bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Hereditary Transmission of Epilepsy
Authors: Collins M. Abdy
Published: August 2008

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—The subject that I propose to bring to your notice to-day—namely, the hereditary transmission of epilepsy—is one of extreme interest and importance at the present time in this country, where, owing to recent legislation, public attention has been strongly focussed on the question of transmitted defect. The results that I have obtained have been a matter of considerable surprise to me, and I am anxious to obtain the experiences of others in this matter.
On Causation
Authors: Mercier Charles A.
Published: August 2008

Through the kindness of Dr. Mercier we have been favoured with an advanced copy of the first instalment of a new work recently completed by him on the subject of Causation, with special reference to causes of death and causes of insanity. Owing to conditions now existing in consequence of the war, with, as a result, an extreme scarcity of suitable literary material for publication, as explained in the October number of the Journal, the Editors have had to face quite unprecedented difficulties; and they wish here to express their acknowledgments to Dr. Mercier for so generously coming to their aid in what may almost be termed a crisis in the history of the Journal. The second (and final) instalment of Dr. Mercier's book will appear in the April number.
Cases of High Grade Mental Deficiency
Authors: Robertson Jane I.
Published: August 2008

There is a class of individual loose upon society whose presence and significance in our midst seems, as yet, insufficiently and improperly appreciated. These people are usually of pleasant address, with all the outward show of civil social observance; they are fluent of speech, readily adaptable to circumstances, superficially in every way most plausible. How does it come, then, that on closer acquaintance they prove to be the scourge of their relations and friends; that many of them have a prisoner's acquaintance with the police courts; that they are frequently embezzlers of money; are guilty of theft, drunkenness, and immorality of every kind; that slander, with all its miserable train of disintegrating influences, emanates from them as a miasma? Punishment is no deterrent to their anti-social activities; they are supremely unaffected either by the teachings of past experience or the forewarnings of future suffering.
Presidential Address: Our Work as Psychiatrists, and its Opportunities
Authors: Brush Edward N.
Published: August 2008

[We have received the following Address from Dr. Brush, who, knowing that we have had some difficulty in obtaining sufficient material for the Journal since the war began, kindly offered it for publication in our pages, while it will appear simultaneously in the July issue of the American Journal of Insanity, of which Dr. Brush is the Managing Editor. He is also the President of the American Medico-Psychological Association for the current year, and his views will no doubt be full of interest for his colleagues in the specialty on this side of the Atlantic.—Editor. Journal of Mental Science.]
Do Psychological Phenomena exist in the Vegetable World? [Existe-t-il des Phénomènes Psychologiques dans les Végétaux?]. (Revue Philosophique, February, 1916)
Authors: Adams J. Barfield
Published: August 2008

This question, the author says, cannot be treated from a theoretic or metaphysical point of view; it ought to be dealt with, on the contrary, by the positive method of observation and experience. One has been taught that psychological life is bound up with the presence of a nervous system. As we descend the zoological scale the nervous system gradually simplifies its structure and finally disappears. No one has demonstrated with certainty the presence of nervous substance in the protozoa. Are we, therefore, to conclude that there is no psychological life in these simple animals? The author considers that the continuity, which in zoology binds the most simple phenomena to the most complex, leads us to think that even among the infusoria there may be rudimentary psychological phenomena.
Reaction Time in Nervous and Mental Diseases
Authors: Scripture E. W.
Published: August 2008

Our knowledge of whether a person is normal, or suffers from neuritis, or is a case of dementia praecox, is derived entirely from observations of how he reacts to his environment—that is, to various stimuli. The thought at the basis of these researches is that an attempt may be made to produce an environment where the results will be accurately recorded in a simple, direct way.
Unfitness to Plead in Criminal Trials
Authors: Smith M. Hamblin
Published: August 2008

