Manuel d'hygiène dentaire à l'usage de toutes les classes et professions

First edition of one of the many productions of an odontological charlatan (cf. David, p. 245).

Illustrated with a portrait of the author as frontispiece.

Spine clumsily restored with an adhesive repair and showing small losses; corner losses to the boards; foxing.

Born into a Dutch Jewish family, Benjamin Cohen (1818–1852) adopted an Anglicised pseudonym in order to facilitate his business dealings, passing himself off as a London practitioner holding a degree from the University of Edinburgh, where he claimed to have been "admitted" in 1833. In reality, he had undertaken no formal studies.

Nevertheless, he set himself up as a dentist in Paris in 1836. Lacking any recognised qualification, he was convicted at first instance (December 1845) and on appeal (February 1846) for the illegal practice of medicine, following a complaint brought against him by Joseph Audibran and several other members of the Société de chirurgie dentaire de Paris. This judgment was, however, quashed in May 1846, the Court of Cassation ruling that the practice of dentistry did not constitute medicine so long as it did not extend to the treatment of diseases of the mouth.