Essays on hypochondriasis, and other nervous affections / by John Reid.

  • Reid, John, 1776-1822.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on hypochondriasis, and other nervous affections / by John Reid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    a person labouring under nervous depres- sion to be cheerful and alert, is no less idle and absurd, than it would be to com- mand or advise a person, under the direct and most intense influence of the sun's rays, to shiver with cold, or one who is wallowing naked in December's snows to perspire from a sensation of excessive heat. The practice of laughing at, or scolding a patient of this class, is equally cruel and ineffectual. No one was ever laughed or scolded out of hypochondri- asis. It is scarcely likely that we should elevate a person's spirits by insulting his understanding. The malady of the nerves is in general of too obstinate a nature to yield to a sarcasm or a sneer. It would scarcely be more preposterous to think of dissipating a dropsy of the chest, than a distemper of the mind by the force of ridicule or rebuke. The hypo- chondriac may feel indeed the edge of