"[vandermonde (charles-augustin)] - Essay On The Way To Perfect The Human Species. 1756"
[VANDERMONDE (Charles-Augustin)] - Essay on the Method of Perfecting the Human Species. Paris, Chez Vincent, 1756; 12mo, XX-433 + 476 pp., contemporary full marbled calf bindings, spines decorated with five raised bands, red morocco title label, red painted edges. Both volumes. Charles Dreüe bookplate. First edition of this medical text which proposes experimenting with a kind of pre-eugenics. The author, a physician, observes the weaknesses of our bodies and proposes strengthening them by drawing inspiration from Buffon's theories and, above all, by reshaping the way newborns are conceived and cared for.