Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 404.5

ROBERT FLUDD (1574-1637) Integrum morborum mysterium, siue, Medicinae catholicae tomi primi tractatus secundus: in sectiones distributus duas, quorum prior generalem morborum naturam siue variam munimenti salutis hostiliter inuadendi atq[ue] oppugnandi rationem ... describit, vltima vniuersale medicorum siue aegrotorum depingit catoptron, in quo meteororum morbosorum signa tam demonstratiua quam prognostica lucidè speculantur [et] ... designantur / authore Robert Fludd, alias de Fluctibus. Typis excusus Wolfgangi Hofmanni : Prostat in officina Guilielmi Fitzeri 1631 First edition. [26], 503, [5], 413, [1], 93, [1] p., [3] leaves of plates (2 folded) : ill., port. 32 cm.

[Other titles: Integrum morborum mysterium. / Medicinae catholicae tomi primi tractatus secundus. / Prognosticon super coeleste. / Katholikon medicorum katoptron. / Pulsus, seu, nova et arcana pulsuum historia. / Nova et arcana pulsuum historia.] Very rare first edition of Fludd’s major medical work, containing his discussion of the mechanism of disease and his treatises on diagnostic methods (uroscopy and pulse). “Fludd sought a new understanding of natue to replace the views of the Aristotelians and Galenists no less than contemporary mechanists...He is surely one of the first to have used atomic or corpuscular models as explanatory divice...” (A.G. Debus). He was also a trained anatomist and had watched Harvey carry out dissections at the Royal College of Physicians... He was the first to support Harvey’s De motu cordis in print, thinking that the views of his friend confirmed his own cosmological concept of the circulation of blood.

Cited references: Osler 2628; Wellcome I #2230 p. 122; NLM 17th C. 4139; Waller 3095; Cushing F218

John Martin M.D. Endowment