[Maurice de FLEURY (1860-1931) psychiatrist and writer.] Set - Lot 167

[Maurice de FLEURY (1860-1931) psychiatrist and writer.] Set of approximately 70 letters, mostly L.A.S., addressed to Dr. Maurice de Fleury, 1893-1927 and n.d. Interesting set of letters on psychology and psychiatry. Georges DUMAS (1866-1946) psychologist, co-founder with Pierre Janet of the Journal de Psychologie normale et pathologique. 21 letters and a visiting card (54p. in-8), 1899-1926. Long and very interesting friendly and medical correspondence. "You once told me about a study by Charcot or someone else on the influence of light and other physical stimulants on circulation and emotions. [...] My thesis is still in progress. I'm currently in psychochemistry, analyzing exhaled gases in joy and sadness. It's not easy, but it's curious. I'll be moving on to psychophysics in a few days. You can't imagine how shattered I am [...] I've gone through [Édouard] Toulouse's book; it's exactly what I expected, and while Toulouse may have reasons to make a name for himself through investigations of this kind, Zola is prodigiously ridiculous and vain to lend himself to it. [...] I have some very curious results on the chemistry of sadness and the slowing down of nutrition in melancholic patients". He ran out of time to finish his Treatise on Psychology "which, to my misfortune, I accepted to direct. I now know exactly what it's like to direct a treatise: it means being the penman, constantly corresponding with collaborators to ask for corrections, additions, deletions of text, and above all doing at the same time as the chapters you've taken on, all those that the incumbents botch at the last moment. In this way, I'll be able to write a good quarter of the two volumes"... He comments at length on Delmas' work on psychoses, etc. Antoine RITTI (1844-1920) psychiatrist, chief physician at the Charenton asylum. 7 letters (15p. in-8 and in-12), Saint-Maurice and Paris, 1896-1919 (on the letterhead of the Maison Nationale de Charenton). He is very concerned about the health of Jules Soury, who is diabetic: "since the death of his mother, his condition has worsened considerably, and he has lost a lot of weight. What's more, he's obsessed by the desire to die, and it certainly won't be long before he does, given the diet he's put himself on. It seems that all he eats now is two pennies' worth of bread a day. With that he works until two in the morning [...] The solitude in which poor Mr. J. Soury lives is a bad counsellor and I fear some tragic outcome"... He was very touched by Fleury's article on him in Le Figaro, and thanked him for the various works he had sent him, in particular Introduction à la médecine de l'esprit, L'Âme du criminel and his work on epilepsy, which he took with him to his native Vosges. He was to report on them in the Annales médico-psychologiques. In November 1898, he attended the opening lesson of Jules Soury's course, "and I was pleased to see that the master psychologist was doing admirably". The last two letters are dedicated to Émile Littré, praised by Fleury and known personally by Ritti (Ritti was a disciple of Auguste Comte). Over 40 letters and cards from psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and doctors, addressed to Maurice de Fleury: Arthur Armaingaud, Xavier Arnozan, Henri Benjamin, Charles Blondel, Flavien Bonnet-Roy, E. Callamand (2), Paul Descombes, Ernest Dupré, Pierre Duval, Rosa Grancher, Ludovic Gratiolet, J. Georges Guillain, Marie Marcel Labbé, Alexandre Lacassagne, Maxime Laignel-Lavastine, Georges Laurens, Jean Lépine, Francis Magdel, Henry Mandel, Ambroise Monprofit, René Onfray (2), Carl Potain, Paul Pouzet, Félix regnault, Albert Robin (2), Alice Paul Segond, Auguste Vallet, Pasteur Vallery-Radot, Fernand Widal (2), etc. Plus visiting cards from M. Delort, E. Gley, E. Koenig, Landolt, P. Minelle, P. Sebileau, E. Sergent, Tuffier, H. Vaquez, H. Vincent...