In the 18th century it was not uncommon for a lady to suffer hysterics....but what was she suffering?
Apparently, hysteria had a muddled definition extending to ''hysteric fits'' ''distemper'' ''nerves'' ''hypochondria'' ''vapours'' and ''convulsive disorders." It was also generally thought that hysterics were an overtaking of emotions, emotions that were not directed by the individual them self. Uncontrollable emotions that would temporarily take over oneself.
I think the term Vapours is a great way to understand 'hysteric fits' of the 18th century.
A doctor of Louis XV, Pierre Pomme, had coined the term Vapours,
"These nervous vapours, arising as they did from the uterus, could ''derange all the functions of the brain.''And therefore the poor women of the time were born prone to the overwhelming fits of hysteria, because vapours would no doubt rise from the uterus. Thankfully snuff boxes were of the fashion, and every lady should be grateful to have one near, just in case her emotions get the best of her.
“The concept of ‘Vapours’ or ‘Hysterick Fits’ which was popular in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries illustrates one of the pitfalls of tracing the history of mental illness down the centuries by terminology.” Hunter and McAlpine (p. 288)
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