The Johns Hopkins University Press Bulletin of The History of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University Press Bulletin of The History of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University Press Bulletin of The History of Medicine
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Bulletin of the History of Medicine
This content downloaded from 82.145.220.89 on Tue, 07 Apr 2020 13:30:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
book reviews Bull. Hist. Med., 2003, 77 439
Emergence of Psychology from Erasmus Darwin to William James (1998); Reed makes
much of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a key event in that history, and, with
Redden 's help, it, too, can be viewed under the mysterious light of melancholy.
While Burton's Melancholy (1621) enjoys condnuing acclaim, his reliance on
Timothie Bright comes as interesting news. Bright, whose Treatise on Melancholy
(1586) was one of the first books on mental disorder from a medical perspective,
was the only English author on melancholy cited by Burton. Bright's other
interests eclipsed his investment in medicine:
He had developed a form of shorthand, a skill known to the ancient world but
reinvented by Bright, and devoted much energy to ensuring its widespread
adoption. In addition, he published a popular abridged version of the reli-
gious classic, John Foxe 's Book of Martyrs. By 1591, he was so negligent of his
medical duties at St. Bartholomew's that he was dismissed. From then until his
E.James Lieberman
George Washington University School of Medicine
As the title indicates, Richard Schain 's biography of the great philosopher is an
attempt - a successful one, it seems to this reviewer - to show that he did not
suffer (as is usually claimed) from syphilitic, but from schizophrenic madness.
(The serologic test to diagnose the sexually acquired mental illness was intro-
duced by Wasserman only six years after Nietzsche's death.) In contrast or in
addition to the many previous biographies, this book focuses on the medical
aspects of Nietzsche's life. He shared both migraine and epilepsy with several
members of his family; he had cholera twice, as well as diphtheria and dysentery.
Nietzsche's talents were many, especially musical: he played the piano once in
a brothel, and even composed music. He studied theology and philology, and in
1869 he went to Basel, becoming professor of philology and a Swiss citizen - but
then he joined the Prussian army fighting the French. Returning to his sister in
Saxony, now age thirty-four, he wrote: "My existence is a Tearful' burden," yet,
"this pleasure in knowledge brings me to heights in which I am victorious" (p.
26). At age forty-nine, after having completed Also Sprach Zarathustra, he wrote:
"everything is boring, painful, dégoûtant. . . . I . . . have a sense of imperfection"
(p. 29).
This content downloaded from 82.145.220.89 on Tue, 07 Apr 2020 13:30:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
440 book reviews Bull. Hist. Med., 2003, 77
This content downloaded from 82.145.220.89 on Tue, 07 Apr 2020 13:30:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BOOK REVIEWS Bull. Hist. Med., 2003, 77 441
Francis Schiller
Keir Waddington. Chanty and the London Hospitals , 1850-1898. Royal Historical
Society Studies in History, New Series. Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell Press, in
association with the Royal Historical Society, 2000. xi + 252 pp. 111. $75.00 (0-
86193-246-3).
This content downloaded from 82.145.220.89 on Tue, 07 Apr 2020 13:30:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.
Alternative Proxies: