Medical Topography of Upper Canada

London: Burgess and Hill, 1819. Hardcover. Very good +. 126 p. 22 cm. Bound in full leather with blank and gold impressing and burgundy spine label. Marbled endpapers. Binder's label on rear pastedown. Checkmark in top corner of title page. last page has slightly chipped top corner with a few ink marks in upper margin.

The first medical book about Upper Canada and one of only two medical works relating to the War of 1812. Douglas's Medical Topography is an extremely important and scarce work, for which we can find no British or American auction records for 50 years. The author, Dr. John Douglas (1788-1861), was an Assistant Surgeon with the 8th Regiment on the Niagara Frontier, present at the battles of Chipawa, Fort Erie, and Lundy's Lane, as well as spending considerable time at the military hospital at Fort York. On p. 3 the author gives the contents of the work: "I. Of the topography of the country. II. Of the soil and climate. III. Of the services of the troops. IV. Of the diseases which prevailed. V. Of the state of the wounded. VI. Of the provincial militia and Indians nations who cooperated with the army."
Douglas's book will be of interest to military, medical and general historians as well as to geographers and physicians. Those involved in military historical site interpretation will find this book useful, especially if they are interpreters of forts with restored surgeons' quarters or hospitals. The volume also details some of the therapeutic measures employed by contemporary medical practitioners, including bleeding and the use of purgatives and mercury compounds. Because of its clear style, general readers will also find Douglas's comments interesting, but the more squeamish might wish to skip those passages that deal with the extraction of live maggots from the festering wounds of war amputees (pp. 94-96).

TPL 1044. Morgan p. 107. Casey 1058. Sabin 20686. G&M 2162.1.