A secret worth knowing. A treatise on insanity, the only work of the kind in the United States, or, perhaps in the known world; founded on general observation and truth

Nashville, Tenn: [n.p.], 1847. THIRD EDITION. Fine full-page wood engraving of the author. Original front printed wrapper, sewn as issued. Contemporary inscription, “Ga. Hist. Society” on top of wrapper. Third edition, originally published two years earlier. This work was written by an inmate of the Lunatic Asylum of Tennessee in “an attempt to advance psychiatry from insight gained as a patient.” According to the title page, “there are other medical books which treat on Insanity, but comparatively few to the population, and none written by an insane man.” The author expresses thanks to the editor of the Nashville Union, who most likely printed this pamphlet. He sets forth a history of his own case and follows with observations on his, as well as other inmate’s evidence of insanity and treatment. He comments on suicide and ends with a poem on youth and future life.

Hunter & Macalpine, p. 859.