[24], 84pp. Title in red and black. With initial blank (A1) and an engraved frontispiece and a further six engraved plates. ESTC T34573. Foxon G32.

[Bound with:] A Compleat key to the dispensary Written by Sir Samuel Garth, M.D. To which are added, Near an Hundred Lines omitted in the late Editions of the poem... London. Printed for Thomas Astley, 1746. Fourth edition. viii, [1], 10-48pp. ESTC T133488.

12mo. Contemporary speckled calf, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece, gilt. Extremities worn and singed, joints cracking, slight loss to head of spine and corners.

Sir Samuel Garth (1661-1719), English physician and poet. The Dispensary is a mock-Homeric poem, based upon his Harveian Oratory, in which he proposes the long-overdue provision of medicines for the sick and poor of London, as a protection against the avarice of many apothecaries and a select few members of the Royal College of Physicians. It was unsurprisingly well received on publication, passing through three editions in its first year (1699).