BOYLE, Robert (1627-91). A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things ... To which are Subjoyn'd ... some Uncommon Observations about Vitiated Sight, London, 1688, 8vo, contemporary calf. FIRST EDITION, second issue.

BOYLE, Robert (1627-91).  A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things: Wherein it is Inquir'd, Whether, And (if at all) With what Cautions, a Naturalist should admit Them? ... To which are Subjoyn'd, by way of Appendix, some Uncommon Observations about Vitiated Sight. By the same Author. London: "Printed by H. C. for John Taylor," 1688. 8vo (172 x 108mm). Title within double rule border, second title page for "Some Uncommon Observations ...", 4-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end (short tear at margin of title, wormhole running from the title to H8, expanding through some leaves into a larger wormtrack with slight loss of letters, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining, a few darker spots). Contemporary mottled calf (spine repaired with old vellum, rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: illegible old signature at head of the title. FIRST EDITION, the second issue with the author's name in full and not in initials. The second part is a treatise on ophthalmology and is based on personal observation, making it one of the first scientific treatises to employ the empirical method. Fulton A Bibliography of the Honourable Robert Boyle 186: "... a plea for the teleological interpretation of natural phenomena ... The volume is replete with allusion indicating [Boyle's] powers of observation as a naturalist, and there are many references to physiology; perhaps the most interesting is the record of a conversation with William Harvey on how he discovered the circulation of the blood"; not in Garrison & Morton; Krivatsy 1726; Wing B3846.