378 pages, indexed The tail is lightly bumped and there is a light crease on the front end paper, else the book appears unread. "Contains facsimile of and commentary on Select observations on English bodies of eminent persons in desperate diseases by John Hall. London : J.D. for Benjamin Shirley, 1679" and medical commentary by Melvin Earles. .John Hall, William Shakespeare's son-in-law, was an eminently successful Stratford physician of the early seventeenth century. His surviving medical case notes for the years 1611-35 describe how he treated 155 patients of all classes, from aristocrat to pauper, the majority within a 15-mile radius of Stratford. He recorded symptoms, medications and the outcome of his attentions, providing a rare picture of provincial medical practice in Stuart England as well as interesting details on persons close to Shakespeare (his daughter, Susanna, who was Hall's wife; his granddaughter, Elizabeth; the poet Michael Drayton; and members of the Greene, Combe, Sturley and Quiney families, all friends of Shakespeare). This new edition comprises a facsimile of an early printed version of Hall's Select Observations with facing commentary on patients and their treatments; there is also an extended introduction to Hall and his work, and an index of medicines. The commentary concentrates on identifying the patients Hall attended (two-thirds are given detailed profiles for the first time) and interpreting and explaining Hall's treatment in the context of medical practice in his time.