An inaugural essay on genius and its diseases : submitted to the examination of Samuel Bard ... President, and the Trustees and professors of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New-York : and publicly defended for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on the sixth day of April, 1819 / by Thomas Middleton Stuart.

  • Stuart, Thomas Middleton.
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural essay on genius and its diseases : submitted to the examination of Samuel Bard ... President, and the Trustees and professors of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New-York : and publicly defended for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on the sixth day of April, 1819 / by Thomas Middleton Stuart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    lin been educated at an university, possibly neither of their names would have been ren- dered immortal by their discoveries in Natural Philosophy. According to our description, there is a complex operation of the mind, in every ex- ertion of Genius; it may therefore readily be i supposed to be liable to disorder. This may arise, 1st. from inactivity, 2d. from imper- fection, 3d. from artificial means of excitement, 4th. from excessive exercise. 1st. In some respects, the mind appears to be governed by laws analagous to those which govern the body ; for as continued inaction de- prives the body of the power of moving, so inactivity of Genius deprives it gradually of the power of acting. To this, in a great measure, is to be ascribed that loss of mental vigour, which so often attends declining age : at this period, fame ceases her allurements—ambition begins to lose its power—life has little more to promise—the animal spirits are languid— infirmity unfits the body for the support of the exercise of mind—and the individual gradually and unconsciously remits that exercise, and at last falls into dotage. But not only in old age