Pouteau, von Störck - Rage, Colchicum et Polypi - 1763

RABIES, HYDROPHOBIA, AND NASAL SURGERY: THREE RARE TREATISES PUBLISHED IN 1763, NOW IN A SINGLE VOLUME
ABSTRACT
Fascinating eighteenth-century medical miscellany that brings together three treatises published in 1763 between Lyon and Vienna, dedicated to rabies, botanical pharmacology, and surgery. The volume opens with Essai sur la rage by Lyonnais surgeon Claude Pouteau, a study on hydrophobia read at the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Lyon. It is followed by Libellus by Anton von Störck on Colchicum autumnale, an important testimony to eighteenth‑century experimentation with medicinal plants, accompanied by a large folded botanical plate. Completing the collection is Ratio facilis atque tuta narium curandi polypos, a surgical treatise on nasal polyps illustrated with a folded plate showing operative instruments. Three autonomous works kept together in a refined contemporaneous binding in brown morocco with a gilt spine, red edges, and marbled endpapers.

WHY TO BUY
RABIES AND HYDROPHOBIA – Pouteau’s treatise tackles one of the most feared diseases of the eighteenth century, discussing contagion, bite, symptoms, convulsions, hydrophobia, and potential therapies long before Pasteur’s era.
STÖRCK AND COLCHICUM – The second treatise belongs to Anton von Störck’s famous experimental investigations into plants traditionally regarded as poisonous and used as medicines, a key chapter in the birth of experimental pharmacology.
TWO FOLIO SCIENTIFIC PLATES – A notable folded botanical plate of Colchicum autumnale showing bulb, roots, leaves, and flowers, and a surgical plate depicting instruments for treating nasal polyps.
A COEVED MEDICAL MISCELLANY – Three publications from the same year bound together historically in one volume: a bibliographic object that concretely documents the scientific and therapeutic interests of a physician or collector of the eighteenth century.

MARKET VALUE
The value of the volume is considerably higher than that of the Essai sur la rage alone, since it is a coherent scientific miscellany composed of three medical works from 1763, two of which are illustrated with large folded plates. Particularly interesting is Störck’s text on colchic, an important figure in the history of experimental pharmacology. For the complete set of the three works, with both plates present and in the contemporaneous binding shown, I would roughly place the antique value in the €600–800 range.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Binding with abrasions, wear to corners, heads and joints, and small superficial losses. Contemporary brown morocco binding with mottled pattern, smooth gilt spine with compartments separated by borders and small floral decorations; red edges. Front and rear endpapers in multicolored marbled paper. Leaves with some browning and light foxing. Old manuscript signatures on the preliminaries. In old books, with a long history, there may be some imperfections not always noted in the description. This listing contains AI Visualizations. Please refer to the original photographs to verify the object’s actual condition. Images are an integral part of the description. Pp. (4); 48; 66; 90; (6).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
- Essai sur la rage.
Lyon, at G. Regnault, 1763.
Claude Pouteau.
- Libellus, quo demonstratur: colchici autumnalis radicem.
Vindobonae, typis Joannis Thomae Trattner, 1763.
Anton von Störck.
- Ratio facilis atque tuta narium curandi polypos.
Viennae, typis et sumptibus Joannis Thomae Trattner, 1763.
Natale Giuseppe Pallucci.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Essai sur la rage by Claude Pouteau belongs to the history of medicine in one of its most dramatic domains: the attempt to understand and treat rabies more than a century before Louis Pasteur’s decisive research. Pouteau begins with clinical observation. In the text he describes the poison of rabies transmitted by the bite and discusses the relationship among wound, nervous system, convulsions, and the onset of hydrophobia. The author compares clinical observations with contemporary theories in an effort to understand why the disease can manifest long after infection. The essay was read on May 24, 1763 before the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts of Lyon. The second treatise brings the volume into the heart of the emerging experimental pharmacology. Anton von Störck systematically studied plants traditionally considered poisonous, seeking to determine through controlled dosages whether they could become medicines. In the Libellus of 1763 he addresses Colchicum autumnale, a plant containing pharmacologically active and potentially toxic principles. The historical interest is notable: colchic would become a classic drug in the treatment of gout, and colchicine, its principal alkaloid, still holds pharmacological relevance today. The treatise thus documents a crucial phase in the transformation of plant substances from empirical remedies to objects of medical experimentation. The large botanical plate serves a scientific function: it enables the identification of the species by showing flower, leaves, bulb, and roots, reducing the risk of confusion with other plants. The third work shifts the focus to surgery. Ratio facilis atque tuta narium curandi polypos addresses the treatment of nasal polyps and presents a folded plate with operative instruments. In a pre-anesthesia, pre-asepsis era, and before specialized otolaryngology surgery, the development of dedicated instruments represented a fundamental aspect of advancing surgical technique. The miscellany thus unites three dimensions of Enlightenment medicine: clinical observation of disease, pharmacological experimentation, and surgical innovation.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Claude Pouteau (1724–1775) was an important French surgeon active in Lyon. Son of a surgeon, he developed a practice strongly grounded in clinical observation and gained notoriety within the Lyonese medical community. He was a member of the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Lyon and author of several contributions in surgery and medicine.
Anton von Störck (1731–1803) was an Austrian physician and one of the most interesting figures in eighteenth-century experimental medicine. Professor in Vienna and physician attached to the Habsburg court, he became famous for his research on the therapeutic use of poisonous plants. Störck studied substances such as hemlock, colchicum, aconite, and other drugs, systematically testing dosages and effects. His approach, while fully of the eighteenth century, marks an important step toward modern experimental pharmacology.
Johann Thomas von Trattner (1717–1798), printer of the two Viennese works, was one of the leading printers and editors of the Habsburg Empire under Maria Theresa, a protagonist of Vienna’s scientific and academic production in the eighteenth century.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION

Essai sur la rage derives from the memory read by Pouteau at the Académie of Lyon on May 24, 1763. The text was published in the same year by G. Regnault and retains at the end the academy’s endorsement authorizing print.
The Libellus on Colchicum autumnale belongs to the famous series of small treatises in which Störck presented the results of his experiments on medicinal plants. The Vienna publication of 1763 is particularly significant for the presence of the folded botanical plate.
The Ratio facilis atque tuta narium curandi polypos, likewise Vienna, Trattner, 1763, belongs to the specialized surgical literature and owes a considerable portion of its interest to the plate of instruments.
The circumstance that all three publications are dated 1763 suggests the volume was assembled very close to their release. It is not a single editorial volume, but a fictitious collection or miscellany assembled by uniting autonomous works sharing a medical-scientific interest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, catalogs of Claude Pouteau’s works and of Essai sur la rage.
- Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, medical fonds and publications of the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Lyon.
- WorldCat, bibliographic records of the 1763 editions of Pouteau and Störck.
- Wellcome Collection, historical catalogs of medicine, surgery and pharmacology.
- National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Collection, repertoires of eighteenth-century works on rabies, colchicum, and surgery.
- Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, catalogs of Anton von Störck’s editions and of Johann Thomas Trattner’s output.
- Historical bibliography of Anton von Störck’s works on plant pharmacology.
- Repertoires of the history of medicine relating to rabies and hydrophobia prior to Pasteur.
- Repertoires of the history of surgery and otorhinolaryngology relating to the treatment of nasal polyps in the eighteenth century.