Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1567

ANDREW COMBE (1797-1847) The physiology of digestion. Howe & Bates 1836 ix [1] [11]-310 pp., illus. 16.3 cm.

Educated in Edinburgh, and having studied in France under Esquirol and Dupuytren, Combe spent his short but active medical career in Scotland. A fellow of Edinburgh's Royal College of Physicians, his special interest was in public health and hygiene. However, he was also interested in phrenology and wrote a book on that subject during the time when Spurzheim (see No. 1315 ff.) was actively promoting his ideas. "The present volume is essentially a continuation of the work first published about two years ago . . . and its object is . . . to lay before the public a plain and intelligible description of the structure and uses of some of the more important organs of the human body, and to show how information of this kind may be usefully applied in practical life" (Preface, p. [iii]). Combe went on to remark that since the last edition had sold 3,000 copies, he was happy to prepare this one for his readers.

See Related Record(s): 1315

Cited references: Cushing C345 (Boston ed., 1836); Wellcome II, p. 376 (Edinburgh ed., 1836)