| Item Description: | Bookseller description: Rare separate issue of Numan's study of pregnant horses, sheep, and especially cows that fail to give birth after the normal gestation period, either as a result of or causing the death of the fetus. He also discusses the dangers to the mother. The illustrations chow calf and lamb fetuses taken from slaughtered animals or naturally aborted, as well as the uterus and kidneys of a sheep with a long dead lamb fetus. The illustrations are are very finely engraved, most with a note indicating the scale, by Daniel Veelwaard, probably the elder (1776-1851) and the whole luxuriously produced on excellent paper (the plates on wove paper by Jan Kool & Co.) with generous margins. The text type is surprisingly old-fashioned, following the eighteenth-century style, with the more up-to-date "Didones" reserved for display. It accords with today's fashion and views of legibility, however, so that the book looks quite modern to our eyes. Numan (1780-1852), born and raised in country towns north of Groningen, lived with his scholarly uncle from about age seven due to his father's death and his mother's remarriage. When his uncle died, he moved back with his mother and began to learn medicine from his step-father, a practicing doctor. He showed considerable talent and completed his medical studies at Groningen in 1804. He began a practice nearby and his prize essay on the Keil dysentery epidemic of 1810 appeared in 1812. His life took a peculiar twist that year, when he was asked to translate a veterinary manual and later to write his own, which went through five editions from 1819 to 1856. When the first Dutch veterinary school opened at Utrecht in 1821, no suitable professor could be found in the practice and the position went to Numan. He went on to write many excellent essays, the best known on cow pox (1831). The present essay appeared both in the "Nieuwe Verhandelingen der erste klasse van het Koninklijk-Nederlandse Instituut van Wetenschappen, vol. 3 (1831), pp. 27-71, and in the present much rarer separate publication, where only the plates refer to the journal. It appears to have been overlooked in the medical and zoological literature. In fine condition and virtually untrimmed, with most deckles intact and one bolt unopened. The wrappers are slightly damaged at the spine, but still very good. A beautiful copy of a rare and well-illustrated essay by a pioneering veterinary researcher. |
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