The subject of this paper is the criteria of an accused person's fitness to plead to an indictment charging him with some criminal offence. It is a consideration of the questions which are involved in the special verdict of “insane on arraignment.” We shall see, however, that in this connection the word “insane” is used in an extended sense.
Crime in Dementia Præcox
Authors: Toledo Ralph M.
Published: August 2008

Crimes connected with dementia paralytica and dementia of senility are relatively common, and many text-books speak of “medico-legal periods” in describing these diseases.
The Water Content of Some Normal and Pathological Brains
Authors: Cruickshank John
Published: August 2008

In the preceding paper it has been shown that the general or local atrophy of the brain occurring in chronic insanity is very largely due to loss of white matter. It seemed to be of interest to determine what chemical changes accompanied this shrinkage in the size of the brain. As a preliminary to an examination of the complex substances of which brain matter is composed, it was necessary to investigate the proportion of water to solids, as the figures obtained in this way are of the highest importance in regard to the interpretation of the results obtained by chemical methods. The examination of the various portions of brain tissue for the amount of water was therefore proceeded with as a routine measure. The whole of the grey or of the white matter, as the case might be, from each of the five portions, obtained as described in the preceding paper, was spread on glass plates in as thin a layer as possible and carefully weighed. The plates were then placed in a Hearson electric drying oven, the temperature of which was maintained at about 90° C. A current of dry hot air was passed into the oven from a fan attached to a small motor. After fifteen to twenty hours' exposure the plates were removed from the oven, and the solid material which remained was carefully and completely scraped off. It was then allowed to cool to room temperature and weighed. The material was returned to the oven for some hours, again removed and allowed to cool. This procedure was continued until the material attained a constant weight at room temperature. The percentage of water in each sample was then calculated.
Chadwick Lecture (April 26th, 1917): Mental Hygiene in Shell-shock, during and after the War
Authors: Mott F. W.
Published: August 2008

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,—A new epoch in military and medical science has arisen in consequence of the employment of high explosives, combined with prolonged trench warfare, in this terrible war.
The Orientation of Human and Animal Figures in Art
Authors: Adams J. Barfield
Published: August 2008

Mlle. Joséfa Ioteyko in her learned articles on La Théorie Psycho-Physiologique de la Droiterie, which were published in the Revue Philosophique, June and July, 1916, and of which an epitome appears in this number of the Journal, quotes largely from the works of Mlle. V. Kipiani, an enthusiastic educational reformer, who advocates a certain method of reading and writing, the object of which is the avoidance of unnecessary eye-strain. The method, which is fully described in the epitome, is not new. It is simply the boustrophedon mode of writing employed centuries ago by the Ancient Greeks, and abandoned by them for the method which is now used by European nations.
Psycho-analysis in Relation to Sex
Authors: Ellis Havelock
Published: August 2008

In 1895 an unostentatious book quietly appeared in Leipzig and Vienna entitled Studies of Hysteria (Studien über Hysterie), written jointly by two authors, Dr. Josef Breuer and Dr. Sigmund Freud. There was no public ready to receive the book, it attracted little attention, and had a small sale. In England and America it remained almost unknown, so that it is now a satisfaction to the present writer to recall that almost the first full exposition in English of the views set forth in this book appeared in the first volume of his own Studies in the Psychology of Sex in 1898. Yet these studies of hysteria, as an attentive reader could scarcely fail to realise, turned over a new page in medical psychology, and the new page was of fascinating interest. A case of hysteria was no longer to be regarded as, on the psychic side, almost beneath a physician's serious attention, nor was it to be settled merely by an accurate description of the physical symptoms, after the manner of Charcot's school, to which school in the first place Freud himself had belonged. It was a mystery to be patiently investigated, a mystery to which the key often lay far back and forgotten in the patient's history, and when skilfully used, with knowledge and insight, the patient's medical history acquired not only psychological significance but something of the interest of a novel. Freud himself clearly recognised this and stated, even in this first book, that it was by a representation of psychic processes, “such as we are accustomed to receive from the poet,” that he had gained his insight into the nature of hysteria.
A Theory of Conduct
Authors: McDougall Alan
Published: August 2008

