The English Malady; or, a Treatise of Nervous Diseases of All Kinds; as Spleen, Vapours, Lowness of Spirits, Hypo-Chondriacal, and Hysterical Distempers, andc

5th edition. [4], xvii-xxxii, [2], i-xvi, 370pp, [6, publisher’s advertisements]. Bound in contemporary full brown calf leather, five raised bands, gilt stamped lettering on red leather spine label, gilt rules bordering front and rear panels, gilt detail decorations on spine. Tall 12mo. Boards are worn and marked, rubbed at edges, rounding on corners and mildly chipped at spine tips, lightly sunned over spine. Front and rear hinges cracked, rear free endpaper partially detached. Some browning around edges of spotted endpapers, light pencil annotations on title page, some faint and occasional spotting and smudging to pages. Square and robust. Borderline good/very good condition. An early pioneering work on proto-psychiatry. Cheyne, an early advocate of animal rights, and vegetarianism to promote physical and mental well-being, was a pioneering physician. This is his major work on nervous disorders, popular at the time, reaching its fifth edition within two years of publication. It was also hugely influential, becoming one of the founding stones of the understanding of psychiatry. Presented in three parts covering (1) the nature and cause of nervous disorders, (2) on the cure of nervous disorders and (3) a variety of cases illustrating and confirmed methods of cure; it also includes the author’s own case library.