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in Britain, 1870-1930. A comparative study of the causes which
limited the economic development of the British iron and steel
industry between the years 1870 and 1930.
Allen & Unwin,
1943.
FIRST EDITION, 352-pages, 8vo, original cloth: a very good to
nice copy.
(5)
USILL (George Wm.).
Practical Surveying. A text-book for
students preparing for examinations or for survey-work in the
colonies.
Crosby Lockwood and Son,
1889. FIRST EDITION, with
4 plates (2 folding) and 334 other illustrations, some full-page,
pages xvi,272 and 4, 40, 16 advertisements, cr 8vo, original
cloth: a very good to nice copy. (6)
€180-€220 (£144-£176 approx.)
1096
.
MEAD (Richard), MD, FRS.
A mechanical account of
poisons in several essays. The fourth edition.
Dublin: Printed by
S. Powell, for George Ewing, at the Angel and Bible, in Dame’s-street,
and John Watson, on the Merchant’s-Key, near the Old-Bridge,
1736
With a folding engraved plate, pages (8), 109, (3), 8vo, full
sprinkled panelled calf, with contrasting label, gilt, with a small,
old repair to the blank margin of title, without loss, and the
attractive contemporary bookplate of Marsden Hilton, Secretary
and Apothecary, to the Lying-in Hospital Manchester: a very
good, handsomely rebound copy.
The second Irish edition: one not found in Wellcome. A work which
fully displayed Mead’s commitment to Pitcairne’s style of
iatromechanics, stating that mathematical learning would soon
distinguish a physician from a quack. However, Mead (1673-1754) was
never known as a mathematician, and his book contained very little
mathematical analysis. His emphasis was rather on mechanical
chemistry, which explained phenomena in terms of particles of differing
sizes and shapes. Mead added an attractive force to this chemistry which
he identified with gravity, thus placing himself among the Newtonians.
His most original contribution was his discussion of venomous snakes,
which had been instigated by his studies with Paul Hermann at Leiden.
Mead dissected several vipers and accurately described the mechanism of
the fang and its operation. He also confirmed Galen’s observation that a
puncture wound was necessary for the venom to take effect, in part by
swallowing a sample of venom without ill effect. His book also
discussed, among other topics, noxious airs, citing the Grotta de’ Cani
near Naples, which Mead had visited in 1695. For therapies he
recommended either a substance to neutralize the excess acidity of the
poison or an external stimulant such as a cold bath which would keep
the blood moving and prevent the formation of coagulated clusters of
blood which he believed caused the symptoms in poisoning cases
(ODNB).
€120-€180 (£96-£144 approx.)
1097
.
MECREDY (Richard J. P,),
ed.
The “Irish Cyclist” Third
Annual Tour 1888. Through the north [of Ireland] on a ten-in-
hand. A moving cycle camp.
Dublin: “Irish Cyclist and Athlete”
Office, 49 Middle Abbey Street.
