Neurologic Disease Described in the Journal of Empirical Psychology (Gnothi Sauton
oder Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde), 1783-1793
Hans Förstl
Know Thyself or Journal of Empirical Psychology (Gnothi Sauton oder Magazin zur
Erfahrungsseelenkunde), 1783-1793, was the first of its kind-concentrating on nervous and
mental disturbances and marking the beginning of periodical neuropsychiatric publications.
The editor, Karl Philipp Moritz, and the contributors, many of them lay people, were
particularly interested in disturbances of language and consciousness. Descriptions of
epilepsy, Sydenham's chorea, jargon aphasia, and dementia are briefly summarized. The
case material from the Journal was soon translated and integrated in later work. The Journal
itself and its "empirical" approach became a model for publications that followed.
(Arch Neuro1.1992;49:187-188)
Karl Philipp Moritz (1757-1793) (Figure) was one of the most influential characters of the
Enlightenment in Germany. He was born in Hameln near Hanover. Due to his parents'
poverty, he was forced into an apprenticeship as a hatter until a grant allowed him to study
theology. He abandoned the university temporarily to become an actor. Later on he worked
as a private teacher in Dessau, Potsdam, and at a grammar school in Berlin. He traveled to
England and to Italy and wrote reports, novels, and several works on aesthetics and
language. In 1789, he became Professor of Aesthetics and Archaeology at the Academy of
Arts in Berlin.
In 1783, he founded Gnothi Sauton oder Magazin zur Erfahrungsseelenkunde (ie, Know
Thyself or Journal of Empirical Psychology), which can be considered as the first journal
specializing in psychologie issues and related fields, eg, neurologic and neuropsychologic
case studies (2,3).
NEUROLOGIC CASE REPORTS
Case reports form the core of the Journal. By standards of modern diagnostic criteria, 124 of
them can be considered as reports of pathologie conditions. The majority of the patients
suffered from psychiatrie disorders that have been rediagnosed using current criteria.2
Neurologie conditions were described in great detail, although diagnoses can, at best, be
tentative. Cerebrovascular disorders are likely in eight cases, meningitis or encephalitis in
four, and epilepsy in five. The following paragraphs can only present brief excerpts translated
from several lengthy reports. The following disturbance was observed in a young theologian:
... He developed seizures lasting several minutes during which he did not know what he was
doing. Sometimes, when he attended a social gathering he raised from his chair and said: 'it
is time to go to bed!' and began to undress. But soon became aware of the situation and left
ashamed and sad. [Reiske EC, 1785;3]
Because of these spells, which also occurred during church services, the patient was
forbidden to preach, became depressed, paranoid, drank too much brandy, developed
"epileptic" seizures, and died in an asylum.
The next excerpt describes an epi)eptic aura preceding a probable grand-mal seizure in a
17-year-old boy:
... I asked him how he would feel when the paroxysm was about to come. He answered that
it always begins in the stomach which feels very hot, then the heat seizes the head
and then he becomes increasingly stunned and everything becomes dark before his eyes
before he completely loses consciousness.
This was, as I could observe myself, the moment when the convulsions started and lasted at
least eight minutes, often however up to half an hour. [Mauchart JD, 1784;2]
For 6 months, an 8-year-old girl showed a movement disorder reminiscent of Sydenham's
chorea:
... She could not stand still although her mother held her by her left hand. She moved her
hands, feet and even her head continuously and sometimes so vigorously as if she wanted to
dance. Her speech was volatile, wild and mostly incomprehensible. [Gädicke, 1786;4]
The author recommended a bloodletting and "asa foetida" as a purgative, because he
suspected that the cause of illness was an infestation by worms. Allegedly she passed a
large number of Ascares for 6 weeks and after 12 weeks "her physical and mental health
was restored completely."
NEUROPSYCHOLOGIC DISTURBANCES
Detailed descriptions of neuropsychologic disturbances were one of the Journal's strengths.
These contributions were encouraged by the editor's particular interest in the field. Several of
the neuropsychologic cases first published in the Journal were soon translated into
English.',5 Some of them have gained attention in recent accounts on the history of
aphasiology"':
a case of motor aphasia and agraphia probably due to a transitory ischemic attack (1783;1);
a case of phonemic paraphasia in a patient substituting z for f(1789;7);
a case of semantic paraphasia in a patient mixing up the words for chair and table, book and
glass (1789;7); and the case of pure word deafness (or hysteria´s) in an artillery officer who
could read aloud, but who could neither speak spontaneously nor repeat spoken words
(1790;8).
The following two cases have not been published in English before. The 78year-old farmer
Samuel Klose presented with what might be considered as a typical example of jargon
aphasia in the late 18th century:
... He could recite 31ong morning songs and the common prayers rather intelligibly one after
the other, and he could at most say the names of God and such formulas, but to his relatives
or visitors he could not say any comprehensible words in reasonable association.... He felt
this incapacity, cried, became upset and showed his indignation uttering `Christus Jesus
God's Son: ..[Mr. K. in T., 1784;21
"Over-working" as a serious risk factor for neurological or psychiatric disease was stressed in
several reports of the Journal and until the mid-19th century.8 In the next example it is said
to have caused "final feebleness," which may be a euphemistic term for dementia.
My husband, who, as is well-known, had worked a lot with his head, and who had known
many languages, mixed them altogether in his final feebleness. Sometimes he made up his
words from all of them, and there was not one which would have expressed what he
intended to say. Often he said one single German word twenty times or more, or a lot of
inconsistent words without being able to find the one he needed. Then he said anxiously
`Cannot!' So one could sec that he had reason and that he heard what he said. However, as
I know all his ideas and his needs, I could always guess what he wanted to say, and he
showed me his gratitude most tenderly. [Reiske EC, 1785;3]
COMMENTARY
The novel "empirical" approach, the collection of "unbiased" case material in a periodical
attracted immediate interest." Translations of the original studies into English increased its
international influence. More than 50 years later, this continuing impact was documented
further by Winslow's volume On Obscure Diseases of the Brain and Disorders of the Minds
that, again, presented several of the Journal's reports. The Journal was the model for
numerous periodicals published after 17902 The first of them, the General Repertorium of
Empirical Psychology and Related Sciences (1793-1801; Allgemeines Repertorium für
empirische Psychologie und verwandte Wissenschaften') was founded by Immanuel David
Mauchart, one of Moritz's former contributors. The Journal of Psychological Medicine and
Mental Pathology, published after 1848, continued Moritz's example explicitly.' Journals
which preferentially presented neurologie material did not develop before the second half of
the 19th century. Karl Philipp Moritz' Journal of Empirical Psychology marks the beginning of
a continuously increasing flow of neurologie and psychiatrie journals.
The preparation of the manuscript was supported by a grant from the German Research
Foundation to Dr Forstl.
The help of W. A. Lishman, MD, and R. Howard is gratefully acknowledged.
References
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Gelehrte und Ungelehrte, Vol I-X. Berlin, Germany: August Mylius; 1783-1793. (Vol l, Part 1
translated by Förstl H, Howard R in: Hist Psychiatry. In press.)
2. Förstl H, Angermeyer M, Howard R. Karl Philipp Moritz' Journal of Empirical Psychology
(1783-1793): an analysis of 124 case reports. Psychol Med. 1991;21:299-304.
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Churchill; 1860.
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