LAILLER, Charles (1822–1893)

First edition in book form [Extrait du Progrès Médical (1876-77), ed. L. Landouzy] of a rare monograph on scalp diseases illustrated with two plates with microscopic illustrations drawn by Renaudot, and two pasted-in original colour-photographs (showing teigne tondante and pelade). Lailler’s treatise on tinea (diseases of the scalp) is illustrated with two beautiful colour photographs by the Parisian photographer Léon Vidal, who experimented successfully with the production of three-colour pigment pictures in the 1870s. "[Vidal] was the first to produce colour combination prints of chromolithographs with a brown pigment picture, especially he combinded chromolithographs with a black Woodbury type printed last, which gave, owing to its transparancy, excellent fine effects in reproductions” (Eder). This must be one of the very first books illustrated with colour-photographs. “Dans le but de faciliter la connaissance des teignes aux médecins qui ne peuvent fréquenter l’hopital Saint-Louis, j’ai essayé de faire reproduire, d’après nature, des types de pelade et de tondante, par un nouveau procédé de photographie en couleur qui pourra rendre des services quand il aura été perfectionné.” Lailler succeeded Antoine Bazin at the Hôpital Saint-Louis, which Bazin had made famous as a centre for dermatological diseases; in his preface, Lailler states that his own studies of tinea confirm in large part those of Bazin. Crissey and Parish call Lailler "a most important bridge between the old French dermatology and the new . . . His own particular interest was mycology, especially the various forms of scalp ringworm, conditions with which he accumulated an enormous experience over the years . . . “ (Crissey & Parish).

Collation: Pp (4), ii, 112, + publisher’s catalogue: pp (12), (48). With 4 plates, of which two engr. (Renaudot del., Rapine sc.), and two plates with glossy (or varnished) colour-printed mounted oval woodbury types. (This process is well defined by Hanson/Tillum: “Photochromie procédé Leon Vidal – this process uses a series of registered lithographic colours to be printed and then have a Woodbury type, in registration, placed over them, yielding a colour print.” – Photography in Ink, under “Glossary”.

Binding: Entirely untrimmed in the original printed wrappers.

References: Crissey & Parish, Dermatolgy and Syphilis of the 19th Century, pp 261-62; Eder, History of Photography.