[Cook, James]: Pringle, John:

$27,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

A DISCOURSE UPON SOME LATE IMPROVEMENTS OF THE MEANS FOR PRESERVING THE HEALTH OF MARINERS. DELIVERED AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE ROYAL ... One of the most significant of all the printed works relating to Cook's voyages and their importance. This is the extremely rare first appearance in print of Cook's epoch-making account of the successful measures taken against scurvy on his first two voyages. There were several later versions and translations, but the original edition of this milestone publication has long been acknowledged as a major rarity. The paper on scurvy was read to the Royal Society by its president, Sir John Pringle (in the absence of Cook himself, then just beginning his final voyage), as the year's Copley medal award winner, and immediately published in this form. Pringle's long presentation address, quoting directly from Cook and other sources, is followed by Cook's paper and an extract from a letter by Cook to Pringle written from Plymouth Sound in July 1776. The paper subsequently appeared in the official account of the second voyage and in the PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS of the Royal Society. In 1783 a series of six of Pringle's discourses at the annual presentations of the Copley medal was published in one volume."In Pringle's discourse on preserving the health of mariners he includes the first printing of Captain Cook's important paper entitled: 'The Method taken for preserving the Health of the Crew of His Majesty's Ship the Resolution during her l

• Printing: first

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