Observations on Abortion; Containing an Account of the Manner in Which It Takes Place, the Causes Which Produce It, and the Method of Preventing or Treating It by Burns, John - 1808

Troy, N.Y.: Printed by Wright, Goodenow, and Stockwell, and Sold by Them at the Rensselaer Bookstore, and by Goodenow and Co. Boston, 1808. First Edition. Leather bound. Very good +. First US Edition, first printing, sixmo size, 151 pp. John Burns, FRS (1775-1850) was internationally known as an authority on abortion and midwifery. At the time this book was published abortion by choice was not legal, and the perspective of the author reflects this in his opening lines: "By abortion is generally understood the expulsion of the contents of the gravid uterus, at a period of gestation so early as to render it impossible for the foetus to live. It is an accident or disease which is very frequent in its occurrence...". While society's views to abortion have changed considerably in the past 200 years (and remains one of the most polarizing topics in society today) this is an early nineteenth-century perspective and gives the most advanced information on the subject available at the time.

This work the first American printing, which was based on the revised British edition of 1807 (the work was originally published in Britain in 1806).

___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full contemporary leather, brown leather spine label with gilt lettering, gilt rules on spine, board edges decorated in gilt, vintage prior owner name on the top margin of the title page, note that the long "s" is used throughout; sixmo size (6.25" by 4"), pagination: [1-5] 6-151.

___CONDITION: Better than very good, the leather binding tight with minimal rubbing (mostly to the joints and board edges), with clean boards, straight corners with minimal rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean, and other than the vintage name referred to above free of prior owner markings; the binding slightly splayed (the top board springs back from the text block slightly), offsetting to the endpapers, some toning throughout, and an area approximately 1" by 1.5" of the rear free endpaper has adhered to the rear pastedown (at the hinge), with a concomitant closed tear at the top of the area (undoubtedly caused by a prior owner trying to lift the free endpaper).

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