Braunschweig: Vieweg & Berlin, 1922. First edition, the very rare offprints, of the famous Stern-Gerlach experiment, which demonstrated the spatial quantization predicted by the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantum theory of the atom and (although this was not realised until later) the existence of electron spin. “This direct demonstration of spatial quantization was..... More
Item #3850

Venice: Gaspare Bindoni, 1597. First edition, first issue, one of five known large and thick paper copies, of the first book devoted entirely to plastic surgery. Only two of these are in private hands: the present copy, in a contemporary binding, and the Norman copy, which is an ex-library copy..... More
Item #3995

Basel: [Robert Winter, 1539 (colophon)]. First edition, and a truly wonderful copy in a dated contemporary binding, of Vesalius’s ‘venesection letter,’ one of his rarest works, embodying what may be the earliest approach to an area of medicine which may be called scientific in the modern sense. This is a...... More
Item #4765

Lyons: Jean Certe, 1685. First edition, second issue (first issue, 1684), of this “detailed study of the nervous system that was regarded as the best account written in the seventeenth century … Vieussens was an untiring dissector, and his work revealed the structure and arrangement of the nervous system better..... More
Item #4911

London: Macmillan, 1953. First edition, in the form in which it first appeared, of one of the most important scientific papers of the twentieth century, which “records the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the main component of chromosomes and the material that transfers genetic characteristics in..... More
Item #5049

London: Macmillan, 1953. First edition of Watson & Crick’s paper which “records the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the main component of chromosomes and the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms. Publication of this paper initiated the science of molecular biology. Forty years..... More
Item #4544

London: Macmillan, 1953. First edition, in the form in which they first appeared, of six crucial papers documenting the discovery of the structure of DNA and the mechanism of the genetic code. The first is Watson & Crick’s paper ‘Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid’..... More
Item #4407

1951. First edition, extremely rare offprint, of this historic lecture by Wilkins which ignited the search by Crick and Watson for the structure of DNA. “The history of science is full of quirky minor accidents with major consequences. In 1951, Wilkins’s boss, Professor Randall, was invited to a conference on..... More
Item #5007

Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1828. First edition, complete journal volume, of this foundation work of organic chemistry. “In 1828, Wöhler succeeded in effecting an artificial synthesis of urea by heating ammonium cyanate. This was the first time that an organic substance had ever been built up artificially from the constituents..... More
Item #4840