Essai Analytique sur les Facultes de L'Ame

Copenhagen: Freres Cl. & Ant. Philibert, 1760. First Edition.. Full contemporary calf.. A fine copy.. 4to. A vignette title. [8], (i)ii - xxxii, (1)2 - 552, [2] pp.

A late work of the great Swiss naturalist whose entomological investigations were major contributions to concepts of parthenogenesis and regeneration. He became blind and was forced to abandon microscopy (and his naturalist studies) for botany and then philosophy and psychology. In this book Bonnet develops his views on the physiological conditions of mental activity. He recorded and first noted the strange 'visions' he experienced upon losing his sight. These hallucinations were, he postulated, a result of the optical parts of the brain 'filling in' what it could no longer draw on through sensation (sight). The account of the onset of his grandfather's blindiness and visions is recorded in this volume. It is the first account of what has come to be known as Bonnet Syndrome. Bonnet also includes topics such as language, perception, cause and effect relations etc. . A comprehensive and pioneering work in the history of modern psychology. DSB II, 286 - ' 87; Rand, Class. Psych., 331 - 340.