CHEYNE (George). The Natural Method of cureing [sic] the Diseases of the Body, and the Disorders of the Mind depending on the Body. In Three Parts. Part I. General Reflections on the Oeconomy of Nature in Animal Life. Part II. The Means and Methods for preserving Life an Faculties; and also concerning the Nature and Cure of Acute, Contagious, and Cephalic Disorders. Part. III. Reflections on the Nature and Cure of particular Chronical Distempers.1742

London: London: Printed for Geo. Strahan, and John and Paul Knapton, First edition, 8vo (200 x 130 mm) [20], 316pp., ownership inscription on fly-leaf "Harbin - 1743", contemporary calf, spine with raised bands and ruled in gilt, slight nick to headband otherwise a very nice copy. In this work Cheyne aroused much interest in the investigation of the bodily fibres and in exploration of the metaphysical relationship of mind and body. "Like many other authors on nervous diseases of the depressive kind, Cheyne wrote from personal experience and so, perhaps claimed that those 'of the liveliest and quickest natural Parts..... whose Genius is most keen and penetrating' were most prone to such disorders: Fools, weak or stupid Persons, heavy and dull Souls, are seldom troubled with Vapours or Lowness of Spirits.' Perhaps for the same reason he considered that 'of all the Miseries that afflict Human Life, and relate principally to the Body, in this Valley of Tears, I think Nervous Disorders, in their extreme and last Degrees, are the most deplorable, and beyond comparison the worst.' He recommended treatment especially by evacuation and slender diet, by which he himself had been cured."—Hunter and McAlpine. Wellcome II, p.339; Hunter and MacAlpine, pp.351-54.