relating to the Great Northern Railway Company
Publication details: 
[189-]-1941.
£125.00
Ephemera relating to the Great Northern Railway Company

Seven handbills, c.14x22cm, variyng condition from fair to good, some chipping and marking, mainly advertising cheap tickets to Dublin (1, Sept. 1940), Portadown (1, Nov. 1940), and Warrenpoint (2, 1940-41). With: a. Return of Passenger Traffic at [Newtownstewart](189-); b. [Card, c.7x11cm] "Shipping Goods to Belfast"; Form for answer choices to be ticked for Traffic Manager, Belfast (x2); blank cards for recording details of goods consigned (One headed "Live Stock", another "Important Goods".

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed correspondent on medical matters, including vaccination.

Author: 
Henry Hallam, Historian, Friend of Tennyson.
Henry Hallam, Historian, Friend of Tennyson.
Publication details: 
67 Wimpole Street, March 19 [pencil note suggests 1857].
£75.00
Henry Hallam, Historian, Friend of Tennyson.

Three pages, 8vo, some damage, but text clear and complete, tear at fold of bifolium despite attempt to repair with sellotape., He has been asked by a friend to get an answer about the diseases of camels, quoting his enquiry in which one, Photoshootui (if I read the word right), is described, and referring to ancient sources and Native opinion. His correspondent is engaged in a popular treatise, or history, of vaccination. Hallam hopes for references to Western books that might give information.

[Printed pamphlet] The List of The Royal Society. MDCCLXXXI. [1781]

Author: 
The Royal Society [List of officers and members, 1781.]
The List of The Royal Society. MDCCLXXXI. [1781]
Publication details: 
1781. The Royal Society. [Printer not stated.]
£265.00
The List of The Royal Society. MDCCLXXXI. [1781]

4to, [16] pp. Drophead title. Disbound and with some leaves loose. Text clear and complete. On aged paper. From Patron King George III and President Sir Joseph Banks to the last of the 'Foreign Members' 'D. Eustatius Zanotti, Astronom. Bonon.' Scarce: the only copy on COPAC at the British Library.

Printed prospectus, with separate leaves of testimonials and illustration, for shares in 'The Universal Railway & Carriage Spring Company, Limited

Author: 
The Universal Railway & Carriage Spring Company, Limited [the Perry Green Gardiner Patent Elliptic and Sprial Spring; Victorian locomotives; nineteenth-century railways]
The Universal Railway & Carriage Spring Company, Limited [
Publication details: 
London: 1876.
£75.00
The Universal Railway & Carriage Spring Company, Limited [

The prospectus is folio, 3 pp, in a bifolium. Loosely inserted is a folio leaf, with the testimonials printed on one side, and a quarto leaf with four engraved illustrations: two of wheels under carriages, and two showing details of the springs on those wheels. The three items are on aged paper, with the illustrated leaf in good condition, and the other two items with chipping and closed tears. The texts and illustrations of all three items are clear and complete, apart from some loss to a footnote to the testimonials, caused by the page being printed too low on the leaf..

[Pamphlet] General Basis of Estimates for Labor and Material, as prepared by the United States Light-House Establishment.

Author: 
[From the papers of Montgomery Meigs, Jr, son of The Union Army's Quarter-Master-General] Anon.
United States Light-House Establishment
Publication details: 
1891
£250.00
United States Light-House Establishment

Pamphlet, 'Published for the Information of Officers of the Quartermaster's Department', 9pp.,12mo, original grey printed wraps, good, on aged paper, in worn and stained wraps, tiny cross shape neatly punched through the leaves in bottom outer corner.

Eight Autograph Letters Signed from the Scottish anatomist Sir Arthur Keith to Grace Norbury, wife of Lionel Norbury, Professor of Surgery.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955), Scottish anatomist and anthropologist [Lionel Norbury (1882-1967)]
Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955), Scottish anatomist and anthropologist
Publication details: 
Between 1948 and 1954. Six on his letterhead at Homefield, Downe, Farnborough, Kent; two on letterheads of Buckston Browne Research Farm.
£120.00
Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955), Scottish anatomist and anthropologist

A total of twelve 12mo pages and two 4to pages. All texts clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The first letter addressed to 'Mrs Norbury', and the others to 'Grace'. After a first letter of 1948, in which he complains that he is 'becoming more & more a home dweller', the correspondence continues in 1951, with Keith thanking Mrs Norbury for a gift of sugar ('Its arrival made my housekeeper Miss Holman quite elated'), and sending Lionel Norbury encouragement on his Hunterian Oration ('My heart goes out to the Orator & to his Better Half').

