In Honour of William H. Welch. 2 April 1910. COPY OF WILLIAM STEWART HALSTED. [WELCH, William Henry] [HALSTED, William Stewart]

57 pp; illustration ("Some Welch rabbits" cartoon by Max Broedel). Original 1/4-cloth and printed boards. With Johns Hopkins library markings on front and rear covers, front and rear pastedowns, and verso of the title page (see photos). Aside from the library markings, Good. First Edition. COPY OF WILLIAM S. HALSTED, with his book label on the front pastedown (see photo). A great association of William Henry Welch, the honoree, and William Stewart Halsted, the owner of this copy. Welch and Halsted were the first two of the legendary "Big Four" physicians in the early days of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School. The other two of the four were William Osler and Howard Kelly. I do not know if Welch inscribed copies of this volume, especially to each of the other three. But even if he did, this volume is still a choice association copy. The "Big Four" are memorialized in a painting by John Singer Sargent, begun in 1905 and completed in 1906. Quoting from pp. 4-5: "The dinner was held at the Hotel Belvedere in Baltimore, on the evening of April 2d, 1910. There were present over four hundred and fifty men and women, all warm friends and admirers of Welch, most of them his former students or professional associates. Many who were unable to be present offered their contributions toward the testimonial. Their names are included in the list of subscribers. The occasion was a simple manifestation of love and respect and admiration. The happy spirit which pervaded the gathering is well set forth in the words of the speakers. One of the most impressive features of the testimonial was the cordial response, in the form of letters and telegrams, of Welch's friends and admirers, not only in this country, but throughout the world. The proceedings are here recorded as they took place. Several letters which were read in summary are here printed in full." On p. 53 the cartoon drawn by Max Broedel "Some Welch rabbits" is printed. It was distributed at the end of the dinner "as a savoury". There are two different bindings: the cloth-backed printed boards offered here, and stiff wrappers. Although the words printed on the front covers are the same, the typesetting on the front covers is different between the two. NOTE ABOUT NUMBER OF COPIES PRINTED: I do know how many were printed in total, nor how many of each binding, although my guess is that the original wrappers is more common than the binding offered here. I do know there are surprisingly few copies of whichever type in libraries, as OCLC records about 25 US libraries with a copy.