Item #49867 Isis Revelata: an Inquiry into the Origin, Progress, and present State of Animal Magnetism ( 2 vols. ). John Campbell COLQUHOUN.
Isis Revelata: an Inquiry into the Origin, Progress, and present State of Animal Magnetism ( 2 vols. ).
Isis Revelata: an Inquiry into the Origin, Progress, and present State of Animal Magnetism ( 2 vols. ).

Isis Revelata: an Inquiry into the Origin, Progress, and present State of Animal Magnetism ( 2 vols. ).

Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart, 1836. Second Edition (actually First Edition Thus). Hardcovers. Octavos. Two volumes. lii + 396pp.; xii + 416pp. Superb half-leather binding by renowned London book-binder Bernard C. Middleton. Brown calf over marbled papered boards, with raised bands & gilt rules & title on spines; marbled boards. Additional engraved title-pages in each volume. The author, Edinburgh born John Campbell Colquhoun (1785–1854), studied law and philosophy at Göttingen, where he was introduced to the investigation of the phenomena then grouped under the rubric animal magnetism which was just then becoming popular in European scientific circles. In 1831 a report was presented to the Académie des Sciences in France, which deemed the subject worthy of serious investigation. Colquhoun subsequently edited and translated the report, adding an historical Introduction, and an appendix outlining his own researches, which he published as "Report of the Experiments on Animal Magnetism, made by a committee of the Medical Section of the French Royal Academy of Sciences" (1833). It was this report, and his own subsequent investigations, that formed the basis of the present work "Isis Revelata." Curiously although Colquhoun retitled the work (as "Isis Revelata") it is described as a "second edition" however given that it is retitled, and it is nearly three times the length of the original "Report of the Experiments ..." it might more reasonably be described as a work in its own right, and therefore a "first edition thus." From the collection of Dr. M. H. Coleman, with his blind-stamped ex-libris seals on front free endpapers. Page edges darkened, engraved title-pages slightly discolored, merest hint of pale foxing in a few places, contemporary owner's initials on title-page of Vol.II, otherwise a complete & solid VG+ pair. Item #49867

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