Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone; to which is added an account of the present state of medicine among them.

London: C. Whittingham, 1803. Full Description:

WINTERBOTTOM, Thomas. An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone; to which is added an account of the present state of medicine among them. London: C. Whittingham, 1803.

First edition. Two octavo volumes (8 1/4 x 5 inches; 210 x 130 mm). With the rare second volume, which was partly suppressed. With two folding maps and six engraved plates, two of which are folding, including the frontispiece.

Contemporary tree calf, almost invisibly rebacked to style and corners; neatly repaired. Boards with central device, blind stamped coat-of-arms with motto (truncated) "Honi Soit qui Mal y Pense." Boards double ruled in gilt. Spines with a red and green spine label, lettered in gilt. Gilt board edges. Top edges dyed brown, others speckled brown. Some minor offsetting to pastedowns from glue. Otherwise an very good fresh copy.

Thomas Winterbottom was a British physician. "Shortly after graduating [medical school] Winterbottom left for Sierra Leone. He arrived on 1 August 1792, and spent seven years as physician there, during which time he recorded his experiences in two successful works... [His] second book, An account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, to which is added an account of the present state of medicine among them (2 vols., 1803), contained his unofficial observations and is the main source of his reputation as a clinical observer. It contains his classic description of sleeping sickness, trypanosomiasis, among local Africans. The enlargement of the cervical lymph glands (on the neck), which he noted, has become known as ‘Winterbottom's sign’." (Oxford DNB). Winterbottom noticed that slave dealers would not buy slaves whose neck glands showed signs of enlargement which prompted his research.

Garrison and Morton. Norman Library.

HBS 68976.

$5,750. (Inventory #: 68976)