Book Reviews many of the books on medicine published at this time, dealing particularly with their advice on the handling of psychiatric disease.The practitioners, many of them para- medical or empirics and quacks, are considered, with some of the therapeutic proce- dures detailed.Exorcism is of particular interest in view of the recent attention being paid to this type of therapy.In the seventeenth century new formulations of some mental conditions were being made, but again the background of possession, religious enthusiasms and witchcraft was still very much in evidence.As a concluding case to this period the author selects the terminal illness of Charles II.This book's topic is one of incredible complexity and Dr. Clarke has done very well in his presentation of it.His text is fully annotated throughout, and most of the illustra- tions he provides are unique.He has carried out extensive research, although on occa- sions he has accepted opinions from secondary sources rather too uncritically.Nevertheless, on the whole, he has made a substantial contribution to the early history of mental disease in Britain.It is certainly more than the prolegomena that he modestly claims it to be, and it stands out as a work of scholarship when contrasted with some of the less successful efforts of others.It is to be hoped that he will continue his researches in this much underpopulated field.
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