Making medicine measurable

This chapter places Bernard Mandeville’s (1670–1733) Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases in the cultural context of early eighteenth-century Britain. Mandeville’s book poses the question: What is valid and useful medical knowledge? Many physicians considered adapting Newtonian mathematical ideas of natural science to the field of medicine. Here, I explore some of these discussions and Mandeville’s criticism of such attempts. The Treatise stages the dialogue between a physician (Philopirio) and his patient (Misomedon). The final chapter introduces the patient’s wife (Polytheca), who is encouraged to join the conversation: Mandeville envisioned that such discussions could have therapeutic applications for mental illness, but for the present-day reader they also present interesting questions about gender and relationships in early eighteenth-century medicine and culture.