Forbes (John). A physician's Holiday or a month in Switzerland in the summer of 1848. London, John Murray & John Churchill, 1849. In-8°, publisher's full red cloth binding, cold-stamped fillets on boards, gilt title on spine (Publisher's binding). Uncommon first edition of this account of a trip to Switzerland in 1848. A large part of the book is devoted to the Mont-Blanc and Mont-Rose massifs. Illustrated with 4 lithographed hors-texte views, including the frontispiece. Freckling to the plates, as is often the case. John Forbes (Cuttlebrae 1787 - Whitchurch 1861) was a Scottish physician. He fought in the Navy from 1807 to 1816, participating in the last years of the war against Napoleon. He defended his medical thesis in Edinburgh in 1817. He set up as a private doctor and hospital practitioner in Chichester, where he remained until 1840. In 1841, he moved to London where, at the height of his career, he was appointed Court Physician to Prince Albert and the Royal Household. The British and Foreign Medical Review established his reputation in medical journalism. In his latest book, Forbes concluded that homeopathy is "one of the greatest illusions ... of the curative art" and that "the only good that comes from its practice is the reduction of the monstrous polypharmacy that has always been the shame of our art". He should not be confused with Professor James David Forbes, to whom we owe 'Travels through the Alps of Savoy'.