Researches respecting the natural history, chemical analysis, and medicinal virtues of the Spur, or Ergot of Rye, when administered as a remedy in certain states of the uterus.

London:: Printed for Horatio Phillips, 1828., 1828. 8vo. viii, 105, [3] pp. 1 hand-colored plate; pp. 101-4 upper corner oddly worn, but confined to the outermost part of the sheet, not touching any text). Early turquoise blue wrappers, small printed label applied to upper cover; extremities worn, rubbed. Very good. RARE. First edition of the first serious English study of ergot of rye , which was a folk remedy known to be effective for pregnant mothers to ease the birth and ?control postpartum haemorrhage.? Neale studied medicine at Edinburgh earning his degree in 1802. ?In 1806 he was appointed as a physician to the army and saw considerable service during the Peninsula War under Sir John Moore and Sir Arthur Wellesley. In 1809 he published an account of his experiences in Letters from Portugal and Spain. In 1814 he settled in Exeter where he remained for the next 10 years apart from a tour of Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey in 1818 and a short sojourn in Cheltenham in 1820, made brief by the fact that he rashly and publicly questioned the medicinal value of the spa waters of that town. In 1828 he published a monograph on the use of ergot of rye as a remedy in certain states of the uterus.? Four years later he died in Dunkirk in 1832.? [Dunn]. / ?Epidemics of St Anthony's fire due to ergot of rye had been recognised since the middle ages but the effect of ergot on the uterus was not recognised by the medical profession until 1688 when Camerarius mentioned that women in certain parts of Germany were in the habit of employing this sort of diseased grain to accelerate parturition. One hundred years passed before Tessier in France once more drew the attention of doctors to a similar practice among the midwives around Lyon. From then on medical interest in the subject increased and 50 years later Neale was able to review 720 reported cases in which ergot had been used in Europe and North America, mostly with success, either to expedite delivery of the baby or placenta or to control postpartum haemorrhage.? [Dunn]. / In July 1805 Adam Neale (c.1780-1832) travelled to Turkey to take a position as physician to the British embassy in Constantinople were he arrived in March 1806. This is a description of the overland journey to Jassy in Moldavia, the Danube and then via the Black Sea (several plates depict villages along the Black Sea) to Constantinople. His observations on Turkey include descriptions of the manners and customs of the people, the navy, fishery, and the plague, which broke out regularly in Constantinople. This is one of the most vivid and readable of all accounts of Constantinople. He also discourses on some of the renegades present in Constantinople at the beginning of the 19th century (Koç Collection 208). SEE: Peter M. Dunn, "Adam Neale (c1780-1832) and ergot of rye." Arch Dis Child. 1993 May; 68(5 Spec No): 617–618. [241-47].