[printed draft copy] Dated 24th Day of September, 1883. Charing Cross Hospital. Royal Charter of Incorporation. Fladgate, Smith & Fladgate, 40, Craven Street, Street, Solicitors for the Hospital.

Author: 
[Charing Cross Hospital, London, Royal Charter of Incorporation, 1883]
Charing Cross Hospital, London, Royal Charter of Incorporation, 1883
Publication details: 
[London.] G. Norman and Son, Printers, Hart Street, Covent Garden. [Fladgate, Smith & Fladgate, 40, Craven Street, Solicitors for the Hospital.]
£125.00
Charing Cross Hospital, London, Royal Charter of Incorporation, 1883

Folio, 12 + [i] pp. Text clear and complete, with a few pencil underlinings. Aged and somewhat worn. Folded vertically in the centre to make the conventional long legal packet, with the right-hand side of the reverse of the last leaf (with is stamped in red with the number 273683) carrying the printed title, with the address of the solicitors altered in pencil to 18 Pall Mall SW1, and with two manuscript names deleted: 'Mr. Finlay. Q.C. | Mr. Rowland Gibson'. Unsigned draft copy. No copy of this historical item on COPAC.

Printed 'List of Members' of 'The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, with which is incorporated The Self-Propelled Traffic Association', October 1901.

Author: 
[The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, list of members, 1901; Royal Automobile Club]
Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, list of members, 1901
Publication details: 
October 1901. The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, 4 Whitehall Court, London, S.W. [Printers: F. KING & Co., Ltd., 62, St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C.']
£150.00
Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, list of members, 1901

4to, 15 pp. In small type. Text clear and complete. On brittle green high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to extremities and three of the leaves detached. Begins by listing 'General Council of the Automobile Club | (appointed to confer with the Club Committee on questions affecting Automobilism generally).' Headed by 'His Grace the Duke of Sutherland'; followed, on second page by Club Committee and officers, and then (pp. 3-10) the list of members in three columns, giving name, optional address, and date of election; ends (pp.11-15) with lists of 'Members of Affiliated Clubs'.

[Pamphlet/Offprint[?]] Three Cases of Tetanus, in which "Woorara" was used.

Author: 
T. Spencer Wells, Lecturer on Surgery, Surgeon
T. Spencer Wells, medical pamphlet
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£25.00
T. Spencer Wells, medical pamphlet

Pp.[1]-16, 8vo, disbound, numbered "13" in pencil, fold mark, spine showing wear, mainly good condition, inscribed "John Clay Esq | with the Author's | Kind regards".

[price list of specimen preparations] Museum Specimens. E. Purves & Co., Museum Specimen and Osteological Preparators. Price List. Eldon Lane, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Laboratories: - 2, Rockcliffe Gardens, Whitley Bay, Northumberland. [With letter.]

Author: 
E. Purves & Co., Museum Specimen and Osteological Preparators, Eldon Lane, Newcastle-on-Tyne [trade catalogues; taxidermy]
Price list of specimen preparations]
Publication details: 
Price list: Eldon Lane, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Laboratories: - 2, Rockcliffe Gardens, Whitley Bay, Northumberland. [T. Binns, Printer, Whitley Bay.] Letter dated 1923.
£125.00
Price list of specimen preparations]

Price list: 12mo, 8 pp. Stapled. Very good, on lightly-aged paper with slight rusting from staple. Photograph of specimen in jar on reverse, captioned 'CARTILAGINOUS. SKELETON OF DOGFISH.' Headings include: 'Specimens mounted to order', 'Osteological Preparation', 'Cartilaginous Preparation', 'Glass preserving jars' and 'Living and Preserved Material'. Letter: 4to, 1 p. Stamped date 16 January 1923. On firm's letterhead, with list of wares from 'Museum Specimens in jars' to 'Taxidermy' in the margin. Circular, containing additions to the list.