In the beginning every creature was a patriarch: it was, philosophically, not only its individual self, but also all its potential progeny. Such a creature's whole conduct was directed towards the one goal of eternal life on earth. It so happened that in very many cases the creature's best chance of success involved association with other creatures of its kind, or even of other kinds. From this arose the complication of the acquirement of tribal instincts. Tribal instincts were acquired only for patriarchal purposes, though in very many cases they proved to be the immediate cause of the creature's death. A further complication arose when certain of the creatures acquired intellect and took to thinking. Philosophically, a living thing exists only that it may produce a generation capable of producing yet another generation. A generation is important only as the cause of its next generation. Intellect often gave the creature an immediate advantage over rivals, but it glorified the individual self at the expense of the patriarchal self. This is recognised in the third chapter of Genesis, where intellect is called the serpent, and thinking is called (in Chapter II) the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The statement that “in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die” declares that the race is kept going only by those who do not understand how to limit their families.
The Laws of Relative Fatigue. (Psychol. Rev., March, 1917.) Dodge, R.
Authors: Ellis Havelock
Published: August 2008

The problems of fatigue have recently, for well-known reasons, attracted unusual attention. They are, however, ancient problems around which a bewildering and contradictory mass of work and literature has accumulated. The author, who has for many years been working on the subject, here deals (in a Presidential Address to the American Psychological Association last year) with one limited aspect of these problems: the relativity of fatigue. He is more concerned with the scientific than with the practical aspects of the subject, for he considers that the extreme practical importance of fatigue has injured its proper scientific investigation. For this we must know what mental fatigue is, if it exists at all, and how it is conditioned.
The Ætiology of Crime
Authors: Goring Charles
Published: August 2008

In a recent number of the Journal of Mental Science, Sir Bryan Donkin contributes some important and interesting “Notes on Mental Defects in Criminals.” This is an important contribution, because, with manifest sincerity, it criticises adversely an important modern idea: the idea that Criminological Science, that all Social Science, must be built upon facts, and facts only. And, apart from their general interest, these notes are particularly interesting to me, because they refer, more than incidentally, to my book The English Convict, wherein the validity of arguments and conclusions depends entirely upon the study and logic of facts whose value, for elucidating biological problems, Sir Bryan would appear to discredit. For this reason may I be permitted to say a few words in support of a position which has been formidably assailed?
James Henry Pullen, the Genius of Earlswood
Authors: Sano F.
Published: August 2008

In old times, when kings occasionally wanted to know the real opinion of their people, they asked their fool, and it has become a proverb that “fools tell the truth while laughing.” But the court jester is not always an agreeable man, and it is also said that before he teaches you the maxim he “will annoy and pester.” Thus we may suppose that these were of different kinds.
An Ectromelus: An Atavistic Relapse
Authors: Pal S. B.
Published: August 2008

Darwin, after a most comprehensive and searching investigation of the phenomena of life and variation, came to the conclusion that “man is the co-descendant with the other mammals of a common progenitor,” and still “bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” With the immense and varied ancestry man has had, and the infinitude of his connections with the rest of the animal world, “atavism,” i.e., inheritance of characteristics from remote, not from the more immediate ancestors, is a very interesting subject of study. The presence of supernumerary nipples in man may be cited as an example of atavism. This abnormality has been noticed by me in four patients during five years' observations in the hospitals in this country. In some parts of Central and Eastern Europe a very high percentage of men is said to possess this abnormality. This characteristic is absent in apes, baboons, and monkeys, who are men's immediate successors, but is found in lemurs, an order of mammals lower in order. The rare occurrence of multiple births in women is a characteristic which is reversion, or atavistic towards the condition normal in lower vertebrates.
Some Experiments on Treatment of Dementia Paralytica with Subdural Injections of Neosalvarsan
Authors: Schrøder George E. , Helweg Hj.
Published: August 2008

