Commentary One

Torrey E. F. Schizophrenia and Civilization, Aronson, New York 1980 ch. 2

Tucker G. A. Lunacy in Many Lands Charles Potter, Sydney, 1887

For example, McKeown T. The Modern Rise of Population, Arnold, London 1976, 103. A similar change was shown by general paralysis. Thus Kraepelin, in the ninth edition of his Psychiatie (1927, vol. 2, 1145) says ‘we may draw the very probable conclusion that general paralysis, which was formerly uncommon, underwent a progressively rapid increase from the beginning of the last century and for some time now has been gradually diminishing’. For changes in the clinical picture of general paralysis, see E. H. Hare, The origin and spread of dementia paralytica, J Ment Sci 105, 1959, 594–626

Altschule M. Historical perspective and evolution of the concept of schizophrenia, in Wolf S. Berle B. B. (eds), The Biology of the Schizophrenic Process, Plenum Press, New York, ch. 1

Contrast Jeste D. V. Carmen R. Lohr J. B. Wyatt R. J. Did schizophrenia exist before the eighteenth century? Compr Psychiat 26, 1985 493–503

Ellard's point about the possible toxic effects of medicaments on mental state is illustrated by the case of the patient described as ‘stark mad’ from mercury treatments (p. 192)

Slade P. Hallucinations Psychol Med 6, 1976 7–13

Hare E. H. Epidemiological evidence for a viral factor in the aetiology of the functional psychoses Adv Biol Psychiat 12, 1983 52–75

Diethelm O. Medical Dissertations of Psychiatric Interest printed before 1750, Karger, Basle 1971 154

Clarke B. Mental Disorders in earlier Britain: Exploratory Studies, University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1975 200

Cox J. M. Practical Observations on Insanity, 2nd edn, Baldwin and Murray, London, 1806, 9 and 14

For example, the cases of Ludwig II of Bavaria ( Hay G. G. The illness of Ludwig II of Bavaria, Psychol Med 7, 1977 189–96) and Robert Schumann (Slater, E. & Meyer, A. Contributions to a pathology of the musicians: 1. Robert Schumann, Confin Psychiat 2, 1959, 65–94), Of Schumann's case, Slater and Meyer observe that ‘the very facts which led Mobius to a diagnosis of schizophrenia lead Gruhle to a diagnosis of cyclothymia’