1883 SCARCE EARLY MONOGRAPH ON PHOTOMICROGRAPY BY FATHER OF AMERICAN BACTERIOLOGY WITH 20 HELIOTYPE PLATES--COPY OF FATHER OF AMERICAN OPTOMETRY.

9 inches tall hardcover, publisher's pebbled blue cloth binding, gilt title to spine, handstamp of Chas. F. Prentice to front flyleaf, frontis heliotype with tissue guard depicting apparatus for making photo-micrographs, xv, 204 pp, 20 heliotype plates (including frontis) with tissue guards. Covers rubbed, corners worn, spine ends frayed, hinges cracked, binding tight, pages age-toned, unmarked, plates clean and bright, very good minus in custom archival mylar cover.

GEORGE MILLER STERNBERG (1838 -1915) was a U.S. Army physician who is considered the first U.S. bacteriologist. After he survived typhoid and yellow fever, Sternberg documented the cause of malaria (1881), discovered the cause of lobar pneumonia (1881), and confirmed the roles of the bacilli of tuberculosis and typhoid fever (1886). The pioneering German bacteriologist Robert Koch honored Sternberg with the sobriquet, Father of American Bacteriology. He was the first scientist to produce photomicrographs of the tubercule bacillus. He was also the earliest American pioneer in the related field of disinfection in which he began with experiments (1878) with putrefactive bacteria. This work was continued in Washington and in the laboratories of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, under the auspices of the American Public Health Association. He received the appointment of Surgeon General by President Grover Cleveland on May 30, 1893, with promotion to the grade of brigadier general. Sternberg's nine-year tenure (1893-1902) as Surgeon General coincided with immense professional progress in the field of bacteriology as well as the occurrence of the Spanish-American War.

PROVENANCE: CHARLES FREDERICK PRENTICE (1854-1946) is often called the father of American optometry because his battle with a New York oculist led to the founding of the American Optometric Association. But the title might rightly belong to his father, James Prentice, who practiced with his son at 164 Broadway in New York City as early as 1875. James opened his mathematical and scientific instrument store in the 1840s. After Charles completed his education, the Prentices started an impressive practice as refracting opticians--Prentice & Sons.