STEARNE, John. M.D. Thanatologia. Seu de Morte Dissertatio In qua Mortis Natura, Causae, Mobilitatis, Remoræ et Remedia proponuntur, ac variae de Cadavere et Anima separata controversiæ enodantur.

Dublin: William Bladen, 1659. 16mo. pp. [xvi], 288. Title with decorated border. Contemporary full sprinkled calf. All edges sprinkled red. Minor wear to spine ends and extremities. A very good copy. Extremely rare.
COPAC locates 1 copy only. No copy on WorldCat. Wing S 5373. Sweeney 4841.
William Bladen was a printer and publisher in Castle Street, Dublin, from 1631 to 1663. His early career was spent in London as a bookseller until he was appointed a factor in Dublin for the Irish “stock” of the London Company of Stationers. He was admitted free of the city of Dublin in 1631, served as Sheriff in 1636, as an Alderman from 1642 to 1663, and as Mayor in 1647. He purchased from the London Company of Stationers their Irish privileges for £2,600 in 1638, became the King’s Printer in 1641, and during the Commonwealth the State Printer.
This book offered a theme for provost J.P. Mahaffy’s address in the theatre of Trinity College, Dublin at the bicentenary celebration of the medical school in 1912: “It is not a little remarkable that in his remote day he fully appreciated the difficulties which modern science finds in framing a strict definition of death ... As regards the duration of life, he holds that there is no reason why human life should not be indefinitely prolonged in favourable circumstances and with proper hygiene ... He speaks much of the value of cold baths, of simple diet, of the posture of the body in mid-day sleep which should be taken sitting up and not lying down. He recommends very few drugs and these rather as tonics or sedatives than as curatives. He found opium very valuable in dysentery and favours tobacco for chewing on account of its nicotine content, which is a powerful sedative”.