Upon the electrical experiments to determine the location of the bullet in the body of the late President Garfield ; and upon a successful form of induction balance for the painless detection of metallic masses in the human body
Salem: American Association for the Advancement of Science 1883. First Edition. lxxxviii, 655 pages. 8vo. Rebound in brown cloth with leather spine label (indications are that previously the textblock had been stab-stitched, with several holes visible in the gutter of most pages). Insect damage to joints, soiling to boards, previous owner bookplate on front pastedown and also identified in pencil on volume title page. Clean internally. Volume consists of the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Thirty-first meeting, held at Montreal Canada, August 1882. The extensive article by Bell is found on pages 151-206. Good. Cloth. [27054]
President Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881 who succumbed to his injuries many days later on September 19, 1881. During this long period, many were consumed with how best to help the President. This work by Alexander Graham Bell was born of the angst felt by Bell: "I have in this paper brought before you an outline of a labor of love pursued through many anxious days and sleepless nights. However imperfect or disappointing may be the results so far achieved, they are sufficiently encouraging to enable us to look forward with confidence to the attainment of still greater perfection."
Bell's belief that science could detect correctly the position of bullets in the human body was correct, but it took later inventions (X-Rays and 20th century scanning technology) to realize that dream in a practical fashion.
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