Cases and observations illustrating the history and pathological relations of two kinds of hydatids, hitherto undescribed / by Dr. Gairdner and Mr. Lee ; with microscopical observations by Mr. H. Goodsir.

  • Gairdner, John, 1790-1876.
Date:
[1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases and observations illustrating the history and pathological relations of two kinds of hydatids, hitherto undescribed / by Dr. Gairdner and Mr. Lee ; with microscopical observations by Mr. H. Goodsir. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    work, if of a valuable or an interesting character, and published at a high rate, sells for a time as a necessary of life. Lady Sale’s Journal, for example, would have sold well had it been offered at a higher rate than it actually was. It belongs to that class of works which readers in the higher and middle walks of life will purchase despite of cost; and in publishing at higher rates in order to avail themselves of this disposition, publishers are no more to blame than any other class of traders, who act on a well-known principle in political economy—that of carrying their goods to the best market. But let it be borne in mind, that this profitable market can be taken advantage of only in the case of a limited number of customers, and so soon as their wants are supplied, a crisis arrives in the price of the book. Whether good or bad, it must now fall,—the self-regu- lating principle to which we have referred, operates in this way. If the work has “ not taken,” then it must be reduced in price, in order to command a sale, and also to put the publisher in possession of new capital, with which he can embark on fresh enterprises; as it is self-evident that, with funds locked up in unsaleable paper and print, a publisher cannot for any length of time carry on his trade, any more than the aeronaut can float a sinking balloon without a diminution of ballast. The “ remain- der bookseller,”* therefore, becomes purchaser, who lowers the price with a witness ; and if still possessed of too much gravity, the work must then be consigned to darkness and the trunk- maker. But, on the other hand, if the work be meritorious, and has sold well at a high price, every publisher of sagacity will at once perceive the propriety of reducing the price in order to com- mand a more extended sale. If a body has momentum enough to run along a level line, it will advance with accelerated speed on an inclined plane ; and so, in like manner, if a book sell well at 20s., it will sell infinitely better at 5s. It was on this principle that Mr Murray, senior, acted with regard to Byron’s Life and Works, reducing them to a guinea each; and similarly, and with greater boldness, was it, that Mr Murray, junior, reduced Borrow’s Bible in Spain, from 28s. to 6s. We, therefore, come * The author confounds second-hand” with remainder” booksellers, (p. 4.) Literally he is right, but technically wrong. A second-hand book- seller deals in used books ; a remainder bookseller in the unsold copies of new works lying on the hands of the original publisher.