Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 823

JEAN BAPTISTE SENAC (1693-1770) Traité de la structure du coeur, de son action, et de ses maladies. Chez Briasson 1749 Vol. I: xliv [4] 504 [2] pp., 17 fold. plates; Vol. II: [4] 694 pp. 25.4 cm.

A Jesuit priest, Sénac studied medicine at Rheims and was later appointed physician to Louis XV. He also served as councillor of state and eventually became a member of the Académie Royale des Sciences. Although he also wrote works on chemistry, anatomy, and the plague, they were overshadowed by this work on the heart. Here, in two volumes, is the first comprehensive and systematic treatise on the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the heart and its diseases. Sénac described ossification of the coronary vessels, insufficiency of the cardiac valves, transfusion of blood, and the role of hydrothorax in circulatory failure. The first volume contains seventeen finely engraved plates of cardiac anatomy.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 2733; Osler 3960; Waller 8836 (1783 ed.)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.