PORZIO (Luca Antonio). The Soldier's Vade Mecum: or, the Method of Curing the Diseases and Preserving the Health of Soldiers, I. In Camps. II. In Garrisons. III. During Marches. IV. In all the different Countries of Europe. Translated from the Latin of L. A. Portius. Illustrated with Cuts. To which is added, a treatise on the same subject, translated from Frederic Hoffman, Professor of Physic at Hall in Saxony. Also An Essay on the Diseases of Sailors.1747

London: Printed for RO. Dodsley, First and only English edition, 12mo (170 x 115 mm), [2], x, 264pp., with half-title, 3 folding engraved plates, a clean copy with minimal browning, new endpapers, later full calf, retaining the original morocco label to spine. Luca Antonio Porzio (1639-1724), chief professor of medicine and anatomy in the Royal University of Naples. The English translation of Porzio's De Militis in castris sanitate tuenda, first published in Vienna in 1685 in Latin. It was published as a direct result of Porzio's presence in Venice in 1683 when the forces of the Ottoman Empire were laying siege to Vienna. The health of sailors is a short section, but on page 236 the author recommends keeping root vegetables in sand and fruit as juice "I am very certain, that the juices of fruits, as Oranges, Lemons, and Apples, might be boil'd to the consistence of a thick syrup or Rob, and preserved in proper vessels for any given times, so that a spoonful or more of it might occasionally be taken, dissolved in water, with very good effect, as a preservative against the bad consequences of such an animal diet as I have above taken notice of." Rare; ESTC locates 3 copies in the UK (BL; Durham; Wellcome) and 3 further copies in North America (Society of Cincinnati; National Library of Medicine; University of Illinois).