Periodiques

1864 · 981 — Havana: Viuda de Barcina y Comp 1864. Good. Twenty-three issues each approximately 32pp. No. 11 with folding chart lacks pp.25-32. No. 13 lacking last few leaves. With title page and half title at start of each volume. Original quarter calf and boards spine gilt. Spine ends chipped and worn some crude glue residue; hinges solid. Boards heavily worn. Light toning and wear to text light scattered worming throughout. A rare run of the first two years of the first Cuban pharmacological magazine and one of the island's earliest medical periodicals. La Emulacion was published from 1863 through 1867 with the present sammelband containing all issues published in 1863 and 1864 a total of twenty-three issues. Their mission statement that heads the first issue here reads in part: "Animados del deseo de ser útiles al pais -- en cuanto nuestras fuerzas lo permitan-- hemos resuelto dar à luz en esta ciudad un periódico que ocupándose preferentemente de todo lo relativo à la Farmacia no descuide por eso la química é historia natural médicas y la toxicología ciencias de que no pueden prescindir ni los Médicos ni los Farmacéuticos y cuya importancia en el dia pocos podrán desconocer. Procurarémos pues que en nuestro periódico hallen cabida las producciones originales de los que en Cuba cultivan la Farmacia la química é historia natural médicas y la toxicología; mas no olvidarémos por eso que léjos de nuestro suelo existen los mas célebres y laboriosos de los cultivadores de esas ciencias y que La Emulacion no llenaría la mision que nos proponemos si no hiciéramos figurar en ella lo que se dé à luz en Europa y merezca la sancion de las personas ilustradas." The resulting publication contains numerous original articles by Cuban pharmacists doctors and scientists as well as important work published outside of Cuba. Additionally the issues include biographies of significant figures in the field accounts of local scientific societies including the Real Academica de Ciencias de la Habana and publication of new pharmacological formulas discovered in Cuba or "adapted for the needs of the country." As a result the periodical forms an important record of medical and pharmacological developments and thought on the island in the mid-19th century. We locate only one run of this pioneering periodical at the National Library of Cuba with only the present set of issues appearing in auction records. Bound between Volumes I and II is a pamphlet by Fernando Paez "Manual de farmacia practica" Havana 1864 possibly incomplete at 8 pages; no examples of this pamphlet appear in OCLC. Viuda de Barcina y Comp unknown books