The demonstration by Noguchi and many other investigators after him of spirochætes in the nervous texture in tabes dorsalis and in dementia paralytica has, as is well known, quite subverted the old conception of these diseases as para- or metasyphilitic in nature. They are just as syphilitic as other diseases caused by Spirochóta pallida are. It is quite a different thing, however, that in certain respects they occupy a peculiar position; as a rule they do not manifest themselves till ten to fifteen years after the primary affection, and they are very little affected by antisyphilitic treatment. It is well known that it was especially this last fact which caused them to be considered as not syphilitic in the common sense.
“Psychic Secretion: The Influence of the Environment.”
Authors: Cathcart Lieut-Col. E. P.
Published: August 2008

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,—Probably most of what I shall say to you this afternoon will be well known to you; indeed, many of you may think the information self-evident and trivial, but in spite of this I hope that what I say may serve to re-emphasise in your minds the fact that we are all very subject to our environment.
A Brief Résumé of Freud's Pscyhology
Authors: Stoddart W. H. B.
Published: August 2008

It is not without much hesitation and diffidence that I stand here to open your discussion on psycho-analysis, because I am merely one of Freud's disciples, and quite unworthy of assuming the role of an apostle of the psychology for which that great man—in my opinion the greatest psychologist who has ever lived—is entirely responsible.
One of the Difficulties of Psycho-Analysis
Authors: Freud Sigm.
Published: August 2008

[The discussion on psycho-analysis at the Annual General Meeting at Buxton, July, 1920 (see pp. 104 to 123), revealed some confusion of views as to what “Freudism” really means. We have thought it would be helpful, therefore, to include in this number a statement from Prof. Freud himself on the genesis and meaning of the “Libido Theory.” We are able to do so by the kindness and courtesy of Dr. Ernest Jones, the Editor of the ‘International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,’ from which Journal (vol. i, pt. i, 1920) this article is reprinted.—Eds.]
The Future of Service Patients in Mental Hospitals
Authors: Robinson William
Published: August 2008

The present paper is intended to furnish an account of the unfortunate class of case whose mental disorder, stated and considered to be due to war service, has been such as to necessitate certification and prolonged detention in mental hospitals.
Some Considerations in Psycho-therapy.
Authors: Bryce W. H.
Published: August 2008

In a short paper of this sort it is possible to do no more than touch on a few points emerging from the consideration of the treatment of the psycho-neuroses. There are various methods of treatment based on equally varying theories; owing to this lack of uniformity on the theoretical side it is not surprising that doubt and confusion have arisen, and that, in the minds of some, the whole subject is regarded as chaotic. It therefore behoves one to go slowly, but to be prepared to use such means as experience, in any or all of the methods, has proved to be useful. The greater issues have been much written of and discussed, and in this search many of the lesser issues have been lost sight of.
Mental Hygiene and Prophylaxis in France
Authors: Colin H.
Published: August 2008

IN February, 1914, there came before the French Senate a project for the revision of the law of 1838 regarding the insane. The law of 1838 states that “each department is to have a public establishment designed specially to admit and care for the insane.” This article was rewritten in the new project as follows. “Persons suffering from mental affections which compromise public order or who are dangerous to themselves or others are to be cared for and detained in special establishments when they cannot be provided for at their own homes.”
The School Medical Service in Relation to Mental Defect
Authors: Auden G. A.
Published: August 2008

