Huxam - Aere et Morbis Epidemicis - 1773

WHEN WEATHER BECOMES DISEASE: HUXHAM AND THE BIRTH OF MEDICAL METEOROLOGY
ABSTRACT
Rare Venetian edition of 1773 of one of the most interesting eighteenth-century treatises on the relationship between climate, environment and epidemics. John Huxham collects and compares meteorological observations made in Plymouth with the course of epidemic diseases, recording temperature, pressure, winds, rainfall, and seasonal variations. The volume represents an important precursor of modern environmental epidemiology and medical climatology. It is followed, with its own eye-sight, by the Opusculum de Morbo Colico Damnoniensi, dedicated to the famous “Devonshire colic,” an epidemic later recognized as lead poisoning. A particularly genuine copy, in contemporary soft cover and untrimmed, with the fine out-of-text plate depicting a wind rose.

WHY TO BUY
EARLY MEDICAL METEOROLOGY – Huxham was among the protagonists of the systematization of observations on the influence of air and atmospheric conditions on the spread of diseases.
EPIDEMIOLOGY BEFORE EPIDEMIOLOGY – The annual observations carried out in Plymouth constitute an important eighteenth-century example of systematic correlation between meteorological data and epidemic phenomena.
DEVONSHIRE COLIC – The volume also contains the famous treatise on the Devonshire colic, a disease later identified by George Baker in 1767 as lead poisoning from contaminated cider.
UNCUT PERIOD COPY – A copy in editorial/contemporary soft cover, untrimmed, with very wide margins and distinctive uncut edges, an element particularly interesting for collectors.

MARKET VALUE
The 1773 Venetian edition is not among the first English editions, but it is bibliographically interesting for the Italian diffusion of the work and for the presence of the meteorological diagram. For this specimen, complete with the plate and preserved in suggestive contemporary untrimmed soft cover, albeit with evident fragility of the binding, I consider a reasonable antiquarian market range of about €280–€400.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary soft cover in rustic cardboard, untrimmed, with untrimmed pages. Spine with wear, small tears and remnants of an old label; boards with creases, abrasions and marginal losses, especially along the edges. Pages 162, plus 2 unnumbered according to the described exemplar; continuous pagination. Out-of-text plate engraved in the frontispiece depicting a wind rose with cardinal directions and winds, perfectly functional to the medical-meteorological structure of the treatise. Frontispiece with wood-engraved ornament. Occasional light stains, physiological foxing and small marginal tears, without substantial loss of text. On page 132 ends the main section; followed by the Opusculum de Morbo Colico Damnoniensi with its own page. On page 162 the FINIS TOMI PRIMI appears; also the Venetian authorization text “Noi Riformatori dello Studio di Padova,” dated November 19, 1763. In old books, with a multigenerational history, there may be some imperfections, not always noted in the description. This entry contains AI Visualizations. Refer to the original photographs to verify the object’s actual condition. The images are an integral part of the description. Pp. 36; 162; 2nn.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Observationes de Aere et Morbis Epidemicis.
Venetiis, 1773, apud Laurentium Basilium.
John Huxham.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Huxham belongs to that generation of eighteenth-century physicians who sought to transform medicine from a descriptive discipline into a science based on systematic observation. For years he recorded in Plymouth atmospheric conditions, wind direction, temperature, pressure, rainfall and seasonal variations, comparing these data with the appearance and intensity of fevers, smallpox, respiratory diseases and other epidemics. This method is particularly modern because it relates environment and disease through regular time series, anticipating in pre-statistical form central themes of environmental epidemiology. Wellcome classifies the work under the subjects Disease Outbreaks, Climate and Medical Topography, underscoring its interdisciplinary nature. Particularly interesting is the meteorological plate depicting the wind rose. It is not merely decorative, but visualizes the atmospheric orientation system used by the author to interpret climatic conditions. The work also holds great interest for the history of toxicology through the Opusculum de Morbo Colico Damnoniensi, dedicated to the painful endemic Devonshire colic. Huxham observed the relationship between the disease and cider consumption, yet did not correctly identify the cause; it was George Baker in 1767 who demonstrated that the responsible agent was lead present in the equipment used to produce and preserve cider.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
John Huxham was born in 1692 and died in 1768. An English physician active mainly in Plymouth, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and one of the most important English clinical observers of the eighteenth century. His fame is linked in particular to research on epidemic diseases, medical meteorology, scurvy and the Devonshire colic. During his career Huxham systematically collected meteorological and clinical observations for many years, convinced that the state of the atmosphere had a significant influence on the onset and spread of diseases. He was also the author of De Scurbuto and of important observations on throat diseases; his description of forms of palate paralysis associated with severe pharyngitis is considered particularly significant in the history of medicine.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The first Latin edition of Observationes de aëre et morbis epidemicis appeared in London in 1739, published by S. Austen. It included observations from 1728 to 1737 and the De Morbo Colico Damnoniensi. Wellcome records a collation of [4], XXX, 161, 38, [6] pages and a folded plate. The work quickly saw new editions and translations. An English translation appeared in London between 1759 and 1767 in two volumes, a sign of the interest aroused by Huxham’s medical-meteorological approach. The Venetian edition of 1773 is recorded by Wellcome as Editio Secunda Veneta, published “Venetiis, apud Laurentium Basilium,” testimony to the work’s fortune even in Italian medical culture. In the same year there was also a London edition in its third edition, a sign of the continued circulation of the text more than thirty years after the first publication. De Morbo Colico Damnoniensi arises from observations carried out already in the 1720s. The Royal Society preserves a manuscript relating to a painful colic epidemic that occurred in 1724, further testimony to the long gestation of Huxham’s research.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Wellcome Collection, Observationum de aere et morbis epidemicis… His accedit Opusculum de morbo colico Damnoniensi, Venezia, Laurentium Basilium, 1773, Editio Secunda Veneta.
Wellcome Collection, Observationes de aëre et morbis epidemicis, London, S. Austen, 1739; reference GM 2093; ESTC T53092.
Wellcome Collection, Observations on the Air and Epidemic Diseases, London, 1759–1767; ESTC N10131.
Folger Shakespeare Library / ESTC, Observationes de aëre et morbis epidemicis, London 1773, Editio tertia; ESTC N10111.
Royal Society Archives, Account of an epidemy of painful colic which occurred in 1724 by John Huxham of Plymouth, RBO/13/74.
Garrison-Morton, Medical Bibliography, n. 2093.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography / Dictionary of National Biography, entry John Huxham.
NLM / history of medicine catalogues, entries relating to Huxham, epidemiology, medical meteorology and the Devonshire colic.
WorldCat, international library catalogs, search for John Huxham and Observationes de aëre et morbis epidemicis.
CERL Heritage of the Printed Book Database, search by author, title and place of printing.
Gonnelli Auction House, lot including Observationes de aëre et morbis epidemicis, Naples 1765, awarded in a multiple lot at €113.
Catawiki, Huxham Joanne, De Aere et Morbis Epidemicis, Venice 1773, estimated €200–250.