Emily Paige Wilson
A treatise of Hypochondria¹
Treat all bones
as Vapours all skin
as dance
the Humour of living
consequently
brought forth
our Ancestors
rising
to make Complaints
Treat all bones
as Vapours all skin
as dance
the Humour of living
consequently
brought forth
our Ancestors
rising
to make Complaints
___________________________
¹Found poem from: The English malady; or, A treatise of nervous diseases of all kinds, as spleen, vapours, lowness of spirits, hypochondriacal, and histerical distempers, etc. —George Cheyne, 1773, pp. i-ii
The title I have chosen for this treatise, is a Reproach universally thrown on this Island by Foreigners, and all our Neighbors on the Continent, by whom nervous Distempers, Spleen, Vapours, & Lowness of Spirits, are in Derision, called ENGLISH MALADY. And I wish there were not so good Grounds for this Reflection. The Moisture of our Air, the Variableness of our Weather (from our Situation admist the Ocean), the Rankness and Fertility of our Soil, the Richness and Heaviness of our Food, the Wealth and Abundance of the Inhabitants (from their universal Trade), the Inactivity and Sedentary Occupations of the better Sort (among whom this Evil mostly rages) and the Humour of living in great, populous and consequently unhealthy Towns, have brought forth a Class and Set of Distempers, with atrocious and frightful Symptoms, [scarce known to our Ancestors, and never rising to such fatal heights, not afflicting such Numbers in any other known Nation. These nervous Disorders being computed to make almost one third of the Complaints of the People of Condition in England.]
The title I have chosen for this treatise, is a Reproach universally thrown on this Island by Foreigners, and all our Neighbors on the Continent, by whom nervous Distempers, Spleen, Vapours, & Lowness of Spirits, are in Derision, called ENGLISH MALADY. And I wish there were not so good Grounds for this Reflection. The Moisture of our Air, the Variableness of our Weather (from our Situation admist the Ocean), the Rankness and Fertility of our Soil, the Richness and Heaviness of our Food, the Wealth and Abundance of the Inhabitants (from their universal Trade), the Inactivity and Sedentary Occupations of the better Sort (among whom this Evil mostly rages) and the Humour of living in great, populous and consequently unhealthy Towns, have brought forth a Class and Set of Distempers, with atrocious and frightful Symptoms, [scarce known to our Ancestors, and never rising to such fatal heights, not afflicting such Numbers in any other known Nation. These nervous Disorders being computed to make almost one third of the Complaints of the People of Condition in England.]
Emily Paige Wilson’s debut chapbook I’ll Build Us a Home is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She has received nominations for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and Pushcart Prizes. Her work can be found in The Adroit Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, PANK, and THRUSH, among others. She lives in Wilmington, NC, where she received her MFA from UNCW. Visit her website at www.emilypaigewilson.com.
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