Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:41:18.814Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Who was the first to describe anorexia nervosa: Gull or Lasègue?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Walter Vandereycken*
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Belgium, and Leiden, The Netherlands
Ron Van Deth
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Belgium, and Leiden, The Netherlands
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr W Vandereycken, University Psychiatric Center, Leuvensesteenweg 517. B-3070 Kortenberg, Belgium.

Synopsis

Leading articles or textbooks on anorexia nervosa generally give credit for its discovery to either the British physician William Withey Gull or to the French neuropsychiatrist Ernest Charles Lasègue. Although the major contributions of both men show a remarkable but independent coincidence around 1873, Gull is mostly given a slight priority because of a rather cryptic mention of an anorexia-like condition in a paper read in 1868. An analysis of the events, however, shows that the British physician from London does not really deserve this honour. For no clear-cut priority for either man can be established.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acland, T. D. (1896). William Withey Gull, A Biographical Sketch. Adlard & Son. London.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1873 a). Clinical Society. Friday, 24 October. (Report of the meeting). Sir William Gull read a paper on Anorexica Hysterica (Apepsia Hysterica). Medical Times and Gazette 2 (8 November), 534536.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1873 b). Clinical Society of London. Friday, 24 October, 1873…Anorexia hysterica (apepsia hysterica). British Medical Journal 2, 527529.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1890). Sir William Gull. British Medical Journal 1, 256262.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1907). Leaders in modern medicine, Ill: Sir William Gull. Practitioner 79, 703714.Google Scholar
Bliss, E L. & Branch, C. H. H (1960). Anorexia Nervosa Its History, Psychology, and Biology. Paul B. Hoeber: New York.Google Scholar
Bruch, H. (1973). Eating Disorders. Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Person Within Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Brumberg, J J. (1988). Fasting Girls The Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern Disease. Harvard University Press: Cambridge Mass.Google Scholar
Cule, J. H. (1967) Wreath on the Crown: The Story of Sarah Jacob. the Welsh Fasting Girl. Gomerian Press: Llandysyl.Google Scholar
Davies-Colley, N. & White, W. H. (1890). In memoriam: Sir William Gull. Guy's Hospital Reports 47, xxvxliii.Google Scholar
Decourt, J. (1954). L'anorexie mentale au temps de Lasègue et de Gull. Preue Médicale 62, 355358.Google Scholar
Fowler, R. (1871). A Complete History of the Case of the Welsh Fasting Girl (Sarah Jacob). With Comments Thereon and Observations on Death from Starvation Henry Renshaw: London.Google Scholar
Gull, W. W. (1868). The address in medicine delivered before the annual meeting of the British Medical Association, at Oxford. Lancet 2 (8 August), 171176.Google Scholar
Gull, W. W. (1874 a). Anorexia nervosa (apepsia hysterica, anorexia hysterica). Transactions of the Clinical Society of London 7, 2228.Google Scholar
Gull, W. W. (1874 b). On a cretinoid state supervening in adult life in women. Transactions of the Clinical Society of London 7, 180185.Google Scholar
Gull, W W. (1888). Anorexia nervosa. Lancet 1 (17 March), 516517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gull, W. W. (1894). A Collection of the Published Writings of Sir William Withey Gull, M.D (edited and arranged by Acland, T. D.) New Sydenham Society London.Google Scholar
Hanot, V. (1883). Notice sur le professeur Lasègue. Archives Générales de Médecine 2 (juillet), 537.Google Scholar
Hunter, R. A. & Greenberg, H. P. (1956). Sir William Gull and psychiatry. Guy's Hospital Reports 105, 361375.Google Scholar
Janet, P. (1909). Les Névroses. Ernest Flammarion: Paris.Google Scholar
Knight, S. (1976). Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution G. G. Harrap: London/David McKay: New York.Google Scholar
Lasègue, C. (1873 a). De l'anorexie hystérique. Archives Générales de Médecine 1 (Avnl). 385403.Google Scholar
Lasègue, C. (1873 b). On hysterical anorexia. Medical Times and Gazette 2 (6 September), 265266; (27 September), 367–369.Google Scholar
Lasègue, C. (1884). Etudes Medicates du Professeur Ch. Lasègue. Asselin: Paris.Google Scholar
Lasserre, P. (1971). Le concept d'anorexie mentale el 1'histoire de la pensée psychiatrique. Psychologie Médicale 3, 607640.Google Scholar
Morgan, H. G. (1977). Fasting girls and our attitudes to them. British Medical Journal 2, 16521655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pozzi, L (1968). Charles Lasègue. Archivio di Ortopedia (Milano) 81, 227238.Google ScholarPubMed
Ritti, A. (1885) Eloge du professeur Ch Lasègue. Doin: Paris.Google Scholar
Ryle, J A. (1936). Anorexia nervosa. Lancet 2, 893899.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schadewaldt, H. (1965). Medizingeschichtliche Betrachtungen zum Anorexie-Problem. In Anorexia Nervosa (ed, Meyer, J. E. and Feldmann, H.), pp. 114. Georg Thieme: Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Shorter, E. (1987). The first great increase in anorexia nervosa. Journal of Social History 21, 6996.Google Scholar
Silverman, J. A. (1988). Anorexia nervosa in 1888. Lancet 1, 928930.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skrabanek, P. (1983). Notes towards the history of anorexia nervosa. Janus 70, 109128.Google ScholarPubMed
Sours, J. (1980). Starving to Death in a Sea of Objects The Anorexia Nervosa Syndrome. Jason Aronson: New York.Google Scholar
Streletski, C. (1908). Essai sur Ch. Lasègue, 1816–1881. Steinheil: Paris.Google Scholar
Talbott, J. H. (1970). A Biographical History of Medicine: Excerpts and Essays on the Men and Their Work. Grune & Stratton: New York.Google Scholar
This, B (1983). De Lasègue à Freud. Le Coq-Héron 86, 2238Google Scholar
Van Deth, R. & Vandereycken, W. (1988). Van Vastenwonder lot Magerzucht: Anorexia Nervosa in Historisch Perspectief. Boom: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Wilks, S. & Bettany, G. T. (1892). A Biographical History of Guy's Hospital. Ward, Lock, Bowden: LondonGoogle Scholar