Opuscula Medico-Practica seu dissertations selectiores. Antea diverses temporibus editae nunc revisae et auctiores.
1738M13787Venice:: Apud Sebastianum Coleti 1738. 1738. Sq. 8vo. viii 311 1 pp. 2 small ink ownership stamps on title unreadable. Nineteenth century marbled boards printed title label on spine; extremities showing. Title verso with ink ownership stamp of Th. Renz. Very good. The work contains two parts of ten papers each for a total of twenty papers. Each studies aspects of medicine from the nature of art and efficacy in healing method application of drugs the power and efficiency of medicines applied the ability of the body to understand the remedies of drinking water and the virtues of milk in medicine the power of milk to heal qualities of mineral waters in promoting health. Continuing in the second part: salts as a healer the uses of China bark as applied to fevers uses of ejecting of venom the causes of death by disease the good of medicine the errors that are common in medical practice. "Friedrich Hoffmann also 'Hofmann' was born on 19 February 1660 in Halle where he also died on 12 November 1742. Called 'the second Hippocrates' and the 'Aesculapius Hallensis' he was among the most widely read medical authors of the eighteenth century and is best known for his systematic discussion of the iatromechanical model of medicine — similar to what Hermann Boerhaave 1668-1738 was developing at Leiden — that views the human body as a hydraulic machine wholly governed by mechanical laws. "Hoffmann's father Friedrich Hoffmann the Elder was the respected municipal physician of Halle. The younger Hoffmann enrolled at nearby Jena in 1678 the university at Halle would not open for another fifteen years where he studied medicine for two years under the iatrochemist Georg Wolfgang Wedel 1645-1721 also attending Caspar Cramer's lectures on chemistry in Erfurt in 1680. He received his doctorate in medicine from Jena in 1681 January 31 with a dissertation on suicide de autochiria and began lecturing on chemistry a standard course taught in the medical faculty but soon left perhaps pushed out by senior faculty jealous of his teaching success. After practicing medicine in Minden for two years Hoffmann made an academic tour of Belgium Holland and England during which he met Boerhaave Thomas Sydenham and Robert Boyle returned to Minden in 1684 and assumed various medical offices eventually being appointed the regional physician for Halberstadt. He married an apothecary's daughter Anna Dorothea Herstell on 10 December 1689. "In 1693 he was called to the newly-founded university at Halle as an ally of the Priest August Hermann Francke 1663-1727 with the charge of organizing its medical school and to serve as its first professor of medicine. He also became the godfather to Christian Wolff's first-born son Friedrich. Hoffmann recruited his old college friend from Jena Georg Ernst Stahl 1660-1734 for the second chair of medicine and the two taught side by side for twenty years transforming Halle into the preeminent medical school among German-speaking universities. Along with Boerhaave at Leiden Hoffmann and Stahl were the principal forces behind the medical reforms of the early eighteenth century. "Hoffmann was a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina 1696 the Berlin Academy of Sciences he was included in Leibniz's founding lists and was inducted on 1 April 1701 the Royal Society of London 1720 and the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg 1735. "In all Hoffmann authored about 400 publications mostly brief dissertations and essays but also the six-volume systematics discussed above a twelve-volume collection of case studies Medicina consultatoria 1721-39 and a nine-volume work on how to live a long and healthy life Basic Guide 1715-28 wherein Hoffmann emphasized the restorative effects of proper diet exercise clean air and sleep. He also criticized the diversity and overuse of drugs and was successful in reducing the pharmacopoeia of his day to a few basic remedies. -- The Dictionary of Eighteenth Century German Philosophers 3 vols. edited by Manfred Kuehn and Heiner Klemme. CONTENTS: Part I: 1 De naturae & artis efficacia in medendo. 2 De recta et simplicissima natura medendi method. 3 De medicamentorum prudenti application in tempore. 4 De prudenti medicamentorum continuation. 5 De vera medicamentor in morbis virtute et efficacia rite dignoscenda. 6 De cognoscenda corporis humani natura ex effectu remediorum. 7 De medicina simpilicissima & optima motu inedia aquae potu. 8 De mirabili lactis asinini in medendo usu. 9 De saluberrima seri lactis virtute. 10 De connubio aquarum mineralium cum lacte longe saluberrimo. Part II: 1 De salium mediorum excellente in medendo virtute. 2 De sale medicinali Carolinarum. 3 De manna ejusque praestantissimo in medicina usu. 4 De recto corticis chinae usu in febribus intermittenibus. 5 De purgantibus fortioribus ex praxi medica merito ejiciendis. 6 De medicina emetica et purgante post iram veneno. 7 De imprudenti medicatione multorum morborum et mortis causa. 8 De remediorum benignorum abusu et noxa. 9 De vesicantium et fonticulorum circumspecto in medicina usu. 10 De erroribus vulgaribus circa usum topicorum in praxi. / "Although Enlightenment physicians debated the suitability of milk as a treatment for different individuals and situations Friedrich Hoffmann's Treatise of the Extraordinary Virtues and Effects of Asses Milk 1754 exemplifies the basic understanding of its health benefits in the eighteenth century. Hoffmann who served as the physician to the Prussian King Friedrich I was a friend of Boerhaave and a proponent of the neo-Hippocratic school. He argues that since humans were nourished by a milky substance in the womb and raised on breast milk and since all food upon entering the body was transformed into a milky substance called chyle milk was 'manifestly proved to be the principal of all the kinds of aliment; so it may be deservedly reckoned the chief of all remedies.' Although Hoffmann preferred ass's milk for its resemblance to human breast milk he also recommended the milk of cows sheep and goats for the relief of fevers chronic coughs colic and nervous disorders -- the same aliments that afflicted Pompadour. Why was milk so effective" Hoffman argued that is possessed powerful cleansing properties functioning as a nonviolent purgative that penetrated the body's channels allowing fresh air to enter and perspiration to exit. It also removed obstructions in the chest lungs and bowels and returned the body to its proper system of 'flows.' Hoffmann told readers of how a certain 'gentlewoman' in his care who had been sick for years with fevers aches and pains began a course of milk treatment and 'in three days only everything appeared wonderfully amended.'" -- Meredith Martin Dairy Queens: The Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine de' Medici to Marie-Antoinette Harvard Historical Studies Harvard University Pres 2011 pp. 135-6. REFERENCES: Blake NLM 217; Wellcome II 285. Apud Sebastianum Coleti, 1738. hardcover books
