"This fascinating volume, done in exact facsimile from the original Eighteenth Century editions, is a treasure trove of psychiatric history that is closely related to the developing intellectual and scientific like of the young new United States of America. An Inquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes upon the Moral Faculty presents Dr. Rush's exposition of how the moral faculties are subject to derangement. It reproduces the extremely rare copy in the Oskar Diethelm Historical Library of the Cornell Medical Center. The second essay. On the Influence of Physical Causes in Promoting the Strength and Activity of the Intellectual Faculties of Man, is one of Dr. Rush's lectures to his medical students at the University of Pennsylvania. It deals with what we now call physiological psychology and faculty psychology. The cases Dr. Rush presents are largely drawn from those now called "personality disorders." These essays are lively and entertaining, filled with provocative, if somewhat naive, illustrations. While not very scientific by today's standards, and not often self-contradictory, they reflect not only the rational and democratic approach to popular dissemination of scientific thought, but also Dr. Rush's attempts to explore the basic nature and problems of man. The scholarly Introduction by Dr. Eric T. Carlson, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, casts fresh light on Benjamin Rush's ideas and place in the history of psychiatry" -- Dust jacket.