2 volumes. [26], lvi, [4], 678; [6], 679-1263, [15], [28] pp. Additional engraved title and portrait frontispiece back to back on a single sheet; 74 engraved plates including the plate inserted between pages 934 and 935 not found in all copies. Explanatory text for Plate 4 is a cancel pasted over original text; blank slip pasted over a portion of descriptive text to Plate 21 obscuring an incorrect reference to the illustration. (Folio) 15x9½, period full calf, spine ends and joints skillfully restored, spines gilt, morocco labels, all edges marbled. First Edition.

Armorial bookplate of William Trumbull in each volume. First edition of "The most elaborate English treatise on comparative anatomy of its day, dealing at length with the anatomical structures of man and 115 other animal species" (Norman). "In A History of Comparative Anatomy from Aristotle to the Eighteenth Century (London, 1944), Francis J. Cole commented that "Samuel Collins' large and imposing volumes represent the first attempt to produce a comprehensive treatise on comparative anatomy based on new material" (p. 17). Collins had long had an interest in comparative anatomy and the present work is largely the result of studies he undertook after his retirement from the active practice of medicine. The book met with praise from Haller but also received criticism from other members of the scientific community. Although Collins occasionally acknowledged the work of Edward Tyson (1650-1708), Cole commented that "Collins' indebtedness to Tyson, however, is nowhere adequately recognized, nor are his borrowings confined to that admirable anatomist" (pp. 157-158). Collins did plagiarize several of Tyson's plates and incorporated observations by Malpighi, Swammerdam, and other anatomists. Although Collins intended this to be a comparative anatomy, he concentrated chiefly on the structure of the human body. Observations of over 100 different species, especially fish and birds, are included in the book but the human form is always considered first. Among Collins' contributions were the earliest depictions of the anatomy of the crab and the first illustration of the brain of the lamprey." (Heirs of Hippocrates). Cole, Comparative anatomy, pp. 156-74; Russell 194; Wellcome II, p. 373; Wing C-5387; Norman 498; Heirs of Hippocrates 524.