Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 925

WILLIAM LEWIS (1714-1781) The new dispensatory. Printed for J. Nourse 1753 xii, 32, 664 pp. 20.6 cm.

Lewis, an English physician and chemist, received his medical degree from Oxford and is best remembered for his contributions to the literature of chemistry and pharmacy. Active both as a writer and a translator, he produced a number of successful works dealing with the practical aspects of chemistry and the pharmacopoeia, and translated the pharmaceutical and chemical works of several prominent German chemists. This first edition of Lewis' dispensatory was intended to be a corrected and improved version of John Quincy's Compleat English dispensatory (see No. 712), which at that time had reached the twelfth edition. Lewis' work was of a wider scope in that he added to the translation useful notes on the materia medica and hospital prescriptions. The enlarged work quickly achieved prominence and new editions followed within a few years, reaching six editions by the late 1780s. The book was translated into German, and an edition was also printed in Dublin in 1768. The Dispensatory was continued by both Andrew Duncan, Sr. (1744-1828) and Andrew Duncan, Jr. (see No. 1274), who further expanded and improved Lewis' work and continued to publish it through the twelfth edition in 1830.

See Related Record(s): 712 1274

Cited references: Wellcome III, p. 511

Gift of R. A. Kuever