When our President invited me to contribute a paper for this meeting, I understood that it was to be of the nature of a presentation of the case of the school medical officer in relation to a unification of those medical services which deal with the various aspects of mental defect. This I have attempted to do in the belief that if real constructive work is to be done, the foundations must be laid by examining the problem as it is manifested in childhood and early youth. This is comparatively easy, because not only does a very large proportion of children and young persons now come under continuous medical observation, but there is in addition the important testimony which their educational progress affords as to their mental make-up. Further, I believe that the practical solution of the question of mental deficiency from the point of view of the community at large will depend for its completeness upon early diagnosis, and upon the measures which are taken to deal with the subjects before they reach adult life. In one of his addresses, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes urges that in these days of specialisation we must not neglect the older theories which have yielded place to new. “The débris of broken systems and exploded dogmas form a great mound, a Monte Testaccio of shards and remnants of old vessels which once held human beliefs. If you take the trouble to climb to the top of it, you will widen your horizon.” To none is this advice more needful than to those of us who are brought into contact with mental defect and all its attendant problems. There is still so much confusion of thought, the result of changing points of view, that we do not always see clearly the end to which our efforts should be directed. This is of practical importance, because upon the standpoint from which we view the problem will depend, not only the range of our activities, but also the particular members of the community whom we hope to include therein.
Venous Stasis
Authors: Hyslop Theo. B.
Published: August 2008

IN order to understand venous stasis in its several relationships to the functions of the brain, it is advisable to refer to some of the problems which have been the most difficult with which neurologists and psychiatrists have had to deal. The aspects of the problems studied have been so varied, and the interpretations of the phenomena so widely different, that it has hitherto been almost impossible to obtain any degree of unanimity of opinion. In dealing with the aetiology and pathology of disease one of the first considerations ought to be to determine, if possible, the existence of physical or mechanical factors of causation.
Training Aides for Mental Patients. (Arch. of Occupat. Ther., February, 1922.) Slagle, Eleonor C.
Authors: Franklin Marjorie E.
Published: August 2008

Emphasis should be laid on the relation of directed activity to mental adjustment and social rehabilitation. There are three groups to be dealt with: (a) Patients likely to remain permanently in hospital, (b) recoverable hospital cases, (c) pre-hospital work at clinics. The candidate for training should not be too young and should be selected by a committee. Personality and character are of the highest importance, and the work demands consecration and genuine human love. The training is both theoretical and technical. The student is taught a little of general hospital administration, hospital etiquette, and the relation of her work to the organisation as a whole. She starts with the lower grades, and is taught something of the interdependence of the mental and physical, of the nature of habit reactions and methods of overcoming bad and forming good habits, including the habit of attention. Habit training is especially important in the reception service and with the unemployed deteriorating class. The deteriorated patients of many years' standing are the most difficult of all, but the writer looks forward to a lightening of this burden in the future when improved methods of prophylaxis and treatment have been used from the beginning. However, these patients are entitled to a chance, and even now results are encouraging. The next grade is the kindergarten. Here the student learns methods of re-education along lines of sensory stimulation and training: colour, music, simple exercises, games and story-telling are employed along with occupations. In the grades above this patients are given manual occupations chosen to meet individual needs. They are of increasing complexity, increasing interest, and require increasing concentration. Still higher is the occupation centre or “curative workshop,” where really beautiful work is sometimes done. Patients may be sent here for special observation, or before parole, or before passing to the “pre-industrial” or vocational training departments. The student should here make a general survey of the patient from the point of view of his personal needs, interests, inhibitions, emotions and relation to environment and the construction of a balanced programme of work, rest and play.
The Treatment of General Paralysis by Malaria; The Use of Speech Inscriptions for Early Diagnosis
Authors: Scripture E. W.
Published: August 2008

The history of general paralysis records undoubted cases where the disease has for some reason or other seemed for a time actually cured so that the patients could return to work. Although such cases after a short time showed relapse whereby the disease then followed its usual course, this fact is sufficient to indicate the possi bility of stopping the progressive paralysis in some way.
A Case of Mental Disorder arising from Chronic Lead Poisoning
Authors: Smyth J. F.
Published: August 2008

Lead poisoning as a factor in the aetiology of insanity has of late years become rare as a result of improved hygienic conditions among workers.
A Case of Homicidal Mania
Authors: Davey
Published: August 2008

