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Lunatic
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==History== [[File:Horoscope 1792.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The [[Natal chart|horoscope]] of a "dumb Lunatic and Ideot" according to an astrologer who describes how the positions of the planets Saturn and Mars with respect to the moon are the cause of "diseases of the mind"<ref name="Heydon">{{cite book |last=Heydon |first=C. |title=Astrology. The wisdom of Solomon in miniature, being a new doctrine of nativities, reduced to accuracy and certainty ... Also, a curious collection of nativities, never before published. |year=1792 |publisher=printed for A. Hamilton |location=London |isbn=9781170010471 }}</ref>]] The term "lunatic" derives from the Latin word [[wikt:lunaticus|''lunaticus'']], which originally referred mainly to [[epilepsy]] and [[wikt:madness|madness]], as diseases thought to be caused by the moon.<ref name="Riva">{{cite journal |last1=Riva |first1=M. A. |last2=Tremolizzo |first2=L. |last3=Spicci |first3=M |last4=Ferrarese |first4=C |last5=De Vito |first5=G |last6=Cesana |first6=G. C. |last7=Sironi |first7=V. A. |date=January 2011 |title=The Disease of the Moon: The Linguistic and Pathological Evolution of the English Term "Lunatic" |journal=Journal of the History of the Neurosciences |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=65β73 |doi=10.1080/0964704X.2010.481101 |pmid=21253941 |s2cid=5886130 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Frey |first1=J. |last2=Rotton |first2=J. |last3=Barry |first3=T.|date=1979|title=The effects of the full moon on human behavior: Yet another failure to replicate|url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1981-01480-001|journal=The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied|volume=103|issue=2|pages=159β162}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=D.E.|first=Campbell|date=1982|title=Lunarβlunacy research: When enough is enough.|journal=Environment and Behavior|volume=14|issue=4|pages=418β424|doi=10.1177/0013916582144002|s2cid=144508020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cameron |first=Joy |title=Prisons and Punishment in Scotland: From the Middle Ages to the Present |publisher=Canongate |year=1983 |isbn=9780862410315 |location=United Kingdom |pages=170}}</ref> The [[King James Version]] of the Bible records "lunatick" in the [[Gospel of Matthew]], which has been interpreted as a reference to epilepsy.<ref name="Riva"/> By the fourth and fifth centuries,{{clarify|date=November 2015}} astrologers were commonly using the term to refer to neurological and psychiatric diseases.<ref name="Riva" /><ref>{{Cite journal |date=2017|title=The association between lunar phase and intracranial aneurysm rupture: Myth or reality? Own data and systematic review|journal=BMC Neurology|volume=17|issue=99|pages=99|doi=10.1186/s12883-017-0879-1|pmid=28525979|pmc=5437543|last1=Bunevicius|first1=Adomas|last2=Gendvilaite|first2=Agne|last3=Deltuva|first3=Vytenis Pranas|last4=Tamasauskas|first4=Arimantas |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] argued that the full moon induced individuals to lunacy and epilepsy by effects on the brain analogous to the nocturnal [[dew]].<ref name="JAD">{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1016/S0165-0327(99)00016-6|title = The moon and madness reconsidered|year = 1999|last1 = Raison|first1 = Charles L.|last2 = Klein|first2 = Haven M.|last3 = Steckler|first3 = Morgan|journal = Journal of Affective Disorders|volume = 53|issue = 1|pages = 99β106|pmid = 10363673}}</ref> Until at least 1700, it was also a common belief that the moon influenced fevers, rheumatism, episodes of [[epilepsy]] and other diseases.<ref name="Harrison">{{cite journal |last=Harrison |first=Mark |year=2000 |title=From medical astrology to medical astronomy: sol-lunar and planetary theories of disease in British medicine, c. 1700β1850 |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=25β48 |doi=10.1017/S0007087499003854 |pmid=11624340 |s2cid=22247498 }}</ref>
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