Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 415.5

FRANCISCO PéREZ CASCALES (fl. 1576-1611) Liber de affectionibus puerorum : una cum tractatu de morbo illo vulgariter garrotillo appellato, cum duabus quaestionibus. Altera, de gerentibus vtero rem appetentibus denegatam. Altera verò de fascination. Apud Ludouicum Sanchez, typographum regium 1611 First edition. [8], 129 [i.e. 131], [1] leaves. 21 cm.

“Pérez Cascales studied medicine at Alcala University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1580…He left for Yepes where he practiced medicine for 15 years, and became personal physician to the Duke of Maqueda. He later held the post of a first professor of medicine at Siguenza University and physician to the Chapter. His Liber de affectionibus peurorum, published in 1611, is in four parts. The first, and most extensive, part deals with the pathology of children’s diseases. In terse, systematic form, displaying great erudition, he describes the diseases that generally affected children. The second part deals exclusively with the “garrotillo” (croup) and is contemporary with the monographs on the same topic by Jean de Villareal and Juan Alonso de los Ruizes y Fontecha, which is indicative of the preoccupation of the physicians of the time with a disease which, at the beginning of the 17th century, affected Spanish children in particular…Following this he deals briefly with abortion and its causes…Lastly, he writes on fascination, following the opinion of various authors, classical, as well as contemporary. He distinguishes three types of fascination: poetic, natural or physical, and magical or superstitious fascination” (Translation from Diccionario Histórico de la Ciencia Moderna en España II p. 158)

Cited references: Krivatsy, 8792

Gift of John Martin, M.D.