Title
The Blood: A Guide to Its Examination and to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Its Diseases
Author
G. Lovell Gulland, M.A., B.Sc., M.D., F.R.C.P.E.
Alexander Goodall, M.D., F.R.C.P.E.
Image
Description
Second edition of a comprehensive early 20th-century guide to clinical hematology. This volume includes 16 beautifully printed color plates and 28 text illustrations, covering everything from microscopic staining techniques to the interpretation of red and white blood cell morphology. This specific copy is personalized with handwritten clinical notes, including a red cell count formula, and ownership inscription by John F. Laval of St. Francis Hospital, La Crosse, Wisconsin, dated August 10, 1919.
Condition
Good antique condition with expected wear.
Maroon cloth boards with gilt spine text
Binding tight, moderate shelfwear
Pages clean with some yellowing
Notable handwritten notes in pen on interior pages
Previous owner’s inscription on front matter
Gallery
Historical context
Published during a pivotal moment in medical diagnostics, this text exemplifies the transition from purely observational medicine to systematic laboratory investigation. Before automated analyzers or electronic microscopy, clinical hematologists relied on visual inspection and calculation by hand—making books like this essential tools of the trade.
Curious Facts, Ephemera, and Trivia
Plate III includes a beautifully preserved depiction of blood cells stained with Jenner’s method
The handwritten formula for red blood cell count appears to be a simplified manual dilution method still recognizable to lab techs today
John F. Laval, the original owner, practiced at St. Francis Hospital in La Crosse, WI—a Catholic hospital founded by the Franciscan Sisters
Excerpt
“The differentiation between a leucocytosis from septic origin and one due to physiological excitement may often be assisted by a differential count of the polymorpho-nuclear forms.”
(Page 126)
Why it is in the Cabinet
This book isn’t just a reference—it’s a relic of early pathology as practiced in everyday hospitals. The personal annotations and preserved diagrams make it both a clinical artifact and a glimpse into how medicine was practiced by real physicians a century ago. It exemplifies the beauty of analog diagnostics.