| Description Of Item | Three large pages with some tearing along crease lines from being folded. Detailed notes on ‘nosology’ – the classification of diseases.
First page titled ‘nosology of mental diseases and defects’ and defines several Latin medical terms, including: ‘Vesaniæ: Sucephalic neuroses characterised by mental disorder, disease or defect.’
The second page discusses the concept of social ‘orexiæ’ – from the Greek ‘orexia’ modern terms use this suffix is used to indicate appetite or desire (for example, anorexia). The first leaflet is titled: ‘Nosology of the social orexiæ: - A. Sexual. B. Family or Domestic. C. Communistic.’ Social orexiæ is defined as: ‘Exaltation, perversion and [illegible] of the sexual, family and community desires and instincts.’ Sexual orexiæ is defined as: ‘erotic orexiæ I. Exaltations of erotic desires and instincts.’ A bracket is drawn around the symptoms of ‘1. Erotic hysteria 2. Nymphomania’ to indicate a joint connection to an additional, underlined, note that states: ‘feminine orexiæ.’ The leaflet also mentions erotic cruelty, bestiality, and ‘perversions of domestic instincts I. antipathies. Feelings of aversion towards, husband, wife or children.’ Notes are also made on the terms infanticide (the killing of a child by a mother), domesticide, and parricide (the killing of a parent). Pyromania (setting of fires), kleptomania, hoarding are also mentioned.
The third page summarises vesaniæ, orexiæ, phreniæ. These notes include a variety symptoms including symptoms including sentimental, melancholia, paranoia, dreaming, and delusions.
From the collection of Thomas Laycock. |