The case, to which the observations I am about to make refer, is not, I think, without some interest to us, both as medical men and a? the proprietors or superintendents of private or public asylums. It is calculated, as I believe, to illustrate the not very enviable position we may be, under circumstances, placed in, in reference not only to the Commissioners in Lunacy, but to the public; whose servants the proprietors and superintendents of asylums, of all kinds, are to be considered. The case, moreover, follows, and very properly, the paper of Dr. Conolly's, entitled “On the Prospects of Physicians practising,” in our specialty.
On the Prospects of Physicians engaged in Practice in Cases of Insanity
Authors: Conolly John
Published: August 2008

Since the following Paper was commenced, the appearance of the “Report from the Select Committee on Lunatics, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 27th July, 1860,” of which Committee Mr. Walpole is the respected Chairman, has, in a considerable degree, relieved the minds of physicians practising in the department of insanity, from the apprehensions occasioned by the draft of a Bill ordered to be printed in February, 1859. It would seem that the evidence brought before the Select Committee in disparagement of the proprietors of asylums for the insane, and in support of the alleged fact of the improper detention of persons in a state of sound mind, was deemed insufficient to warrant the meditated additions to stringent restrictions already existing. All the obnoxious clauses relative to the appointment of Medical Examiners, a kind of unqualified auxiliaries to the Commissioners in Lunacy, and who were to make secret reports, have been abandoned; as well as some other clauses, which had been the source of great and just dissatisfaction.
Life Insurance Offices and Suicide
Authors: Davey J. G.
Published: August 2008

The remarks I have to offer for your consideration this evening relate to the subject of suicide, both in its medico-legal and social aspects. I am led to think that the every-day opinions entertained of suicide, its causes, &c., are altogether erroneous, and themselves a source of untruth and of much evil in society. If we will take the trouble to read the statements made in the newspaper press as to suicide and the parties implicated in the same, it is apparent that the act of self-destruction is, as a very general rule, viewed as one of a perfectly voluntary character—as one originating in the will—the normal will—of the individual most concerned. The world, so to speak, ignores the fact—the important fact—that every case of suicide is the accompaniment and consequence of a positive brain disorder, the effect of cerebro-mental disease. Need I add that a better acquaintance with psychological science—with the brain, its functions and diseased states—must, one day, cause this fact to be duly appreciated. Pending such a state of things, we must look for not only the false judgments of editors of public journals, but for the want of common justice on the part of Life Assurance Offices as towards their clients. I shall hope to prove to you, Mr. President, first, that the act of suicide is, at all times and under all circumstances, but one of the many indications of cerebro-mental disease—of, in one word, insanity; second, that the conduct of Life Assurance Societies towards their numerous clients, and in so far as suicide is concerned, is in all respects incompatible with an advanced psychology, and at variance with a due sense of right and common justice.
On General Paralysis
Authors: Tuke Harrington
Published: August 2008

The physical symptoms attending the general paralysis of the insane have been shown to present in their progress three well-defined stages. Some of the earliest physical signs—any one of which associated with a particular form of insanity will almost infallibly indicate the first stage of this special disorder—are the intermittent pulse, the irregular or contracted pupil, the quivering lip or embarrassed articulation. The second stage is marked by loss of power in the upper extremities, by a gait more or less unsteady, by diminished sensation in the cutaneous nerves, or by the loss of some of the special senses. In the third period the disease approaches its climax, in an entire want of motory power, and by an impairment of all the nervous functions so universal, that although organic life may, under careful treatment, be prolonged for a considerable time, the patient may be said to exist rather than to live. Epileptiform attacks may precede or accompany any one of these stages. They sometimes very distinctly mark out their boundaries, or the disorder may run its course without any recognised convulsive seizures.
On the Principles and Method of a Practical Science of Mind
Authors: Laycock Thomas
Published: August 2008

