Details
JORDEN, Edward (1569-1632). A Briefe Discourse of a Disease Called the Suffocation of the Mother. London: John Windet, 1603.
4o (170 x 124 mm). Woodcut device on title-page. (Title soiled with lower margin chipped and frayed affecting one letter of imprint, other marginal dampstaining and wear, a few headlines shaved.) Modern half red morocco.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BOOK IN ENGLISH ON HYSTERIA. Written as a rebuttal to James I's Daemonologie, this work asserts that the traditional signs of demonaic possession in women were actually the symptoms of a disease of natural origin: "that this disease doth oftentimes give occasion unto simple and unlearned people, to suspect possession, witchcraft, or some such like supernaturall cause." "Jorden introduced into English medicine the ancient concept of hysteria as a disease entity with specific etiology, a sex-linked nervous disorder, the potential imitator of all ills. Its subsequent career forms an important chapter in the history of psychiatry" (Hunter-Macalpine, pp. 69-70). The book concludes with a section on the proper management of the hysterical patient's mental afflictions. Hunter-Macalpine, pp. 68-75; NLM/Krivatsy 6275; STC 14790; Norman 1178.
4o (170 x 124 mm). Woodcut device on title-page. (Title soiled with lower margin chipped and frayed affecting one letter of imprint, other marginal dampstaining and wear, a few headlines shaved.) Modern half red morocco.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BOOK IN ENGLISH ON HYSTERIA. Written as a rebuttal to James I's Daemonologie, this work asserts that the traditional signs of demonaic possession in women were actually the symptoms of a disease of natural origin: "that this disease doth oftentimes give occasion unto simple and unlearned people, to suspect possession, witchcraft, or some such like supernaturall cause." "Jorden introduced into English medicine the ancient concept of hysteria as a disease entity with specific etiology, a sex-linked nervous disorder, the potential imitator of all ills. Its subsequent career forms an important chapter in the history of psychiatry" (Hunter-Macalpine, pp. 69-70). The book concludes with a section on the proper management of the hysterical patient's mental afflictions. Hunter-Macalpine, pp. 68-75; NLM/Krivatsy 6275; STC 14790; Norman 1178.