George Cheyne

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George Cheyne after John Faber Junior, 1732

George Cheyne (* 1671 in Auchencreive, Methlick, Aberdeenshire , † April 13, 1743 in Bath ) was a Scottish doctor , pioneer of psychology and consultation psychiatry , natural philosopher and mathematician . He was born in Scotland , but later practiced as a doctor from 1702 in the spa town of Bath in south-west England. Bath was one of the centers of social life. Cheyne has made a name for himself as a proponent of vegetarian diets, which he also practiced himself.

Life

After studying medicine in Edinburgh, where he was the student of Archibald Pitcairne , he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Aberdeen in 1701 , moved to London and became a member of the Royal Society in 1702 and joined the circle Isaac Newton. Cheyne, however, struggled to adapt to life in London. When he published his mathematical ideas, he angered Newton and alienated his colleagues. It also proved difficult to build a patient base. Cheyne eventually returned to Scotland.

Medical services

In Bath, a center of social life in England at that time, where Cheyne settled from 1718, he succeeded in making his socio-moral considerations . Last but not least, he was able to apply their health conclusions to himself. In keeping with the style of the time, he illustrated such personal uses and considerations in public as he was obese himself . These instructions culminated in health recommendations for a withdrawal from the overstimulation of everyday life, the excess of pleasures, the restlessness of the cities. Shepherd life, the country party, hunting, fishing and riding, physical gymnastics and the English garden were given a healing moderating function. There were also milk cures and other natural diets. Cheyne found that a third of his patients suffered from nervousness . In 1733 he published his work on " English Disease " ( English Malady ). He relied on Bernard Mandeville , whose treatise on hypochondria and hysteria appeared in 1711. Cheynes' merit was that he contributed to the social acceptance of mental illnesses, which he illustrated through common sociological and dietetic models. Cheyne was in contact with Richard Blackmore , a publicist who had made a name for himself as a medical journalist. A follower of his teaching was the author and publisher Samuel Richardson , with whom Cheyne corresponded by letter. Cheynes' main work is that about the English disease , with which he anticipated the corresponding attacks from abroad by describing this disturbance as an expression of prosperity and abundance. This made him a pioneer of the term ›American Nervousness‹, which was later coined by George Miller Beard , and thus also a pioneer of the term neurasthenia . Cheyne can be counted among the early representatives of the consultation hour psychiatry .

Cheynes milk program

George Cheyne promoted drinking milk. His recommendation of a milk cure follows the humoral pathological principles, as already advocated by Galenos . Milk was said to have a cooling and often a laxative quality, and these qualities seemed to make it suitable for curing the effects of the typical heavy contemporary diet. Cheyne's role as the influential Bath physician gave him ample opportunity to promote the regimen to a number of wealthy and influential figures. His patients included British Prime Minister Robert Walpole , the writer Samuel Richardson and Selina Hastings , the Countess of Huntingdon who became the spiritual leader of a group of Methodists. It was from Bath that the fame of Cheynes' milk regimen spread across Europe. Towards the end of the 18th century, among other things, French restaurants offered a Régime Anglaise, milk-based diet dishes.

Cheyne recommended his milk regimen from personal experience. When he returned to Scotland he was severely overweight. He prescribed himself to abstain from alcohol, took no more food in the evening, and rarely ate meat at lunchtime. Due to his acquaintance with admirers of the two mystics Antoinette Bourignon and Jeanne Guyon , however, Cheney began to look for a more holistic cure. Both mystics demanded the simplest possible life and influenced by their teachings, Cheyne became one of the most determined opponents of a luxurious life. Milk went well with this as a simple but substantial food. In London, however, good quality fresh milk was rarely available - London milkmaids were known to add water to the milk they sold. George Cheyne, returning to London, circumvented this by having milk delivered directly to him for an extra charge.

Cheyne viewed his milk cure, with which he successfully combated his obesity and mood swings and which only included grain, bread, root vegetables and fruit in addition to milk, as the last possible remedy for the chronically ill. Deborah Valenze states in her story of milk that it is amazing how often he prescribed this regimen to his patients. The milk regimen developed by Cheyne remained popular even after Cheney's death. Methodist revival preacher John Wesley recommended it in Primitive Physics , his highly successful work that first appeared in 1747. This manual of the most methodical life was not only read and followed by its immediate followers, but was reprinted over and over again over the next several years.

Fonts (selection)

  • Philosophical Principles of Natural Religion, containing the Elements of Natural Philosophy, and the Proofs for Natural Religion, arising from them . 1705
  • An Essay of Health and Long Life . London 1724 books.google.de
  • The English Malady. London 1733
  • An Essay on Regimen . London 1740
  • The Natural Method of Curing the Diseases of the Human Body, and the Disorders of the Mind Attending on the Body . London 1742 (Cheyne's last work)

literature

  • Anita Guerrini: Obesity and Depression in the Enlightenment: The Life and Times of George Cheyne. University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8061-3201-9 (Paperback)
  • Deborah Valenze: Milk: A Local and Global History . Yale University Press, New Haven 2011, ISBN 978-0-300-11724-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Ulrich Niewöhner-Desbordes: Cheyne, George. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 242.
  2. Deborah Valenze: Milk: A Local and Global History . P. 106.
  3. ^ A b c Klaus Dörner : Citizens and Irre, on the social history and sociology of science of psychiatry . [1969] Fischer Taschenbuch, Bücher des Wissens, Frankfurt / M 1975, ISBN 3-436-02101-6 ; (a) overall: pp. 41, 45, 67, 77; (b) specifically: p. 40 ff .; (c) Re. English disease : p. 41
  4. a b Erwin H. Ackerknecht : Brief history of psychiatry . 3. Edition. Enke, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-432-80043-6 , p. 29 f.
  5. Bernard Mandeville : A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions (1711, 1715, 1730 - the 1730 edition was entitled: A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases )
  6. ^ Edward Shorter : A historical Dictionary of Psychiatry . 1st edition. Oxford University Press, New York 2005, ISBN 0-19-517668-5 , p. 78.
  7. George Cheyne: The English Malady ; or, A Treatise of Nervous Diseases of All Kinds, as Spleen, Vapors, Lowness of Spirits, Hypochondriacal and Hysterical Distempers with the Author's own Case at large, Dublin, 1733. Facsimile ed., ed. Eric T. Carlson, MD, 1976 , Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ISBN 978-0-8201-1281-7 .
  8. a b c Deborah Valenze: Milk: A Local and Global History . P. 105.
  9. Deborah Valenze: Milk: A Local and Global History . P. 109.
  10. a b Deborah Valenze: Milk: A Local and Global History . P. 110.