(1888)
FIRST EDITION, with 8 text line illustrations and 42 actual
photographs taken during the tour mounted on 21 leaves and
with 29-pages of text in double columns, small folio, original
blind-stamped and gilt lettered brown cloth, gilt, all edges gilt:
the leaves containing the photos slightly wrinkled, but otherwise,
a bright, fresh and attractive copy with the contemporary
signature of J. W. Murphy on the title-page
Not found in WorldCat, COPAC or on-line in D, Dt or L. Not in
McVeagh. An account intended for inclusion in the columns of The
Irish Cylist and Athlete, whose editor, M. J. Mecredy here provides a
preface. The riders on the “Singer’s Ten-in-Hand” are identified in the
text as Smith (photographer), Mecredy (organiser), Barry, Hayes,
Harbison, Alec Mecredy - “The Energetic”, W. Woods of Dundrum,
Tuke, Nunns, J. White - “The Goat” - photographer and cook. On the
journey of some 400 miles (Dublin/Belfast/Londonderry/
Enniskillen/Cavan, /Kilmessan/Dublin) they were accompanied by a
party of some thiry or forty cyclists on a variety of machines - but the
“Ten-dam” was the only machine to complete the journey. The party
included some Scottish riders and it was planned that the following
year’s tour would be to Scotland. Mecredy (1861–1924), cyclist and
journalist, native of Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, son of James Mecredy, a
Church of Ireland clergyman then in the parish of Inveran, Spiddal,
Co. Galway. Educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, he
graduated from TCD (1884) and was an Irish champion tricycle racer
while still at university. He taught briefly after taking his degree but
entered the office of his solicitor uncle Thomas Tighe Mecredy in
Merrion Square, Dublin, as an articled clerk in 1884. The following
year he opposed the formation of the GAA, as he felt that Irish athletes
should not be bound to its rules, and helped to form the Irish Amateur
Athletics Association as an alternative. His interest in cycling and his
growing reputation as a cycle racer led to his becoming Dublin
correspondent of the Tralee publisher J. G. Hodgins’s Irish Cyclist and
Athlete in September 1885. Hodgins appointed him editor in November
the same year. Mecredy bought the paper from Hodgins with his brother
Alexander in 1886 and moved its office to Dublin. Having convinced the
RDS to construct a cycle track at Ballsbridge (1885), he travelled to
Alexandra Park, London, to win the twenty-five-mile English tricycle
championship (1886) and the five-mile English championship (1887).
An early advocate of the John Boyd Dunlop pneumatic tyre, he became
a director of the Pneumatic Tyre Company on its formation by Harvey
du Cros in 1889. He had his greatest success at the National Cyclists’
Union meeting in London in 1890. On a Humber bicycle with Dunlop
tyres, he won all four available English championships, at distances of
one, five, twenty-five, and fifty miles. He ended the season undefeated,
and had won seven Irish cycling titles by his retirement in 1892. He
began to popularise cycling with books such as The art and pastime of
cycling (1890), co-written with G. Gerald Stoney (qv) and A. J. Wilson,
and his highly popular Road book of Ireland (1892). He resigned from
the board of du Cros’s company when it was taken over by E. T. Hooley
in 1896, and founded Motor News after being introduced to motoring by
S. F. Edge in Dublin in 1900, long before the motor car became popular
in Ireland. Through R. J. Mecredy & Co., he published The Daimler car
(1901) and De Dion Bouton cars and how to drive them (1901), a book
so enthusiastic that the French manufacturer adopted it as an official
handbook. He took part in the motor tour to Killaloe in 1900 and in the
Irish Automobile Club Tour of 1901. A prime mover in the foundation
of the Irish Automobile Club in 1901, he was its first secretary. He
secured the 1903 Gordon Bennett race for Ireland. Joining his business
rival Sir James Percy to trade as Mecredy, Percy & Co., he transformed
the Irish Cyclist and Athlete into the Irish Cyclist and Motor Cyclist in
1913 to reflect his market’s changing tastes. An enthusiast of motor
touring, he persuaded a consortium of investors, including the Thomas
Cook company and the Great Southern & Western Railway, to improve
the road between Glengariff and Killarney to promote tourism (Irish
DNB).
€300-€500 (£240-£640 approx.)
1098
.
MENOCHIO (Giovanni Stepano), SJ.
Brevis explicatio
Senus Literalis totius S. Scripturae ex optimis quibusque
auctoribus per epitomen collecta …
Coloniae Agripinae, apud
Ioannem Kinchum,
1630
FIRST EDITION, with fine engraved title-page by Hulsius and
pages (24),540,551-1115: (4), 499: 549, (1, large woodcut
device); 29, (33, indices), 3 vols bound in 2, folio, contemporary
mottled calf, fully gilt spines, with labels, gilt: the half-title and
the final leaf in volume one both neatly backed without loss
(both versos blank), a small flaw on two leaves without serious
loss, the bindings worn at corners with both upper joints cracked
but now strengthened: a very good copy.
Menochio’s principal work, displaying his vast store of knowledge of
Jewish antiquities. “The work by which Menochio (1575-1655) lives
265