Science including Natural Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Medical Sciences etc

Antique Medical Instruments – Wilbur

Published by Schiffer, i.e. the pen people, of Atglen, USA. The 2008 edition with updates by the distinguished Keith Wilbur MD who can trace back his descendants to Rhode Island 1636.

We mention the “pen people” as the book is rather whimsically produced in an unusual cursive font with matching line drawing of instruments.

Quarto, softcover 149 pages. Seems to be a bit under-rated for a book we really rate not just for the beginner but the serious collector too. We also like that it has a very good section on the development of the microscope often omitted from this subject matter. A semi-useful price guide at least provides perspective … 18th Century medical instruments can hardly come cheap. A list of medical museums in the USA good prove a valuable starting point for a holiday focussed on such matters. Plan your next trip.

Wilbur’s Medical Instruments a great place to start … and more

$50.00

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Report on Australian Languages and Traditions (Parts I and II Complete) – Rev William Ridley MA – 1872/3

An original extract from the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1872/73 pages 257-291. Octavo, soft modern wraps for protection, very good copies.

William Ridley (1919-1878) a supporter of the aboriginal community and compiler of languages .. a talented linguist. He arrived in Sydney in 1850 at the request of Rev J.D. Lang. Ordained and went to the New England are which he expanded into Moreton Bay and the Darling Downs. For financial reasons he later took on the roles of pastoralist and Journalist. He continued his interest in the aboriginal people and was the author of a landmark book on the Kumilaroi, Dippil and Turrubul people published in 1866.

These significant papers start with the detail of a thousand plus mile tour around outback NSW. This report is notes to be supplementary to the aforementioned book. Lists “new words” of Paces, with their meaning; Additional Words and Phrases in Kamilaroi, Wailwun etc; Pikumbul – spoken on the Macintyre. He goes on to deal with Social Classification, and Laws of Marriage and Descent; Religious and Mythical Traditions; The Bora; Funeral rites; the Krodjis and their Enchantments; the Recollections of Billy Murri Bundar; Traditions Concerning the Stars [especially interesting to Voyager].

In Part II, Ridley presents his own work on the Kamilaroi, Turrubul and Dippil alongside Gunther and Watson’s on the Wirradhurri, Daniel Bunce in Victoria and Hume on the West Coast. Presenting key words in tabular form.

Rare publication of supplementary work on aboriginal languages and customs by authority William Ridley

$60.00

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The Antiquity of the Aborigines of Australia and Tasmania – The Discovery of Gold – Magnetism etc – Georgina King FRASA – Sydney 1924

A self-published pamphlet by Georgina King of work previously published in the “Sunday Times”. Printed by William Brooks, Sydney and issued in 1924.

Octavo, 23 pages, soft wrappers as issued, three illustrations in the text regarding aboriginals. Some age from use still a very good copy.

The articles are as per the title … The Antiquity of the Aborigines of Australia and Tasmania – Two Stone Ages in Australia; The Discovery of Gold and How it was Found in Payable Quantities; Magnetism – terrestrial and Universal; Diamond and Their Origin.

A most usual body of work. Georgina King (1845-1932) was an amateur geologist and anthropologist. As a woman she was excluded from the “professional” category e.g. she was not allowed to read her own paper at the Royal society of NSW. Her ideas were rather whacky though and make for interesting reading … they did not stop her becoming a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society. The daughter of Rev George King she was advised by him and naturalist Bennett not to marry if she wanted to get on in her chosen filed. She corresponded with Robert Logan Jack regarding geology and Huxley on natural sciences. In her eccentricity she blamed other for stealing her ideas, including Edgeworth David on her radical concepts of the earth’s formation and Einstein on the theory of relativity. She believed diamonds were fossilised marine organisms … quoting from the paper contained here …

“Diamonds existed as marine organisms. They are composed of pure carbon, containing only a little hydrogen, and the most minute particles are often found in what were small cavities, perhaps their breathing apparatus; some were like feathers. The cleavages of the diamond were the gills of those marine organisms …”

Her article of the aborigines is a lot more grounded. She was a friend of Daisy bates and provided financial support to Bates for her work among aboriginal people.

Georgina King isolated Australian Scientist with some wild ideas and some interesting ones.

$50.00

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Decorative Printed Maps of the 15th to 18th Centuries – R.A. Skelton FSA

A very good book of decorative cartography by the much admired Skelton.

Quarto, 79 pages plus 84 full page plates of maps some in colour. Published by Spring Books, London in 1966. This is a re-issue of a work originally published in 1952 with a re-worked text and improvements in the plates.

A super book for someone building their understanding of the development of the map and the pure beauty behind the trade. Takes the accepted progression .. Ptolemy; woodcut maps; Italian line-engravers; the Dutch; the beginning of the English Regional Map; Dutch and German development; French emergence; the English again during the period to Thomas Jeffreys.

Skelton on Decorative Maps – Essential well rounded.

$50.00

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Maps and Map-Makers – R.V. Tooley

Tooley the greatest 20th century name in maps who was not a map-maker. The author of many works on cartography and the standard reference point on many topics. This is his perennial book on the broader subject. Great cross referencing to sources and plentiful illustrations.

A third impression published by Batsford, London in 1961. Small quarto, 140 pages, highly detailed and with many illustrations, some colour. A very good copy in an excellent dust jacket.

From the library of Australian cartographic expert Thomas M Perry with his signature on the front free endpaper.

If it’s maps it’s Tooley!

$40.00

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Choice Garden Flowers (With Twelve Beautiful Hand Coloured Plates) – James Andrews 1847

Full title … Choice Garden Flowers their Cultivation and General Treatment in All Seasons”

A first edition published by Houlston and Wright, London in 1847. Book not dated but some plates are. Scarce included in the Library at Kew.

Octavo, with twelve striking hand coloured lithographed plates of “Choice Flowers”’ including roses, acacia, rhododendron, crocus, petunia, ranunculus etc.

Original brown cloth covered boards with gilt device to front. A little loss to head of spine, all page pages gilt. A super copy for the delightful plates alone.

Andrews a Fellow of the Horticultural Society one of the great flower illustrators of his day. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1868. He also did portraits and a number are included in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Scarce well executed botanical collection

$240.00

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Antique Medical Instruments – Wilbur

Report on Australian Languages and Traditions (Parts I and II Complete) – Rev William Ridley MA – 1872/3

The Antiquity of the Aborigines of Australia and Tasmania – The Discovery of Gold – Magnetism etc – Georgina King FRASA – Sydney 1924

Decorative Printed Maps of the 15th to 18th Centuries – R.A. Skelton FSA

Maps and Map-Makers – R.V. Tooley

Choice Garden Flowers (With Twelve Beautiful Hand Coloured Plates) – James Andrews 1847

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