Black's Law Dictionary (2nd edition)dictionaries

Hysteria

A paroxysmal disease or disorder of the nervous system, more common in females than males, not originating in any anatomical lesion, due- to psychic rather than physical causes, and attended, in the acute er convulsive form, by extraordinary manifesta-tions of secondary effects of extreme nervous-ness

Source: Black’s Law Dictionary 2nd Ed (1910)