DIRECTIONS for the TREATMENT of PERSONS WHO HAVE TAKEN POISON, and THOSE IN A STATE OF APPARENT DEATH; Together with the Means of DETECTING POISONS and ADULTERATIONS IN WINE; Also, of DISTINGUISHING REAL FROM APPARENT DEATH. By Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila. Translated from the French by R.H. Black, Surgeon.

With an Appendix on Suspended Animation and the Means of Prevention.

BALTIMORE: Nathaniel G. Maxwell, 1819. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, as stated on the title-page.

Hardcovers (front cover detached but present), leather covered boards, 4x7 inches (10x18 cm), 240 pages.

COPY of C.W.G. Rohrer (Caleb Wyand Geeting Rohrer M.D.) with his signature and the date "June 21, 1912" on the front free endpaper.

GOOD condition, front cover detached but present, rear cover appears to have been reinforced with glue along its gutter fold, internally there is browning to the front and rear endpapers, the pages are lightly toned, there is foxing, most noticeable on the early and latter pages and then light throughout; overall a solid copy with a tightly bound text block and clear printing.

SCARCE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION of this IMPORTANT WORK on TOXICOLOGY.

About MATHIEU ORFILA (from Wikipedia):

******Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila, b.1787 d.1853, was a Spanish toxicologist and chemist, the founder of the science of toxicology.

If there is reason to believe that a murder or attempted murder may have been committed using poison, a forensic toxicologist is often engaged to examine pieces of evidence such as corpses and food items for poison content. In Orfila's time the primary type of poison in use was arsenic, but there were not any reliable ways of testing for its presence. Orfila created new techniques, refined existing techniques and described them in his first treatise, TRAITÉ DES POISONS, Paris, 1813, (TREATMENT OF PERSONS WHO TOOK POISON first American edition, 1819).******

About C.W.G. ROHRER, book's previous owner (from the Internet):

******Caleb Wyand Geeting Rohrer M.D., b.1873 d.1952, graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore in 1900. Author of RESEARCHES IN CANCER: Part I 1896-1921; 1922-1932, Baltimore: Brentwood Printing, 1935; and numerous medical articles, e.g. Comparative Anatomy of the Prostate Gland, Baltimore, 1909; Medical Men and the Muses, New York, 1920.******