Meyler, Anthony
Observations on ventilation, and on the dependance of health on the purity of the air which we respire ; being the substance of lectures, delivered on this subject, at the request of the Dublin Society, in their theatre, in 1818.
London, “printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, and for Hodges and McArthur, Medical Booksellers, Dublin” nd (but dedication dated 5 February 1822).
Full Description
8vo. (4)(numbered to vi, no half title leaf) + (2) + 207 + (1)pp. Contemporary marbled boards, rebacked with recent calf spine. Slight browning and marginal spotting (due to the nature of the paper on which the book is printed).
First edition of this scarce treatise on ventilation by Dr Anthony Meyler, a Dublin medical practitioner active in the affairs of the Royal Dublin Society. Meyler was later on to become a controversial figure in Irish public life – born into a Roman Catholic family and brought up in exile in the USA, he turned Protestant and was an active Conservative propagandist in the late 1830s and 1840s – but in the present publication he concentrates on stressing the benefits of fresh air and of proper air circulation in hospitals, prisons and other enclosed locations. It might be supposed that his opinions were simply those of a concerned medical professional, but at the end of the book he prints testimonials to the benefits of an actual system of warm air ventilation devised by him that had been installed in 1818-22 at a number of locations, including Liverpool Infirmary, Stonyhurst College, the Royal Barracks in Dublin, Covent Garden Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.