1864. BOOK: (MEDICINE). GROSOURDY, RENATE OF:... Lot 166

1864. BOOK: (MEDICINE). GROSOURDY, RENATE OF: THE CREOLE BOTANICAL PH YSICIAN. Paris: Bookstore of Francis Brachet [Poupart-Davyl Printers], 1864. 4 vol. 4º minor. I (Containing Elementary Botany, the Dichotomous Method, etc. ): 2 h.+ LVIII+ 59 a 426 p. II (Containing the families and ending with two appendices, one on the useful woods of those countries and the other on the agriculture appropriate to them): 2 h.+ 512 p. III (Compendium of the therapeutics of the Antilles and the corresponding part of the American continent, or Practical studies made on the old-age people of these countries, considered either as medicines, or as food substances or as poisons, without forgetting the indication of their various uses in the arts and in the domestic economy): 2 h.+ XXXVIII-39 to 416 p. IV (Part two [...] followed by a complete Formulary and a Therapeutic-Pathological Memorandum, etc.): 2 h.+ 511 p. Enc. the four vol. in half skin with nerves and golden irons in the spine. Magnificent specimen. Handwritten pencil notes in the margins adding Latin names or scientific information. First complete edition, rare in trade. Renato de Grosourdy lived for several years in the Caribbean and catalogued the uses and characteristics of the tropical flora by its inhabitants. It describes not only medicinal but also culinary uses, thus giving abundant information on the diet of the populations of those latitudes. As far as the study of 'Caribbean botany' is concerned, his work, besides being very well worked on from his own observation and cataloguing, is unfortunately almost unknown. A forgotten source for the history of food in the Caribbean during the 19th century: Renato de Grosourdy's El médico [botánico] criollo. Caribbean Notebooks, No. 19, 2015. Pritzel 3611. Palau 109178.