The Thermal Baths of Bath with the Aix Massage and Natural Vapour Treatment

London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., Paternoster Row. Bath: Charles Hallett., 1888 xxiii, 379 printed pages, 9 folding pans, 5 engraved plates (2 of which are Woodburytypes). Author's presentation copy with his inscription to a Dr. Case in a neat ink hand on the title page. Includes 15 page bibliography. Chapters on diseases, medical and surgical applications and on the Aix-Les-Bains massage. Appendices include the climate and mortality rate in Bath. 14 x 19.5 cm. Original green embossed gilt cloth with bevelled edges. Spine with gilt lettering, upper cover with gilt lettering and gilt embossed shield of Bath within a black border; rear cover with blind stamped Bath shield within black border. Extremely slight wear to the head and tail of the spine and the lower part of the boards. Bath and Aix are renowned spa towns, whose thermal institutions continue to provide medical care specialising in rheumatology, phlebology, diseases of the respiratory tract and throat diseases. The Woodburytype process was invented by Walter B. Woodbury and patented in 1864. It was the first successful photomechanical process fully able to reproduce the delicate continuous tone of photographs. Freeman (1842-97), a surgeon at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, was pivotal in informing the committee and overseeing new extension, massage baths and the new Pump room to which Bath substantially owed its reputation as a centre of excellence in the highly important industry of Spa medical resorts at the time. Freeman had personally visited and studied the spa facilities not only in France but also in Bohemia, Germany, Austria, and in 1887 he even made a trip to the springs in Saratoga and Virginia in the USA.. Inscribed by Author(s). 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine.