Joannis Pecqueti - Experimenta Nova Anatomica - 1651

Full parchment binding with gilt tooling on the front board. On the spine, author and partial title handwritten and a gilt crest. Blue sprayed edges.

2 white leaves, [11], 1 white leaf, 204, 2 white leaves

Second edition published in the same year as the first. Pecquet is generally credited with the discovery of the thoracic duct, the main vessel of the lymphatic system. He arrived at this discovery by conducting experiments on dogs during digestion. "Pecquet's discovery, according to which chyle flowed into the vena cava and from there to the heart—considered together with Harvey's theory of circulation—was regarded as having the power to demolish completely the food-chyle-blood system centered on a hematopoietic liver, the keystone of Galenic physiology."

A full-page engraving depicting the chyle vessels in a dog's carcass, 5 small engravings in the text, a woodcut printer's mark on the title page, initials and woodcut ornaments. Copy in excellent condition of preservation. Complete, rare and usable."