1. The question propounded.—The members of the Association under whose auspices the ‘Journal of Mental Science’ is published, having done me the honour to elect me an honorary member of their body, I think I cannot better express my strong sense of the compliment thus paid to me, than by a cordial co-operation with them in their labours for the advancement of mental science. The subject I have ventured with this object to bring under their notice, is one of the highest importance to their professional success; it is to determine how far a mental science in the true meaning of the term science is possible, and capable of practical application to mental pathology, therapeutics and hygiène, and the needs of society in general. For more than twenty-five years, I have carefully studied mental science in these its practical relations, and have from time to time made my views public. My friend Dr. J. S. Bushnan, has questioned the value and validity of those views in the journal, on two recent occasions', with special reference to two of my latest publications.* It appears from his last communication, (‘Journal of Mental Science,’ October, 1861), that he has come to the conclusion that my systematic views elaborated after so much labour and thought, and carefully applied, not only to the practice, but also to the teaching of both the practice of medicine in general, and of psychiatry in particular are, “in no sense practical.” This, to me, startling conclusion, has led me to examine into the mode by which my friend and critic came by the notion, and I find that either he or I must be under a singular misapprehension, both as to what is scientific and practical, and as to how it may be attained. I know of no other method for testing where the error lies, than a comparison of Dr. Bushnan's principles and method with mine, in reference to the objects for which the journal is established. Now Dr. Bushnan states his doctrine very explicitly at the outset.
A Description of some of the most important Physiological Anomalies of Idiots
Authors: Duncan P. Martin
Published: August 2008

The anomalies of the physical functions of idiots, are often quite as striking as the defects and peculiarities of their minds, and it is found that the amount of mental incapacity bears a direct relation to the physiological disability. It may be stated as a rule, that the greater the physical defect, the greater the idiot; and the reverse holds good—that an idiot with very slight intellectual power, has chances of rising in the scale of intelligence, commensurate with his physical abilities and freedom from physical defects.
Two Cases illustrative of two distinct forms of Mania, with general Paralysis
Authors: McLeod Kenneth
Published: August 2008

My Dear Dr. Laycock,—I am sorry that owing to constant occupation of my time by asylum engagements, I have not been able sooner to forward the cases of which I promised you a detailed history. This I have been at some pains in ascertaining as accurately as possible, and regret that I have not been able to put my materials into a more polished form. Both of them seem to be very typical examples of the forms of general paralysis which you differentiate, namely, the alcoholic and diathetic. Each affords a most perfect example of the sequence by which, from a perfect arthritic health, and sound arthritic modes of psychological manifestation, the invasion of paralysis gradually proceeded to sap and extinguish life.
Lunacy in France
Authors: Coxe
Published: August 2008

As considerable attention has recently been directed to the state of lunacy in Scotland, and much difference of opinion still exists as to the best method of providing accommodation for the insane poor, I have thought it not unlikely that it may interest at least a section of your readers, to know “how they manage these things in France.” You are aware there is no compulsory poor-law in this country; nevertheless, there is much charitable expenditure. Each parish or commune has its own resources, derived from the rents of land, the interest of money, local imposts, or charitable bequests; and its ability to provide for its poor varies with the amount of its revenue. In some communes, accordingly, the poor are well cared for, while, in others “they are steeped in misery to the very lips.” In 1838, the present French law of lunacy came into operation. It provides for the erection of departmental asylums, and for the maintenance therein of the insane poor. The funds for the buildings are voted by the Conseil-Général of the department, while those for the maintenance of the patients are found in this way:—The law determines that a commune possessing a certain income shall pay a certain proportion of the keep of its pauper lunatics; the remaining portion is defrayed by the department. The proportion paid by the commune varies from a sixth to a half; but as it is rare that a commune pays the highest rate, by far the greater share of the cost of maintenance falls on the department. It is the duty of the préfet to ascertain the income of the different communes within his jurisdiction, and to fix the proportion which each has to contribute for the pauper lunatics belonging to it. The rate of maintenance to be charged by the asylum is also fixed from time to time by the same official. At present, in the department of the Seine Inférieure, it amounts to one franc twenty-five centimes a-day for males, and to one franc fifteen centimes a-day for females. The poorest communes, accordingly, get their pauper lunatics maintained for a sixth of these sums, or about twopence a-day. Of course, as forming part of the department, they have to pay their share of the departmental expenses, but these fall in a much greater ratio on the wealthier communes—on such, for instance, as those of Rouen and Havre. The natural effect of this system is to stimulate the poorer communes to send every possible case to the asylum.
Epidemic Encephalitis: Some Psychical Sequeló
Authors: Gillespie R. D.
Published: August 2008

