ELLIOT, John. The Medical Pocket-Book.
London: J. Johnson, 1781. First edition.
A remarkable annotated copy of this Georgian medical handbook, extensively interleaved with contemporary manuscript remedies, prescriptions and observations.
Most fascinating is a manuscript page headed “Anecdote”, recording the sensational events of July 1787. Elliot, consumed by his attachment to Mary Boydell, niece of the celebrated publisher John Boydell, fired two pistols at her while she walked through Leicester Square with bookseller George Nicol. He was acquitted of the capital charge when it could not be proved that the pistols contained ball, but was detained in Newgate for assault and died there on 22 July after refusing food. The contemporary account in this volume concludes: “Love was supposed to be the Instigator.” Contemporary and modern accounts confirm the extraordinary episode.
Elliot was also a significant early theorist of colour vision and invisible radiation.
From the library of Francis Enys (1753-1821) of Enys, Cornwall, with his engraved armorial bookplate. Enys studied law at Exeter College, Oxford, taking his B.C.L. in 1776, and inherited the ancient Enys estate in 1802. His distinctive bookplate is recorded on numerous volumes now in Cambridge University Library.
Contemporary marbled boards with leather corners, expertly and sympathetically rebacked in calf with raised bands, gilt rules and red morocco lettering-piece.
