Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1920-12-14
PRICELESS COL E CTi ION OF
BOOKS OWNED BY LEXING-
TON COLLEGE NOT IN
EIREPROOF HOUSE.
MANY WORKS ARE IN LATIN
Ancient Medical and Law Books Could
Not Be Replaceo-Many of Them
Centuries Old.

IN kentucky anu one OF me DIGEST III
the United States, q library estimated.
by lovers of old books to be worth
$2JO.OOO, which is centuries old, IS one
of the possessions CT Pennsylvania
College, tie first college west OF the
AlleghcnieS. whose financial fOunda
ton was formed by the eschcated cs-
tates of three Revolutionary period
tories.
Probably nowhere else in Arerlcn,
IL anywhere else iii tie world, can tire
volumes of Pennsylvania Ola library
be duplicated.
Many of 1hcse priceless old books
are of the sixteenth and seven+ceiltli
centuries, true examples Of WHAT WIS
lhcn 4 fine art, the type as clear as tie
day they We're printed, many of the
texts in Latin, though some of them.
like William C0Wper's ANATOMY of
Human Bodies" 16aS, and CulDepper'S
Astrological Judgment Of Diseases"
1866, both published in London, are iii
the English OF that time.
These books were purchased Ivy
Pennsylvania long ago. when boOl.*
were costly and few. Or. Charles
Caldwell, of the Medical College of
TranSylvania, took with him to Pari:i
in 1921 the sum of seventeen thou
sand dollars with which 10 buy boots
for the medical library, and thc>a
books still are consulted by the rledi
cal experts OF America. who can iina
them nowhere else. DR.. Caldwe;i
found that because OF The stormy time,
III France ldany libraries which hat,
belonged 10 Frrnchmen heretofore il
rhe wealthy classes had found theil
way To the booksellers shelves.
Tells of Purchases.
81 found ami purchased. he saws il
his report, no inconsiterable numbcl
of the choicest works IF The fathers q:
medicine, from Hippocr;ites to the IL
Viyal of lCtters---WOrkS Wiicn i'll n,
other way. and per'lali: at no Other
time, could have been collected s,
readily and certainly AMI on terms 81
favorable, either III Paris or any Other
city of the world. Hence The decide,
superiority OF TranSyIVania'S medic:,
library, in those works, 10 any otEei
in the west andl$ouih, AMI probably il
the whole United SFateS.
DR.. Peter and DR.. Bush. OF The med
ical school. in 1884, made another for
eign purchase for the medical college
when they Speut eleven thousand dol
lars for books and apparatus in Lon
don and Paris. One of Daguerre',
cameras, first given to the world il
that year, * among the apparatus theS
brought back to Lexington, and it i:
today III Transylvania's museum, alOnr
With other rare ANA costly apparatu,
Of that early Galp.
This medical library is practically
intact. and IS rich in rare material fDaI
the medical student and author. Prin
cd in the Clean. clear type Of the PC,
riOd, their bindings are such as to de
light the eye OF the book lover ant
Cnnn0iSseut.
Rafinescue's Works.
The collection Of medical botanic.
and works OH natural history especial
~ are interesting s;nG show the inlii!
ence of Raf!nesQue himself. who fol
The head OF this department in Tran,
sylvania. Among the bird bouks there
is the set Of Alexander Wilson, pub
lished in Philadelphia from 1903 t.
1915. with five volumes added to i
about twenty years later by Charles
Lucien Bonaparte; George Edwards
Natural History of Birds an'
"Gleanings of Natural History pub
lished i'll London, 1143 10 1764: 'ThN
Natural History of Carolina, Florid:
and the Bahama Islands. by Mari
Catesby, published in London in 17Tl
all large volumes with beautiful, clear
cut plates. Besides these, there is the
"DictiOnairre deS Sciences NaturelleS,'
of NJ. Dmont de Sainte-CroiX, printct
in Paris between 1916 and 1880, prob
ably the most artisticafiy Illustrated %
any in the set.
The first publication on the genera.
botany of North America is in TIL.
library. 1t is the Flora Boreali-AmeI,
icana' of Andreas Michaux, published
I'm Paris in 1903. There are alst
"Flora virginia." by John Clayton
published in Leyden in 1762; William
G.. Il. Barton's "Ihe Flora of Norrl
III
1923, and many others of eqaa! iE
tereSt.
The Old Law Library.
The old law library was once as val
liable as the medical and other scien
tific books, but unfortunately has no,
been so well preserved through the
centuries. There are left. however
many interesting books, among then
the Hargrave collection of state trials
| I'm which are found the proceedings III
| the trial Of Captain William Kidd fol
| piracy; the trial Of Anne ROleyn, in
/ which her last letter to King Henry is
published; the trials of Sir Walter