Experimenta nova anatomica, quibus incognitum hactenus chyli receptaculum, et ab eo per thoracem in ramos usque subclavios vasa lactea detenguntur. Dissertatio anatomica de circulatione sanguinis et chyli motu. Huic secunda editioni, quae emendata est, illustrata, aucta, accessit de thoracicis lacteis dissertatio.. by PECQUET (Jean)

Paris: Officina Cramoisiana, 1654. 4to (190 x 145 mm), [16], 252, [2 errata]pp., with one full-page engraving and five engraved illustrations in the text, unobtrusive light damp stain throughout, new endpapers, contemporary calf, rubbed, neatly rebacked. Pecquet's famous work recording his discovery of the cisterna chyli. First published at Paris in 1651, this edition has the important De thoracicis lacteis dissertatio added. Written against Jean Riolan, the dissertatio is dedicated to Thomas Bartholin, who, on the basis of Pecquet's discoveries, was able to confirm and extend them to cover the entire lymphatic system. "Pecquet... engaged not in the "mute and frozen science" of cadaver anatomy, but in anatomia animata on dogs, cattle, pigs, and sheep. Using a dog that was digesting, he showed the following: 1. If the heart has been resected, pressure on the mesenteric root causes the chyle to spurt into the superior vena cava. 2. The chyle is directed toward the subclavian veins by two paravertebral canals that swell when their distal extremities are ligatured. 3. The origin of the ascending chyliferous ducts is situated in a prevertebral and subdiaphragmatic ampulla... 4. The posterior part of Aselli's pancreas is composed of lymphatic ganglia. 5. No mesenteric chyliferous vessel goes to the liver... and the interior vena cava, incised above the liver, reveals no trace of chyle. The human thoracic duct was rediscovered by Thomas Bartholin, Rudbeck, and Gayant. With Perrault and Gayant, Pecquet eventually observed the communications of the human thoracic duct with the lumbar veins. Pecquet's discovery was received with great interest and provoked sharp debate, particularly with Riolan" (DSB). Besides the newly added dissertatio, this edition contains further treatises supporting Pecquet's findings and another elaborate refutation of Riolan. Garrison & Morton, 1095 (1651 edition); Grolier One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine, 28A (1651 edition); Norman catalogue 1676 (1651 edition); Wellcome no. 14295764 (imperfect); Heirs of Hippocrates, 349.