Essay on superstition: being an inquiry into the effects of physical influence on the mind, in the production of dreams, visions, ghosts, and other supernatural appearances.

London: J. Hatchard and Son, 1830. First Edition. . Hardcover. See Description. First Edition. 8vo. pp. xvi, 430, [2]. Bound in original quarter gray cloth and paper boards. Re-backed preserving the original spine. Paper boards are rubbed, discolored and aged. Board corners are carefully repaired/strengthened. Interior contains scattered foxing and splotching; some leaves possess a rough or chipped marginal edge (due to careless opening); outer marginal tearing is neatly and professionally sealed on several leaves; pages 1 and 413 display a light corner crease or stress mark. Crabtree states that this is "A little known work of real significance for the history of both animal magnetism and of physical research. Newnham wrote the book under the patronage of the Bishop of Winchester and it was clearly an attempt to use physiological and psychological terms to explain supernatural or supernormal phenomena which embarrass the Church… Newnham’s chapters on sleep, dreams and somnambulism include an appreciative discussion of animal magnetism. This appeared seven years before Elliotson’s invitation to Du Potet to do medical experiments with animal magnetism at London’s University Hospital and started a strong wave of interest in the subject throughout England."[Crabtree 346; Besterman, p. 258].