8vo. 8, xii, 234pp. With four initial leaves of publisher's advertisements. Uncut in original publisher's two-tone paper boards, printed paper lettering-piece. Extremities rubbed, boards scored, corners bumped, chipping to lettering-piece. internally clean and crisp. Presentation copy, inked inscription to recto of front blank fly-leaf: 'For Frank, Louis, and Armaud / Courtois / from their sincere friend / the author'.

The first edition, in original state, of a rare monograph, adapted from the 1898 Goulstonian Lectures of Westminster Dispensary physician Francis Bisset Hawkins (1796-1894), championing the replacement of unquantified clinical impressions with statistical analyses assessing the effects of treatments. To this end, Hawkins provides authoritative accounts of the progressive changes of mortality in Britain, statistics for lying-in hospitals prisons, and asylums, and climate data in relation to health and disease.