Boston : John Wilson and son, 1864 [c1863].
Second edition: Boston, De Vries, Ibarra, & Co.; London, John
Churchill; Leipzig, Wilh. Engelmann; Paris, V. Masson et fils,
1864 [c1863].
Description : x, [1], 93 p. ; ill.: table, 4 plates ; 24 cm.
Photographs : 4 mounted albumens ; 2 plates reproduce drawings, 2 plates are clinical portraits.
Photographer : William Hussey.
Subject : Blood — Leucocythemia, Leukæmia. [Including pseudoleukemia.]
Notes :
The photographs which accompany this Essay were taken from nature by Mr. WILLIAM HUSSEY, of this city ; and are exceedingly beautiful and valuable portraits of disease. The figures of the blood-corpuscles were also photographed by him from the original drawings.
The first edition was very small in number and quickly sold out. There was such a demand for copies that a second edition was promptly issued, nearly identical, except that the two photographic reproductions of Dr. Damon's drawings of blood cells (Fig.s A-F) were combined into a single plate for the second edition. One copy fell into the hands of Rudolf Virchow who expressed surprise and disappointment that Damon provided no information about the abnormal cells represented by Fig.s B., D. and E., "..ohne dass jedoch der geringste Versuch einer Deutung dieser seltsamen Anomalien vom Verfasser unternommen wurde." Leukemia was accurately described by John Hughes Bennett (1812-1875) in 1845, preceding Virchow's study, Weisses Blut, which appeared six weeks later, but it was Virchow's term for the disease which prevailed: leukæmia.
