A treatise on hysteria.

  • Lee, Robert, 1793-1877.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on hysteria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    respiration imperceptible and indistinct, a very sudden incredible death, for they have nothing deadly in their appearance—a colour like that of life, and for a considerable time after death they are more ruddy than usual. Eyes somewhat prominent, bright, and not entirely fixed, but yet not very much turned aside.—(Adams' Translation.) The characteristic symptoms of hysteria were known to Galen, Celsus, and other subsequent writers. An epistle from Dr. Thomas Sydenham to Dr. William Cole, treating of the small-pox and hysteric diseases, was published January 20th, 1681-2. I proceed now, he says, in compliance with your request, to communicate the observa- tions I have hitherto made concerning hysteric disorders, which I own are not so easily dis- covered nor so readily curable as other diseases. However, I will endeavour to acquit myself herein to the best of my ability, and with that brevity which a letter requires, which in reality I am obliged to on account of my ill-health, particu- larly at this season of the year, when too intense application would immediately bring on a fit of the gout. For this reason I shall avoid prolixity, and proceed according to my usual method, which consists in giving a short history of the disease according to its genuine natural pheno- mena, and subjoining the method of cure which