PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION FROM DR. J.W. FRANCIS
An Inaugural Essay on Genius and Its Diseases.
New York: Printed by Collins and Co, 1819.
Price: $650.00
About the item
46pp. PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION FROM DR. J.W. FRANCIS. Later marbled wrappers. Minor foxing and browning. Inscribed by Dr. Francis to the American Antiquarian Society on the title. Austin 1837; S&S 49531.
Item #321429
A fascinating early American medical essay on the philosophical nature of genius and the prevalence of associated diseases of the mind, principally depression (tristimania) and delusions (amenomania), and with a further section on the abuse of opium. Stuart asserts that invention is the pinnacle of genius, which comes about from the confluence of imagination, sense and memory, and suggests that the overworking of those elements, or their artificial stimulation, combined with lack of sleep and physical exertion, leads to diseases of the mind.
