[Thomas Sydenham, association]. Thomas Moffett. Healths Improvement; or, Rules Comprizing and Discovering the Nature, Me...

Description

An Excellent Association Copy of an Important Book on Diet and Health

"Moffett is regarded as the first person in an English medical work to refer to the value of liver in eye disease. Liver is considered wholesome because it would 'please the taste, clear the eye-sight, agree with the stomach, and encrease bloud'" (Drummond and Wilbraham, p. 153).

Moffett also wrote a book on insects and it is said that his daughter, who was afraid of spiders, was the source of "Little Miss Muffett [Moffett]."

Thomas Sydenham, 1624-1689, English physician. "Intellectually, Sydenham's most striking characteristic was his independence and repudiation of all dogmatic authority in matters of science. He had indeed been trained in the school of revolt. Further, he claimed to be as little influenced by theory as by tradition. His aim was not to frame hypotheses about the operations of nature, but to observe them directly, as Bacon advised. He may be said to have set the example of studying diseases as natural objects, without being led astray by the attempt to explain them... Furthermore, he possessed the synthetic power of genius which enabled him to combine his observations into pictures of disease, the value of which remains unaffected by change of opinion or increase of knowledge." (DNB).

Wing M2382. ESTC r202888. Cagle 879. Krivatsy/NLM 8011. Oxford 28 "a very interesting book on the choice and preparation of food". One Hundred Sixteen Uncommon Books on Food and Drink 83. Vicaire 613. Wellcome IV,148. Bancroft Library, Four hundred years of English Diet & Cookery, 63

Moffett, Thomas. [Thomas Sydenham] Healths Improvement; or, Rules Comprizing and Discovering the Nature, Method, and Manner of Preparing All Sorts of Food used in this Nation. London: Thomas Newcomb for Samuel Thomson, 1655. 4to. A-2P4. [Lacks A1, imprimatur leaf, A3 & A4 bound out of proper order] [6 of 8 lacks imprimatur leaf],296p. Contemp. sheep, blind-ruled, sympathetically rebacked, gilt rules, title in gilt on red leather label, corners restored. THOMAS SYDENHAM'S COPY with Inscription on t.p.; number stamp on verso of t.p. with pencil note "Ruhrah Collection" minor dampstain, with darker edge stains on first leaves, some contemporary marginal annotations (longer note in bottom margin of p14.), a few marginal notes shaved. First Edition. Moffett, Moufet, or Muffet, Thomas 1553-1604, physician and author. ÒOn leaving Cambridge Moffett went abroad. At Basle he attended the medical lectures of Felix Plater and Zwinger, and after defending publicly many medical theses there in 1578, he received the degree of M.D...Moffett, while on the continent, adopted with enthusiasm the Paracelsian system of medicine, and when he settled again in England he shared with John Hester the chief burden of upholding its principles there... In 1590 he was in attendance on Sir Francis Walsingham at Barn Elms, Surrey. Next year he was appointed physician to the forces serving in Normandy under the Earl of Essex; and on 6 Jan. 1591-2 he sent a note to the earl from Dieppe advising him to return to England. On settling again in London, Moffett appears to have spent much time at court. He came to know Sir Francis Drake, who first showed him a flying-fish, Ômilvus marinusÕ (Health's Improvement, p. 245); interested himself in the eccentricities of Woolmer, Ôthe foul feederÕ, and was much patronised by Henry Herbert, second earl of Pembroke, and his family...Moffett combined with his interests in science real literary aptitude...Moffett's second posthumously issued book was: ÔHealth's Improvement...This is a gossipy collection of maxims respecting diet, which Moffett intended to supplement by a similar work on ÔdrinksÕ (p. 221). It was probably compiled about 1595.Ó DNB
'Moffett is regarded as the first person in an English medical work to refer to the value of liver in eye disease. Liver is considered wholesome because it would "please the taste, clear the eye-sight, agree with the stomach, and encrease bloud"' (Drummond & Wilbraham, p. 153).
Moffett also wrote a book on insects and it is said that his daughter, who was afraid of spiders, was the source of ÒLittle Miss Moffett.Ó
Thomas Sydenham, 1624-1689, English physician, "the English Hippocrates," "Intellectually, Sydenham's most striking characteristic was his independence and repudiation of all dogmatic authority in matters of science. He had indeed been trained in the school of revolt. Further, he claimed to be as little influenced by theory as by tradition. His aim was not to frame hypotheses about the operations of nature, but to observe them directly, as Bacon advised. He may be said to have set the example of studying diseases as natural objects, without being led astray by the attempt to explain them... Furthermore, he possessed the synthetic power of genius which enabled him to combine his observations into pictures of disease, the value of which remains unaffected by change of opinion or increase of knowledge." DNB Wing M2382. ESTC r202888. Cagle 879. Krivatsy/NLM 8011. Oxford 28 Òa very onteresting book on the choice and preparation of food. One Hundred Sixteen Uncommon Books on Food and Drink 83. Vicaire 613. Wellcome IV,148. Bancroft Library, Four hundred years of English Diet & Cookery, 63 Medicine. Food. Diet. England. Health.