First edition of the bilingual translation, in Latin and Dutch, of the famous study on the mouth, jaws and (sets of) teeth by John Hunter (1728-1793), one of the greatest surgeons of his time. John, even more remarkable than his brother, the London physician and obstetrician William Hunter, was an anatomist and surgeon, also practicing in London. He lacked the education of his brother, yet his tireless energy helped him to overcome whatever obstacles his educational and cultural lacks may have provided. "Hunter remains one of the great all-round biologists like Haller and Johannes Müller, and with Paré and Lister, one of the three greatest surgeons of all time ... He found surgery a mechanical art and left it an experimental science" (Fielding H. Garrison). With the present study, Hunter was the first to apply medical science to the structure of teeth, introducing the classes cuspid, bicuspid, molar and incisor. With Fauchard and Pfaff he was the father of modern dentistry, based on rigorous scientific observation. " [...] the first scientific study of the teeth and basic to all modern dentistry" (Heirs of Hippocrates).
First published at London in 1771 by J. Johnson under the title The natural history of the human teeth, the work was much republished and translated in all languages. The plates in the present parallel Latin and Dutch translation are the same as in the first English edition. According to Garrison-Morton-Norman the plates are exceptionally accurate.
After the half-title (p. I), Latin and Dutch title (pp. II-III), the dedication to Eduard Sandifort, professor of anatomy and surgery at the Leiden University in Latin and Dutch (pp. IV-V), and the bilingual preface by Boddaert, dated Utrecht, 15 September 1773 (pp. VI-XXII), follows the text on pp. 1-191; pp. 192-213: explanation of the 16 plates; p. (214): stock list of the Publishers Blussé & Son.
The boards and spine are somewhat rubbed. An uncut copy with wide margins in good condition. Blake 226; BMN. p. 332; Crowley 200; Fielding F. Garrison, An introduction to the history of dentistry, p. 137; Guerini p. 318 ff.; Hoffmen-Axthelm, History of Dentistry, pp. 219-20; STCN 173684092; Waller 10648; Wellcome II, p. 185; cf. DNB XXVIII, pp. 287-93; Garrison-Morton-Norman 3675 (English ed.); Heirs of Hippocrates 609 (English ed.); PMM 186.