[drop head title:] Institutiones physiologica. [with:] Prima linea physiologica.

Bookseller Notes

A very good, clean copy of this most interesting collection of lecture notes dictated by Franois de Lamure, surgeon and professor at Montpellier. The descendant of a Provencal aristocratic family, Lamure (or de La Mure, 1717-87) was born in Martinique. In 1740, he passed his physician's examinations at Montpellier, and became a famous public lecturer in anatomy, physiology and medicine, before taking up a professorship. His students oversaw (unknown to him) the publication of his lecture notes on materia medica. 'Lamure was a disciple of Hippocrates, careful to let nature operate to re-establish health, and only intervening at a later stage, should it be necessary. His fame soon spread beyond the boundaries of the province and of France' (Dulieu, p.237).The author of these student notes, Jean Perreymon, was later physician at Lorgues, in southern France, and a correspondent of Jean-Antoine Saissy. After a brief introductory paragraph, in which he addresses his students as 'filioli amatissimi', Lamure introduces the nature of physiology. The first part focuses on the digestive apparatus, and discusses digestion (with a section on Reaumur's experiments), mastication, chylification and defecation; the second, blood circulation and sanguification; and the third, bodily excretions (bile, urine). Sections marked 'scholium' comprise a summary of the most recent scholarly debates on specific subjects, e.g., heart tissue. Among the authorities cited are Harvey, de Graaf, Haller, Lancisi and Senac. A short section summarises excerpts from Bairo's De medendis humani corporis malis enchiridon (1578). The second set of lectures on physiology discuss body organs and the physiology of the senses. A most interesting, extremely detailed manuscript.We have only traced similar manuscript notes in the university archives at Montpellier. See L. Dulieu, 'Franois-Bourguignon de Bussires de Lamure (1717-1787)', Revue d'histoire des sciences, 21-3 (1968), pp.233-44.