NEEDHAM, (Jean) (1713-1791): — Nouvelles observations microscopiques, avec des dŽcouvertes intŽressantes sur la composition & la dŽcomposition des corps organisŽs.

Paris, (Houry pour) Louis-Etienne Ganeau, 1750, in-8vo, XVIII + 30 p. + 524 p. + 4 p. + 8 folding engraved plates, very light browning in places, marbled calf on raised bands, red title label on spine, gold tooled spine, extreme top and bottom of spine missing, lower corners bumped and scraped, red edges. Rare first French edition of the 2nd volume of Needham's ÇAn account of some new microscopical discoveriesÈ (1745), translated by L.-An. Lavirotte; incl. in the preliminaries an interesting introduction and 29 pages "Description et usage du microscope".The fine plates show dissected animals, including an octapus, and a microscope and its parts.ÒNeedham's work is of biological importance as the first attempt to give a scientific basis to a theory of spontaneous generation, taken as a matter of fact by St. Thomas Aquinas. It was attacked by Spallanzani, and caused a long controversy, which had been provisionally settled in the negative by Pasteur. The above edition contains a new and interesting introduction. Rare.Ó (Zeitlingen, Sotheran, Suppl. I, 4922, and Suppl. 2, I/623).Needham, described by his biographer as a keen and judicious observer, had a peculiar dexterity in conforming his observations by experiments and enjoyed a high reputation as a man of science.Please notify before visiting to see a book. Prices are excl. VAT/TVA (only Switzerland) & postage. QuŽrard VI/398; Nissen 2959; Hirsch-H. IV/334.