A four-volume work on the medical use of opium (in Latin) from 1778

TRALLES Balthasar Ludwig - Usus opii salubris et noxius in morborum medela solidis et certis principiis superstructus [...] in quatuor partes distributus. Pars 1-4. Neapoli 1778-1779. ex Typographia Ursiniana, sumptibus Cajetami Castellano. 8, p. [2], XII, 548; 7, [1], 519; VIII, 387; VIII, 400. soft card. binding, period.
Wraps slightly rubbed, trace of dampstain in upper corner of pages, local dark efflorescence there. Ex. uncut, full size. Another edition (the first appeared in 1757) of a comprehensive work on the medical uses of opium. The author of the work is B. L. Tralles (1708-1797) - a Breslau physician, also a poet. Educated in Leipzig, Leiden and Halle, he returned to his native Breslau, where he managed to take a position as the first assessor at the local Medical College. As the author of numerous scientific papers on the therapeutic use of opium and camphor and on the practical treatment of cholera, and as an experienced practitioner, he gained fame at European courts. In 1762 he did not accept the proposal of Stanislaw Leszczynski, who offered him the position of personal physician. From 1765 to 1767 he stayed in Warsaw, holding the post of court physician to Stanislaw August Poniatowski. He dedicated his medical treatise "Vera Patrem Patriae" to the Polish king.