LE CAT, Traité des sens, 1742
LE CAT, Claude-Nicolas.
Traité des sens.
Paris, Guillaume Cavelier, 1742.
Un volume in-8 (194x120 mm), (2)-[201-232]-[253-523]-(3) pages et 19 planches. (sauts de pagination sans manque). reliure : Plein veau de l'époque, dos à cinq nerfs orné et doré. Reliure frottée. Coiffes accidentées.
Seconde édition.
Réimpression de l'édition originale de Rouen en 1740.
Claude-Nicolas Le Cat (1700-1768) chirurgien spécialiste de l'opération des calculs de la vessie reste célèbre pour ses travaux sur les sens. Médecin mécaniste pour qui les sensations sont le résultat du corps qui agit sur le corps (l'âme n'entrant donc pas en jeu), sa principale contribution reste sur la compréhension du fonctionnement de la vision.
références: DSB [VIII, 114 : "The Traité des sens, Le Cat's most important work, grew as much out of his researches in physics as in physiology. In it Le Cat presented a theory of the propagation of light contrary to that of Newtonian attraction. He further reported on the pigmented choroid coat of the eye and assigned it a common embryonic origin with the pigment of the skin."], Heirs of Hippocrates [ed. 1744, 851: "In keeping with the theories of his day, Le Cat postulated that the nerve force was a fluid which passed through tiny canals within the nerves. Le Cat opposed Haller's doctrine of irritability even though he reported in his essay some of the same results as Haller. Nevertheless Le Cat stated that his clinical experience led him to believe that the brain tissue possesses significant sensitivity which, of course, it does not. The first two editions of the present work were published at Rouen in 1740 and 1742. "].
Prix : 500 €
