Medical botany, containing systematic and general descriptions with plates, of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the materia medica [...] accompanied with a circumstantial detail of their medicinal effects, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed.

3 vol., 4to: xiv-182-[2], xii-183/368-[2], viii-369/578-xii pp.; 210 pl. (some spotting and browning, not affecting the plates).

Contemp. quarter sheep, marbled paper on covers, flat spines, black leather title labels (used binding, joints split, front cover 1st vol. and back cover 3rd vol. loosening, almost loose). Good uncut copy.

First edition of this influential pharmacological work by the English physician and botanist Woodville (1752-1805). Ill. (complete) with 210 full-page engr. plates, almost all hand-coloured, depicting plants, flowers and trees by J. Sowerby. Originally issued in monthly parts from 1790 to 1795 "Medical Botany" remained the standard illustrated book of plants of the British pharmacopoeia until the publication of Bentley and Trimen's, "Medicinal Plants" in 1875-1880. In 1795 Woodville issued another volume, "A Supplement to Medical Botany", not present in our set.
Ref. Stafleu & Cowan 18.272. - Nissen (BBI) 2183. - Pritzel 10398. - ESTC T84361.
Prov. J. M. Coley (ms. entry).