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

  • Reid, John, 1776-1822.
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on insanity, hypochondriasis, and other nervous affections / by John Reid, M.D. 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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    than a distemper of the mind by the force of ridicule or rebuke. The hypo- chondriac may feel indeed the edge of satire as keenly as he would that of a sword; but although its point should pe- netrate his bosom, it would not be likely to let out from it, any portion of that noxious matter by which it is so pain- fully oppressed. The external expres- sion of his disorder may be checked by the coercive influence of shame or fear ; but in doing this, a similar kind of risque is incurred as arises from the repelling of a cutaneous eruption, which, although it conceal the outward appearance, seldom fails still more firmly to establish the in- ternal strength, to increase the danger, and to protract the continuance of the disease. By indirect and imperceptible means the. attention may, in many in- stances, be gently and insensibly enticed, but seldom can we with safety attempt to