Celsus: De medicina – Psychiatry in history

Celsus (c. 25 b.c.–c. 50 a.d.) wrote De medicina, one of the greatest Latin works and a milestone in the development of Western psychiatry. Emerging from lost obscurity, the first complete textbook of medicine to be printed (1478), and used for centuries (first English translation, 1756), De medicina comprises an Introduction and Eight Books, dealing with medical theory, anatomy, pathology, diseases, remedies and surgery. Book 3, Section 18 comprises the classification, description and treatment of Insania (a term first employed by Celsus): Phrensy – acute, short duration, some merry, some sad, judgement immediately returns; Sadness – without fever, longer duration; a third form of two types, False Images and Disordered Judgement – longest illness, merry or sad. Celsus also introduces Delirium – sometimes arises from fear (here alone wine may properly be given). Incidentally, Celsus's tetrad signals inflammation: redness, swelling, heat and pain.