Forensic Medicine · First Edition · Irish Bookseller Provenance
Crime, Poison and the Medical Evidence — An Annotated 1906 Forensic Handbook with Dublin Bookseller Stamps
William A. Brend · A Handbook of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology · London, 1906
Catalogue details
Description
Published at the beginning of the twentieth century, this first edition examines the intersection of medicine, criminal investigation and the law. Written by the medically trained barrister William A. Brend, it addresses poisoning, suspicious death, exposure to cold, starvation, and the medical and legal circumstances surrounding abortion. It is a period document of forensic knowledge, not a guide to modern practice.
- Dimensions
- Measurements gladly provided on request
- Author
- William A. Brend
- Title
- A Handbook of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology: For the Use of Students and Practitioners
- Publisher
- Charles Griffin & Company, Limited, Exeter Street, Strand, London
- Date
- 1906
- Edition
- First edition
- Binding
- Maroon textured publisher’s cloth, upper cover gilt-lettered
- Condition
- Please consult the photographs for condition. Additional photographs are available on request.
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Historical context & sources
A Working Reader’s Copy
This particular volume carries conspicuous underlining and handwritten marginalia. The photographed pages on criminal abortion (pp. 110–111) contain a long manuscript note and numerous reading marks. The section on death from cold and starvation (pp. 62–63) is similarly marked. The annotator has not been identified: no professional or courtroom use can be asserted from these marks alone.
Two Dublin Booksellers
Fannin & Co. Ltd., Medical Booksellers, 41 Grafton Street, Dublin, and Fred Hanna, New & Second-Hand Bookseller, 29 Nassau Street, Dublin, both appear as stamps on a preliminary leaf. These are distinct and historically meaningful traces of the book’s presence in Dublin’s medical and second-hand book trades, although the sequence of ownership is unknown. An unidentified handwritten signature or inscription dated 1933 is also present.
Collectors & Research
An appealing association of early forensic medicine, reading practices, and Irish bookselling history, suitable for collectors of forensic science, medical history, legal history and Dublin ephemera.
