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[...]... the Pathology ofthe Brain As G S Rousseau has argued, Willis’s Pathology marked the beginning ofa gradual shift from an understanding ofthe human body as a system of humours and hydraulics to theeighteenth-century s notion ofthe body ruled by thenervous system Willis argued that the human soul/ mind was located inthe brain, and that the nerves, running from the brain to the rest ofthe body were... Boerhaave, became the most famous mechanist physician ofthe eighteenth century As the professor of medicine at the University of Leiden, the seat of medical learning inthe seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Pitcairne enjoyed an unparalleled reputation as a master of medicine on the continent and in Britain.37 Significantly, all four ofthe original faculty members at the University of Edinburgh’s... disease, debating the physical or mental nature of its symptoms and advertising miraculous cures capable of curing any nervous ailment, popular interest inthe nerves sharply escalated Novels and the Nerves The rise ofthe sentimental novel inthe 1740s further fuelled the popularization ofnervousdisease Interestingly, Cheyne’s influence was also strongly felt inthe literary world As the physician... sensibility of the nerves’.4 Historians have long acknowledged the vague nature ofthe definition of nervous disease and its cultural implications 5 This chapter examines the reasons behind this ambiguity and explores the inevitable clash between cultural and pathological definitions ofnervousdiseaseinthe eighteenth century.6 By –7– 8 NervousDiseaseinLateEighteenth-Century Britain addressing these... physicians passively acknowledged the limits of experimentation and human reason in discovering the structure and inner workings of the nerves For instance, in his New Essay on the Nerves and the Doctrine of the Animal Spirits (1737), the physician David Kinneir expressed content with even a vague under- Defining NervousDiseaseinEighteenth-Century Britain 17 standing of the role that animal spirits played... objectionable and aggressive treatments in hopes of curing their very real, and often very painful symptoms The final chapter of this study further addresses the disparities between the discourse and realityofnervousdisease It demonstrates how popular portrayals ofnervous patients as selfish malingerers inthelate eighteenth century reflected serious national anxiety over Britain’s ability to cope in a. .. Philopirio in Mandeville’s Treatise ofthe Hypochondriack sarcastically noted, A Man of Wit and good Parts, that has a little smatt’ring ofthe Newtonian Philosophy, is seldom at a Loss now, to solve almost any Phoenomena’.67 Cheyne was quick to lay claim to his Newtonian roots, repeatedly noting his indebtedness to thelate sagacious and learned Sir Isaac Newton’ inThe English Malady.68 As a student of the. .. hysterics and melancholics By emphasizing the physical origin ofnervous disease, Cheyne sought to rescue it from its reputation among the general population as a purely mental malady Explaining the ill repute ofnervous disorders inthe non-medical world he wrote, Nervous Distempers especially, are under some Kind of Disgrace and Imputation, inthe Opinion ofthe Vulgar and Unlearned; they pass among the. .. so many Cheyne’s ‘English Malady’ was, as Porter has explained, afashionablediseaseof civilization’.7 Because nervousdisease was adorned with such flattering implications, critics ofthe medical profession expressed concern that patronage-dependent Introduction: Explaining aFashionableDisorder 3 physicians would indiscriminately bestow the complimentary diagnosis upon anyone willing to pay Even... clarifies the reasons behind scepticism about nervous ailments on the part of many medical practitioners and members ofthe public.7 This chapter begins with an overview ofthe medical faculty’s variety of opinions regarding the causes ofnervousdisease from the seventeenth to the early eighteenth century It then explores the ways in which these professional debates prompted an increasingly medically . Richness and Heaviness of our
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NERVOUS DISEASE IN LATE
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN:
THE REALITY OF A FASHIONABLE DISORDER
Studies for the Society for the