LECONS SUR L'ART D'OBSERVER, relativement aux sciences physiques et medicales, sous forme de prelecons a des cours sur les sciences physiques et chimiques, prononcees en faveur de M.(rs) les etudians en medecine, le 5 Avril 1807

Montpellier: Fontenay-Picot, 6 Mai 1807. First edition. Stitched wraps with paper covers. Inscribed by "Pres. by Wm. Maclure 1835" in pen on title. Medium 8vo (21,5cm). pp. viii (, 220, [ii] blank. . About Good. Top cover missing, spine (paper and title) present but barely readable. First two sections together but detached from volume, still unopened with sporadic spots (toned/foxed/stained) within. There is old [insect?] damage manifest in three puncture or worm holes ultimately affecting several missing letters (easily discernible) on 5 pages of text. [Detail: first 'hole' visible from rear to pp. 109 affecting on or below the last word of last text line; second (smaller) hole from rear to p. 210 at bottom corner margin; third is a larger 'divot' visible from p. 201 on, with the minimal text loss at pp. 209-213]. He was one of the astronomers at Montpellier in 1761 on a 15th-19th Century compendium of voyages relating to transit of Venus observations. His interests were in multiple scientific fields through 1810 but his writings changed in 1814 to a literatry nature. Claude was brother of French poet Jean-Antoine Roucher 1745-94 whose demise via guillotine was subject of his 1834 play, La Mort Heroique de J.-A. Roucher...ou la Conspiration des prisonniers de Saint-Lazare, tragedie en 5 actes, en vers [The Heroic Death of J. A. Roucher...or Conspiracy Prisoners of St. Lazare, a tragedy in five acts, in verse]. Writings through 1835 were primarily plays. Scottish born William Maclure 1763-1840 social reformer (with Robert Owen) and advocate of the "Pestalozzi" school system was partner in a British law firm. His 1803 trip to France as a commisioner to settle claims on French government and subsequent travels in Europe shifted his interests to geology. On his return in 1807 [possibly with this title in hand], on his own accord, traveled the country and produced the first US geological map, presenting the results to the American Philosophical Society in the transactions 1809, Volume IV..