Author: VAUGHAN (Walter):
Title: An Essay, Philosophical and Medical, concerning Modern Clothing.
Description: London Printed by W. Gillman, Rochester; Sold by the Robinsons, Pater-Noster-Row 1792. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Tall 8vo, 225 x 138 mms., pp. [iii] - x xi Contents, xii Latin motto,, xiii errata, xiv blank], 114, uncut, recent half calf, marbled boards, gilt spine , black morocco label; lacks half-title, but a very good copy. The work was briefly noticed in The Critical Review for 1792: "There are many important hints in this Essay, which we would recommend to the ladies, who chiefly suffer from ligatures too tight, and cloathing improperly chosen. Dr. Vaughan displays much learning in this work, and appears to have been equally diligent ant attentive; but, in a medical view, he is sometimes a little fanciful; and if his meaning is not obscured by the press errors, which are very numerous, we think frequently mistaken." Was this the passage that the reviewer had in mind: "I wish, I could persuade my fair Country Women to bear with Patience that Complement of Fat allotted to them by Providence. For it is certain, if they desire to be thin when they are fat, the very means of rendering themselves so, will inevitably rob them of that, which by distinguishing them from Men, renders them lovely, Smoothes and Whiteness of Skin."

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