GLISSON, FRANCIS. Anatomia hepatis. Cui praemittantur quaedam ad rem anatomicam universe spectantia. London: Du Gard for Octavian Pullein, 1654. 2 engraved folding plates, 1 engraving in text (p. 255), 10 woodcut illustrations, woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. 8vo, contemproary vellum over thin pasteboard; browning. FIRST EDITION. Based on research carried out a decade earlier, the work "made fundamental contributions to understanding the physiology of the abdominal organs, in that it delineated the structure and function of the liver, and identified and described the fibrous tissue encasing the liver (Glisson's capsule). It also introduced Glisson's important concept of 'irritability,' in which he argued that irritation was the organism's way of recognizing substances to be expelled" (Grolier Medicine). Grolier Medicine 29; Garrison-Morton 972; Heirs of Hippocrates 472; NLM/Krivatsy 4818; Wellcome III, p. 126; Wing G-853; Norman 911.