[Signed] Epidemiology in Country Practice. With Preface by Major Greenwood. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. SIGNED BY WILLIAM PICKLES. PICKLES, Willia

viii, 110 pp; 3 text figs.; 11 charts (the first chart is between p. 24 and p. 25 and is double-page); 3 unnumbered plates. Original cloth. Text lightly foxed and fore edges of pages foxed. Bookplate of former owner Brian Davies on front pastedown. Very Good, in worn dust jacket. First Edition, First Printing. The first printing of this book is scarce, and a signed copy of the first printing is even scarcer. SIGNED BY WILLIAM PICKLES: ""To C. H. Stuart-Harris,/ as a reminder of a meeting/ at Ripon, from the writer/ of this inconsiderable volume/ who is greatly appreciative/ of his work./ 'Sit down before fact as a little/ child: be prepared to give up/ every preconceived notion: follow/ humbly & kindly wherever Nature/ leads or you shall learn nothing'/ T. H. Huxley/ William Pickles/ Nov 23rd 1947."" The quotation is from a letter written by Huxley to Charles Kingsley, September 23, 1860. Huxley's words are slightly different from what Pickles wrote. Huxley wrote: ""Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this."" The recipient of this copy was Sir Charles Herbert Stuart-Harris. There is a Wikipedia article devoted just to this book by Pickles. ""The book was first published by John Wright & Sons of Bristol in 1939 [offered here]. It had a preface by Major Greenwood [on pp. iii-iv], professor of epidemiology and vital statistics at the University of London. In April 1941, during the Second World War, the entire stock of the book, unbound sheets and the type were completely destroyed by enemy action but such was the demand for the book that in 1949 it was reissued in virtually identical form"" (Wikipedia). There have been subsequent reprint editions, testimony to the status of this book as a classic. In 1935 Pickles reported some of his work at a meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine. After that meeting, Major Greenwood wrote in the British Medical Journal: ""We trust that when the full text of Dr, Pickles's paper is available it will be widely read. We are even sanguine enough to hope that it may mark the beginning of a new era in epidemiology.' Greenwood suggested to Pickles that he write a book, which Pickles did. It is the book being offered here, with a Preface by Greenwood.