ESQUIROL E. Des maladies mentales considérées sous les rapports médical, hygiénique et médico-légal.

Garrison-Morton, 4929; Heirs of Hippocrates, 1268; Cat. Norman, 724.

First edition of the first modern work on psychiatry, one of the first systematic attempts to classify the varieties of mental illness.

Here Jean-Etienne Esquirol (1772-1840) is the first to apply statistical methods in the clinical study of madness, making the first distinction between hallucinations and illusions.

"Esquirol sought to classify and describe the various kinds of insanity he encountered in his practice. Esquirol coined the term monomania, a concept which anticipated the modern view of schizophrenia, and he was the first to distinguish hallucination from illusion… Des maladies mentales the work for which he is best known, served as a basic text in psychiatry for over fifty years" (Heirs).

"Along with Pinel, Esquirol is regarded as the founder of the French school of psychiatry" (Cat. Norman, p.260).

Fine copy, complete.