Essays on hypochondriasis and other nervous affections by John Reid M.D. 1921 : [Review].

Date:
[1822]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on hypochondriasis and other nervous affections by John Reid M.D. 1921 : [Review]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    it with every fragment of knowledge or thought which we pick up that it attains its full stature and strength, and acquires in the mind that disproportionate ascendancy which renders it at all comparable to the hallucinations of the lunatic. With the latter the process by which they are fabricated is very different. After exposure to any of the moral or physical causes which irritate or disturb the actions of the brain, the mind becomes confused and hurried, and in a few weeks, or even days, there sprout up the most absurd notions, which are totally inexplicable by previous meditation, and which the individual as firmly believes as his existence. But though the above, we conceive, is the true theory of many of the absurd opinions of eccentric minds, yet we are far from think- ing that it explains all eccentricities : there are met with in life many odd persons, who, in most of their opinions, are antipodes to common sense, fickle, full of self-esteem, sanguine, headstrong, untaught by experience. Inquire into their history, look closely into their actions and opinions, watch their career, and you will find them born of a mad stock, and, if they live long enough, and do not die of some other complaint, trace them ultimately to a straight waistcoat and a madhouse. It may be said, if the above account be true, and there is a moral as well as a physical eccen- tricity, it is probable that there is a moral as well as a physical insanity. We believe no such thing; strange habits by intellectual operations may produce great eccentricity of opinion and action, but they will never produce madness in the true acceptation of the word, till they have affected physically the bodily organization. Not only are the reasons for the moral theory of insanity un- sound, and the difficulties in the physical theory apparent only, but there is so much downright and positive proof that bodily dis- ease can produce mental disorder in exactly that kind and degree which constitutes insanity, as to leave no doubt about its being the true explanation of this otherwise mysterious and inexplicable malady. Our sensible impressions are caused by outward objects: joy and sorrow, by cheerful or depressing incidents; laughter and tears, by ludicrous and sorrowful ideas, belief by evidence ; this is the case in health: but there are diseases of the body which are capable of raising such striking imitations of these mental operations that it is impossible to distinguish the spurious copies from the legitimate originals. Thus in fever, with delirium, the patient mistakes his ideas for outward realities. In diseases of the liver, the sufferer feels a depression of spirits like that from loss of property or loss of friends. Hysteria sometimes produces as much laughter as Cer- vantes, and as many tears as Sterne; even our belief is, in a great degree, under the inlluence of the body. In languid health, we have not