Printed notice from the General Manager of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway's Managing Committee, headed 'Government Control of Railways. Free conveyance of traffic carried on behalf of the Admiralty or War Office'.

Author: 
Francis H. Dent, General Manager, South Eastern and Chatham Railway's Managing Committee [First World War; British Army; Royal Navy; War Office; Admiralty]
South Eastern and Chatham Railway. Printed Notice
Publication details: 
[London.] Dated in print 10 October 1916.
£95.00
South Eastern and Chatham Railway. Printed Notice

Folio, 1 p. Thirty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, with spike-hole at head, with 'ack[nowledge]d 3/10/16' in manuscript. Giving instructions regarding the means by which 'all consignments conveyed by Passenger or Goods Trains over controlled Companies' Lines on behalf of the Admiralty or War Office, [...] be invoiced without charges'. 'The above instructions will also apply to Traffic with Irish Ports when conveyed by Controlled Companies' Steamboats.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo Sanderson') to Lowry.

Author: 
George Sanderson (c.1835-1814), English mathematician [Wilson Lowry (1762-1824), engraver]
Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo Sanderson') to Lowry.
Publication details: 
17 January 1803; Stanhope Street, London.
£225.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo Sanderson') to Lowry.

8vo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, with chipping to extremities. Thin strip of stub adhering to reverse, which carries the address in Sanderson's hand: 'Mr: Lowry | No: 57 | Tichfield St:'. He asks him to 'send the Books by the Bearer. | I find my self better & am in hopes of goeing out in a Day or two if weather permits'. He concludes by sending his compliments to Lowry's wife and daughters. Docketed in a contemporary hand at foot of page: 'One of the greatest Mathematicians of this country | Originally (and occasionally till his Death) a Taylor'.

Autograph Letter Signed J.H. Gladstone, chemist, to Mr Fleay [Frederick Gard Fleay, Shakespeare scholar], editor of the Spelling Reformer (1880-1).

Author: 
J.H. Gladstone [John Hall Gladstone, Chemist and Spelling Reformer
[Spelling Reform] Autograph Letter Signed J.H. Gladstone, chemist
Publication details: 
Athenaeum Club, 18 Feb. 1881
£95.00
[Spelling Reform] Autograph Letter Signed J.H. Gladstone, chemist

He refers to a letter he is forwarding (not present) from one of our active members ... [forwarding it] as duty bound to the Editor. It seems a proper contribution on one of our open questions. | I wish a larger proportion of our leading names appeared among the contributors to the 'Reformer'. | Ther are many men who never write unless they are asked ... and some who will only write if they are told that a contribution on some particular subject will be acceptable from them. ... if I might suggest your applying a gentle editorial pressure upon them.

Subscription to letter, signed "John Abernethy", i.e. clipped signature with end of letter politenesses.

Author: 
John Abernethy, surgeon
Publication details: 
No place or date surviving
£100.00

Fragment, c.11 x 3cm, glue rings on back have penetrated and stained the front but the text is clear as follows: "with great respect | Your obedt Servt | John Abernethy." A scarce signature.

Autograph Note Signed to "The Secretary of the Delegates, Clarendon Press, Oxford", about revises of his book "Ultrasonic Absorption" (pub. Oxofrd 1967).

Author: 
A.B. Bhatia, Indian Physicist
A.B. Bhatia, Indian Physicist, Autograph Note Signed
Publication details: 
Physics Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, 12 July 1966.
£38.00
A.B. Bhatia, Indian Physicist, Autograph Note Signed

One page, chipped, punch-holes, fold marks, text clear and complete. He gives their reference and the title of his forthcoming book, saying "I sent the revises F & G of my book,last Monday, July 10. | If Iam not too late, please make the additional correction, which is shown in red ink on the attached proof sheet, p.67." Clarendon Press round stamp at top of page.

A Case of Sleeping Sickness Studied by Precise Enumerative Methods: Further Observations.

