Excerpt from Hysteria and Certain Allied Conditions: Their Nature and Treatment, With Special Reference to the Application of the Rest Cure, Massage, Electrotherapy, Hypnotism, Etc At this day, when the fecundity of the medical press is so great, it behooves an author to offer a reason, an excuse, or an apology for bringing forth a new book. In regard to this volume there are two reasons that may, perhaps, be deemed sufficiently weighty to warrant its appearance. The first of these reasons is too obvious to require elaboration; namely, the importance of the subject. Every day in his rounds the physician meets with some phase of hysteria. Sometimes the diagnosis can be made at the threshold of the door, but at other times it is difficult in the extreme - a common disease, often a puzzling disease, always difficult to manage. The second reason is that, while there exists an immense amount of literature on hysteria, there is no recent book in English on the subject. Of course, it is treated of in works on general medicine, but rarely with the minuteness that the importance of the subject warrants. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.