Rare Books

Most of the books in the Markus Library Rare Book Collection were bequeathed by Alfred Einstein Cohn (1879-1957), emeritus of The Rockefeller Institute, one of the first cardiologists in the U.S., a scholar whose interests encompassed many fields and earned his high regard in the world of culture.

The scope of the collection is broad, encompassing the humanities, medicine, and natural history, including botany, agriculture, and geography.

Dr. Cohn's rare volumes of scientific and medical interest, published in 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, include some of the major works of many of the great names in the history of medical science, often in the first editions: Celsus, Thomas Bartholinus, G. Borelli, Malpighi, Leuwenhoek, Richard Lower, Mead, and many others.

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Newton, Isaac

The Rockefeller University

Newton, Isaac. Optice: sive de reflexionibus, refractionibus, inflexionibus & coloribus lucis libri tres. Authore Isaaco Newton, Equite Aurato. Latine reddidit Samuel Clarke, A.M. Reverendo admodum Patri ac Dno Joanni Moore Episcopo Norvicensi a Sacris Domesticis. Accedunt tractatus duo ejusdem Authoris de Speciebus & Magnitudine Figurarum Curvilinearum, Latine scripti, 1719

Full text

Subjects: Optics – Early works to 1800

Language: Latin
Newton, Isaac

The Rockefeller University

Newton, Isaac. The mathematical principles of natural philosophy, [1729]

Subjects: Mechanics – Early works to 1800

Celestial mechanics – Early works to 1800

Notes: In two volumes. Vol. 2 in two parts, each with separate pagination and register, the second part being John Machin's 'The laws of the moon's motion according to gravity' with divisional title page

Language: English
Olearuis, Adam

The Rockefeller University

Olearuis, Adam. Relation du voyage d'Adam Olearius en Moscovie, Tartarie et Perse : augmentee en cette nouvelle edition de plus d'vn tiers, & particulierement d'vne seconde partie contenant le voyage de Iean Albert de Mandelslo aux Indes Orientales, 1666

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Subjects: Voyages and travels – Early works to 1800

Russia – Description and travel – Early works to 1800

Iran – Description and travel – Early works to 1800

Notes: Vol. 2 has title: Suitte de la Relation du voyage en Moscovie, Tartarie, et Perse

Language: French
Osler, William

The Rockefeller University

Osler, William. The Principles and practice of medicine: designed for the use of practitioners and students of medicine; thoroughly rev. by Thomas McCrae, 1892

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Subjects: Medicine - Practice

Notes: First edition

Language: English
Pallas, Peter Simon

The Rockefeller University

Pallas, Peter Simon. Travels through the southern provinces of the Russian Empire, in the years 1793 and 1794 / translated from the German of P.S. Pallas, 1802-1803

Full text, vol.2

Subjects: Ukrain- Journey

Crimea - Description and travel

Notes: First edition. Includes index. Translated by Francis W. Blagdon. "In two volumes. With many coloured vignettes, plates and maps."

Language: English
Paré, Ambroise

The Rockefeller University

Paré, Ambroise. The works of that famous chirurgeon Ambrose Parey, 1678

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Subjects: Anatomy – Early works to 1800

Medicine – Early works to 1800

Surgery – Early works to 1800

Notes: Translated out of Latin and compared with the French, by Th. Johnson, together with three tractates concerning the veins, arteries, and nerves; exemplified with large anatomical figures, translated out of Adrianus Spigelius

Language: English
Parson, James

The Rockefeller University

Parson, James. The Croonian lectures on muscular motion, 1745

Subjects: Muscles – Early works to 1800

Notes: First edition. Royal Society of London. Philosophical transactions. Supplements to the years 1744-1747

Language: English
Pascal, Blaise

The Rockefeller University

Pascal, Blaise. Traité de l'equilibre des liqueurs, et de la pesanteur de la masse de l'air, 1663

Full text

Subjects: Hydrostatics

Atmospheric pressure

Language: French

Format: Book

Summary: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was among the greatest scientist and philosophers of his age. A mathematical prodigy as a child, he completed an original treatise on conic sections at the age of sixteen. He studied infinitesimal calculus; solved problems of general quadrature of the cycloid; contributed to the development of differential calculus; originated, with Fermat, the mathematical theory of probability. He also invented a mechanical calculator, the syringe, and the hydraulic press. He wrote treatises on the equilibrium of liquid solutions, on the weight and density of air, and on the arithmetic triangle
Pasteur, Louis

The Rockefeller University

Pasteur, Louis. Études sur la bière: ses maladies, causes qui les provoquent, procédé pour la rendre inaltérable; avec une théorie nouvelle de la fermentation, 1876

