IN 1807, three years after the Essay on Drunkenness had reached the bookshops, Trotter published another major text, with the same kind of joint lay and professional readership intended. The full title of the new book was A View of the Nervous Temperament being a Practical Enquiry into the Increasing Prevalence, Prevention and Treatment of those Diseases commonly called Nervous, Bilious, Stomach and Liver Complaints, Indigestion, Low Spirits, Gout etc. – a title virtually as synopsis. Further editions appeared in 1807 and 1812. A facsimile edition appeared in 1976 in an American ‘Classics in Psychiatry’ series. The choice of James Gregory, then head of the Edinburgh Medical School, as person to whom the book was dedicated, was designed to enhance Trotter's credibility with the medical profession, although Gregory was not as well known as Jenner. At various points in the text Trotter stressed the extent of his medical experience, with an insistence that it had encompassed much more than the treatment of the fleet. His views were therefore

The two sides of Georgian prosperity

Fully to comprehend the significance of Trotter's social critique one needs to be reminded of the magnitude of what was taking place in Britain at the time. The Georgian period was one of unprecedented change and prosperity. By its end, the agricultural scene had been transformed by the enclosure of common land and improvements to soil, crops and livestock. Likewise, industry had been revolutionized by new technological processes, the ingenuity of profit-seeking entrepreneurs, the availability of raw materials like coal and iron and the development of speedy transport systems, notably canals and turnpikes. And in support, trade, backed by the necessary infrastructure of banks, credit, insurance and ships, was flourishing.