183 - [MANUSCRIPT - VETERINARY ANATOMY]. “General Anatomy Applied to Veterinary Medicine.” Circa 1830.

[MANUSCRIPT - VETERINARY ANATOMY]. “General Anatomy Applied to Veterinary Medicine.” Circa 1830. A beautiful manuscript of this comprehensive treatise on veterinary anatomy, based on the teachings of Professor Jean Girard at the École d’Alfort. In-8 (140 x 190 mm), brown half-basane with root edges, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets, brown leather title label reading “General Anatomy,” the name “Ruffet” stamped at the bottom, marbled edges (contemporary binding). 2 blank folios, 1 title folio, and 344 numbered handwritten pages, 24 blank folios. Normal wear and tear, three small tears in the leather and a small wormhole on the spine, a black burn mark at the bottom of 3 leaves, slight water stain on the inner margins of pages 312 to 342. Manuscript of a 19th-century course in general anatomy, written in cursive script in brown ink. It is a comprehensive course in general anatomy as applied to veterinary medicine. The highly specific terminology in the table of contents, which spans pages 312 to 315 (dermoid system, cellular tissue, eliminatory inflammation) and the methodical organization demonstrate that this course is based on the lectures of Jean Girard (1770–1852), professor and director of the Royal Veterinary School of Alfort. The compiler of the collection, Ruffet—who signed the table of contents and had his name gilded on the spine of the volume for his personal library—was most likely a resident student or a practicing veterinarian based in Alfort, who recorded here the very essence of this cutting-edge anatomical doctrine. Girard was, in fact, the first to apply Bichat’s findings on tissue to the field of veterinary medicine. A second section (pp. 317–344), titled “Organs of Sensation,” constitutes a separate treatise on veterinary neurology. It describes the descriptive anatomy of the brain, meninges, and spinal cord, before detailing the systematic classification of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves—a nomenclature established by Girard for the anatomy of domestic animals. An important 19th-century medical manuscript, with a beautifully fresh interior.