Pierre Pomme - Traité des vapeurs - 1760-1768

RARE collection on the ‘vapors’ (hysteria, hypochondria) by Pierre Pomme Pierre Pomme Essay on the vaporous affections of both sexes, containing a new method of treating these diseases, based on observations. Paris: Dessaint & Saillant, 1760 ; 179+(1) pp Period binding in leather (17x10cm; worn, lower part of back missing), partially detached, glass breaks p 1-27 (bottom margin) & p 71-180 (bottom of the text) = RARE precursor to Pomme’s better-known book ‘Traité des affections vaporeuses des deux sexes’ (Paris, 1763) Pierre Pomme Traité des affections vaporeuses des deux sexes; wherein an attempt has been made to join to a solid theory a sure practice, based on observations… Second edition Lyon: Benoit Duplain, 1765 xxxvi+(4)+521+(6) pp full calf binding of the period (16.5x11cm; rubbed), very fresh inside [Anonymous] Reflections on the vaporous affections, or examination of the Treatise on the vapors of the two sexes. Third edition, published in 1767, by Monsieur P***. Amsterdam: s.n., 1768; 239 pp Period leather binding (17x10cm; worn, spine split, back damaged, top cap missing), browning pages & some dampstains = Often misattributed to Pierre Pomme, this is an anonymous criticism of Pomme’s controversial book ‘Traité des affections vaporeuses des deux sexes’ (3rd ed. 1767); the author would be a certain Rostaing (according to Barbier & Quérard, BnF) here is the rarer edition (anonymous publisher); the other: “in Amsterdam, and found in Paris with Vincent, 1768” Pierre Pomme (1735-1812), specialist in nervous diseases, physician in Montpellier; settling in Paris, he earned great reputation, was named royal physician, member of the Academy of Sciences and grew very wealthy thanks to his craft. A precursor of psychiatry, he studied a condition particularly widespread in the 18th century among fashionable women: the “vapors.” (His name seemed prophetic—do we not say ‘to faint’ when one falls asleep? actually a pun on “apples” in French). He also notes the presence of this ailment among “men of letters, solitary and studious, and young men given to debauchery.” The affections he describes are various manifestations of hysteria, hypochondria, and depression. A proponent of humectant therapy, he aimed to banish these evils by immersion of his patients in hot baths for varying lengths of time. The author was vilified by his peers who saw in his simplistic method a way to attract a wealthy and impressionable clientele. A trial (“the Pierre Pomme trial”) put the question of practitioners’ reputations on public display. Voltaire defended the physician. REF: Biéder, J. & Bohn D. (1988). About Pomme’s work on the ‘vapors’: theory and clinic, natural history of diseases. ‘Annales Médico-psychologiques’, 146, 664-676.

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