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Subjects: Fermentation

Beer

Notes: Publisher’s advertisements on the final 4 unnumbered pages

Language: French
Pasteur, Louis

The Rockefeller University

Pasteur, Louis. Études sur le vin: ses maladies, causes qui les provoquent, procédés nouveaux pour le conserver et pour le vieillir, 1866

Full text

Subjects: Wine - Microbiology

Notes: First edition

Language: French
Pasteur, Louis

The Rockefeller University

Pasteur, Louis. Examen critique d'un écrit posthume de Claude Bernard sur la fermentation, 1879

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Subjects: Bernard, Claude – 1813-1878

Fermentation

Notes: Includes bibliographical references

Language: French
Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich

The Rockefeller University

Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich. Die Arbeit der Verdauungsdrüsen Vorlesungen, 1898

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Subjects: Digestion

Notes: For this work, Pavlov received the Nobel Prize in 1904

Language: German
Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich

The Rockefeller University

Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich. The work of digestive glands, 1902

Full text

Subjects: Digestion

Notes: First English translation by W. H. Thompson

Language: English
Pechey, John

The Rockefeller University

Pechey, John; Sydenham, Thomas. The whole works of that excellent practical physician, Dr. Thomas Sydenham: wherein not only the history and cures of acute diseases are treated of, after a new and accurate method: but also the shortest and safest way of curing most chronical diseases, 1740

Full text

Subjects: Medicine - Early works to 1800

Epidemics - History

Notes: The 11. edition. corrected from the Original Latin

Language: English
Petit-Radel, Philippe

The Rockefeller University

Petit-Radel, Philippe. Institutions de médecine, ou, Exposé sur la théorie et la pratique de cette science d'après les auteurs anciens et modernes, ouvrage didactique, contenant les connaissances générales, nécessaires à ceux qui se destinent à exercer l'art de guérir par Ph. Petit-Radel, Docteur-Régent et Professeur de la ci-devant Faculté de Médecine de Paris, et actuellement Professeur à l'Ecole de Médecine de la même ville, [1798]

Subjects: Medicine – Early works to 1800

Notes: In two volumes

Language: French
Pinel, Philippe

The Rockefeller University

Pinel, Philippe. Nosographie philosophique, ou, La méthode de l'analyse appliquée à la médecine, 1802-1803

Full text

Subjects: Nosology

Medicine

Notes: In three volumes

Language: French
Polybius

The Rockefeller University

Polybius. Histoire de Polybe, 1753

Subjects: History, Ancient.

Rome -- History -- Republic, 510-30 B.C.

Greece -- History.

Notes: 7 volumes

Language: French
Pomet, Pierre

The Rockefeller University

Pomet, Pierre. Histoire générale des drogues, simples et composées, renfermant dans les trois classes des végétaux, des animaux & des minéraux tout ce qui est l'objet de la physique, de la chimie, de la pharmacie, & des arts les plus utiles à la société des hommes, 1735

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Subjects: Materia medica – Early works to 1800

Drugs

Notes: In two volumes

Language: French

Format: Book

Summary: Pierre Pomet (1658-1699) was a French pharmacologist, chemist, and botanist who became chief supplier of drugs to Louis XIV. After his apprenticeship, he traveled widely in Europe collecting botanical, mineral and medicinal samples and on his return opened a shop selling drugs. He was asked to give lectures at the Jardin des Plantes on the preparation of his products and he issued regular catalogs of them. This work was translated into English and German. Part I deals with botanical medicine and most of the illustrations are of plants but there are some interesting and unusual plates: curing tobacco, manufacturing sugar, processing indigo. Part II is on animals and their uses in medicine with interesting plates of unicorns, whales, rhinoceros and elephant, silk manufacture, bee-keeping, packing tuna into barrels. Part II opens with a long piece on the Egyptians and in particular on Mummies with an interesting plate. Part III is on fossils and minerals including gold, silver, iron, mercury, tin, copper, vitriol, lead, antimony, arsenic, sulfur and precious stones.
Priestley, Joseph

The Rockefeller University

Priestley, Joseph. Disquisitions relating to matter and spirit. To which is added, the history of the philosophical doctrine concerning the origin of the soul, and the nature of matter; with its influence on Christianity, especially with respect to the doctrine of the pre-existence of Christ, 1777

Full text

Language: English
Priestley, Joseph

The Rockefeller University

Priestley, Joseph. Lectures on history, and general policy: To which is prefixed, an essay on a course of liberal education for civil and active life, 1791

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Subjects: World history – Early works to 1800

Notes: With an index

Language: English