Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 480

GUY PATIN (1601-1672) Lettres choisies. Chez Jean Petit 1688 2nd ed. [20] 432 pp., front. (port.). 14.9 cm.

Guy Patin, an eminent member of the Faculty of Paris, declared Harvey's theory 'paradoxical, useless, false, impossible, absurd and harmful.' This statement is characteristic of Patin. . . . He carried on violent quarrels in the name of the faculty with all innovators, against the physicians of Montpellier, against Renaudot, van Helmont, and many others. His letters . . . give a vivid and bold picture of the condition of physicians and of the Paris Faculty at that time (Arturo Castiglioni, A history of medicine. New York, 1946. pp. 519-520). Although Patin was dean of the faculty at Paris and was a brilliant lecturer, "he contributed little or nothing to the literature of the profession" but his letters "remain as a permanent contribution to literature" (Osler 5277). This edition contains 196 letters, many of them treating of medical topics in Patin's typical vein.

Gift of John Martin, M.D.