CONCERNING THE 'FEVER TREE'
Corticis Peruviani vindiciæ dissertatio physico-practica antonii caelestini cocchii In Romano Archilyceo Medicinae Lectoris...
Romae [i.e. Rome].
Ex Typographia Komarek in via Cursus, 1746.
First edition.
8vo.
[12], 83pp, [1]. Contemporary stiff buff wrappers. Early paper label with title in manuscript to spine, manuscript title to upper wrapper. Lightly rubbed and marked. Later ink-stamp to verso of title page, small wormtrack reducing to single wormhole from title to leaf B4, affecting text in places without loss of sense.
The sole edition of Italian physician and botanist Antonio Celestino Cocchi's (1685-1747) dissertation on the medicinal properties of Peruvian cinchona, or 'Jesuit's', bark.
The febrifugal properties of the bark were employed by numerous South American cultures for the treatment of malaria. In the seventeenth century, Jesuit missionaries to Peru were instructed in the esoteric healing powers of the natural remedy and duly shipped vast quantities to Europe. Colloquially known as the 'fever tree', the plant, which contains high quantities of quinine, was widely cultivated well into the twentieth century as the primary medication against malaria.
£ 375.00
Antiquates Ref: 24389
The febrifugal properties of the bark were employed by numerous South American cultures for the treatment of malaria. In the seventeenth century, Jesuit missionaries to Peru were instructed in the esoteric healing powers of the natural remedy and duly shipped vast quantities to Europe. Colloquially known as the 'fever tree', the plant, which contains high quantities of quinine, was widely cultivated well into the twentieth century as the primary medication against malaria.