Author: 
Major Ronald Ross, F.R.S., and David Thomson, M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H. [Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; sleeping sickness]
Ronald Ross, A Case of Sleeping Sickness , pamphlet
Publication details: 
'Reprinted from the Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology Vol. IV, No. 4, March, 1911. Issued by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Liverpool, at the University Press, 57 Ashton Street.
£45.00
Ronald Ross, A Case of Sleeping Sickness , pamphlet

4to, 21 pp and fold-out graph. In original green wraps. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with rusty staples. Describing the case of 'a strong young Englishman, age 26, weight 154 lbs., [who] was infected in N.E. Rhodesia near the River Luangwa in September, 1909'. Fold-out graph of 'Number of Trypanosomes per c.mm.'

Offprint titled 'Pulmonary Amoebiasis.'

Author: 
Philip Manson-Bahr, D.S.O., M.D. Camb., F.R.C.P. Lond., Physician to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and Albert Dock Hospital; Lecturer, London School of Tropical Medicine [tuberculosis]
Offprint titled 'Pulmonary Amoebiasis.'
Publication details: 
'Reprinted from THE LANCET, 1923, II., 599.' [The Lancet Office, 1, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. 2.']
£35.00
Offprint titled 'Pulmonary Amoebiasis.'

8vo, 8 pp. Stitched. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Three charts and list of references at end.

Autograph Note Signed ('Richard Southwood') to 'Mr Ladkin'.

Author: 
Sir Richard Southwood (1931-2005), Professor of Zoology and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford
Sir Richard Southwood, Professor of Zoology, Letter
Publication details: 
10 October 1986; on letterhead of the National Radiological Protection Board.
£38.00
Sir Richard Southwood, Professor of Zoology, Letter

8vo, 1 p. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with a couple of punch holes to the left margin (one through a word of text). Thanking him for his 'kd letter of appreciation of my work as chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution'. He now has 'another public duty concerned with the same field'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Horder') to Noon, on his father's death.

Author: 
Mervyn Horder (1910-1997), Lord Horder of Ashford, publisher and composer [Thomas Jeeves Horder (1871-1955), 1st Baron Horder, physician to the British royal family; Charles Noon (d.1957)]
Publication details: 
10 August [1955]; on letterhead of Ashford Chace, Petersfield, Hampshire.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-one lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with punch-hole to the top left-hand corner. As a colleague of Horder's father (senior surgeon and the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital) Noon has offered a 'collection of aphorisms', which Horder feels will be 'of the greatest value, indeed it is exactly what I want'. He asks for Noon's memories of 'personal dealings': 'These are especially useful in the early days, when of course my own memory does not serve.' Concludes: 'We all thought he'd have another 10 years ahead, so it has been a sad shock.'

Two Typed Letters Signed ('Moran') to Noon.

Author: 
Charles McMoran Wilson, 1st Baron Moran [Lord Moran] (1882-1977), Sir Winston Churchill's personal physician [Charles Noon (d.1957), senior surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital]
Publication details: 
1 March 1951 and 1 March 1955; both on his Harley Street letterhead.
£75.00

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper, each with a punch-hole to the top left-hand corner. Letter One: 12mo, 1 p. Concerning 'the Committee' and two surgeons. Letter Two: 4to, 1 p. Twenty-three typed lines and a four-line autograph postscript. Possibly relating to the Royal College of Physicians. Discussing his concerns 'about our means of getting C's in the Region'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Douglas Harmer') to Noon.

Author: 
William Douglas Harmer (1873-1962), surgeon, of St Bartholomew's Hospital, pioneer in radium treatment of throat cancer [Charles Noon (d.1957), senior surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital]
Publication details: 
19 November 1945; The Radium Institute (on his cancelled Harley Street letterhead).
£56.00

4to, 1 p. Nineteen lines. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with slight staining, and punch hole to top left-hand corner. Pressing the claims of his son Michael ('also a Bart's man') for a post at Noon's hospital. 'He has done very well at Bart's, is a Fellow of the College, missed M.Ch. (Cambridge) by a few marks just before the war, was Harold Wilson's Assistant for the first two years and has been Squadron Leader in the Air Force in charge of the surgical wards at a big hospital at Hoylake since.'

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