SWAMMERDAM, Jan (1637-1680)

Miraculum naturae sive uteri muliebris fabrica , notis in D. Joh. Van Horne prodromum illustrata, & tabulis -- Adjecta est nova methodus, cavitates corporis ita praeparandi, ut suam semper genuinam faciem servent

Leiden: apud Cornelium Boutesteyn, 1679.
4to: [pi]4 A-G4, 32 leaves, pp. [6] 57 [1]. Plates: 3 large folding engraved plates (bound at the end). Leaf size and condition: 193 x 148mm. Some light foxing and browning. Binding: Contemporary vellum boards. Provenance and annotation: Faint early library stamp on title, undeciphered. References: For the first issue see Krivatsy 11603; Garrison--Morton 1211; and Hagelin, Womans book pp. 57-61.
First edition, second issue with cancel titlepage (first issue Sereinus Matthaeus, 1672).
§ Swammerdam's illustrated account of his researches on the human reproductive system, published to assert his priority over de Graaf in the discovery of the human ovum. Between 1666 and 1667 Swammerdam and van Horne collaborated on the anatomy of the human reproductive organs, using Swammerdam's innovative wax injection preparation techniques. Swammerdam used microscopes and occassionally visited Leeuwenhoek in Delft. He corresponded with Steno who had seen ovaries in the dog fish, and thought that humans must also have ovaries, following Harvey's dictum that all life originates in eggs. In 1668 van Horne published an account of their researches in his Prodromus. However Swammerdam did not publish anything until de Graaf's De mulierum organis appeared in 1672, when he quickly published the present work. He sent it to the Royal Society of London, together with the preparations, asking them to acknowledge his priority in the use of wax injection and in the discovery of the human ovum. The Royal Society gave Steno priority in the discovery of the ovum, though in fact what Steno, Swammerdam and de Graaf had seen were the follicles, and it is Baer who was really the first to see the human ovum, but not until 1827. None-the-less the acceptance of the concept that mammals do have ovaries resulting from the publication of de Graaf's and Swammerdam's books was a major advance in our knowledge of human physiology. Swamerdam was asserting his priority by not only appealing to the Royal Society, but also by publishing his researches in print. Crucial to the first strategem were the visually striking preparations, injected with yellow and red wax; and to the second the finely executed plates in the Miraculum naturae. While establishing priority by textual reports is relatively commonplace, this use of visual information is unusual, and an example of the importance of images in creating knowledge. (Johns, The nature of the book p. 489, refers to this episode but does not discuss the use of the preparations and images).

• GBP 3,000.00 > Andere Währungen
• Bestellnummer: 18122

• Antiquariat: Roger Gaskell (GREAT BRITAIN)