Maladies

Third edition, corrected, xiv, [2], 384pp., spotted throughout (particularly the first 40 pages) recent quarter calf, marbled paper boards, spine gilt. John Clark (bap. 1744-1805) was a Scot who studied in Edinburgh with John Gregory, and graduated MD from St. Andrews. He then served as surgeon on the Talbot of the Honourable East India Company from 1768-1772. This work is "an account of his experiences on board the East Indiaman Talbot. It brought him 100 guineas from the company and a reputation in nautical medicine. Making early use of numerical and comparative methods, his work included meteorological and epidemiological data as well as therapeutic trials in scurvy and 'fevers'. Comparing the death rate of the Talbot's crew with that of seven other crews simultaneously stationed at Bengal, he argued that the below-average mortality of his men was connected with the success of his method of treating 'fevers' early and liberally with Peruvian bark (quinine)."?(ODNB).