Numerous observations have lately been recorded in medical literature on the acute manifestations of epidemic encephalitis; but the late after-effects, especially those of a psychotic nature, have been seldom described. Kirby and Davis (1) have emphasized this, and have recorded 18 cases in their early and later stages. They remark that “a satisfactory solution of certain of the psychiatric problems presented by this disease will require a longer period for clinical observation of cases than has elapsed since the appearance of the epidemic of 1918–19.” The following series of 10 cases is offered as a contribution to the clinical records of the sequelae of the disease, especially from the psychiatric point of view. Eight of them originated in connection with the epidemic of 1918–20. The remaining two are of remoter origin, and are admitted on account of their close resemblance to the others, and of their special interest from the point of view of classification and prognosis. Five of them (3, 5, 6, 9 and 10) are, or have been, in mental hospitals. In this connection the only statistics available to me are those quoted by Kirby and Davis (loc. cit.) for the New York State Hospitals in the hospital year from July 1, 1919, to June 30, 1920, when, out of 6,500 admissions, only 20 were considered to be probably cases of epidemic encephalitis. (But the epidemic was subsiding at that time.) The 5 cases mentioned should therefore be of considerable interest; and it is one of the purposes of this paper to show that a more thorough knowledge of the results of this protean disease would lead to its being diagnosed more frequently among the cases, even those of very long residence, in mental hospitals.
General Paralysis: its Unsolved Problems
Authors: Stewart R. M.
Published: August 2008

There is probably no disease in regard to which our views have undergone so radical a change during the past few years as general paralysis of the insane, and none in which the discovery of the causative agent has been followed by so rapid a revolution in standpoint. Although almost from the time of its definition, more than a century ago, the essentially organic nature of the disease and its close relationship to syphilis have been universally recognized, it has required many years of patient study to free it from the hypotheses which have been invoked to explain its obscurities, and, as always happens in scientific progress, in the process of unravelling the knotty problems of this disease, we discover that there are new obstacles and difficulties to be overcome. Is the Spirochóte pallida alone responsible for the genesis of general paralysis? When does it gain access to the nervous system, and how? Is there a special strain of spirochóte, or must the individual resistance of the infected person be considered the deciding factor in the development of the disease? What is the meaning of the long latent interval before the onset of symptoms? What determines the peculiar distribution of the lesions in general paralysis, and is there some particular place in the brain from which the spirochæte starts its wandering? What is the significance of the absence of spirochætes in other organs of the body, and why does the cerebro-spinal fluid contain no organisms at a time when the brain contains millions? Why do tabes, general paralysis and optic atrophy, supposedly of similar origin, not occur in conjunction more frequently? Why is it that arsenical compounds fail to effect a cure?
Relapsing Fever Therapy in General Paralysis: Clinical Notes on a Case of Paresis treated with African Tick Fever
Authors: Silverston J. D.
Published: August 2008

Relapsing fever as a curative agent in paresis has been tried as far back as 1921, when several continental observers favourably commented on it. The close similarity between the two diseases in their causal agents and blood-serum reactions strongly commends the theory that the induction of a spirochótal fever in general paralysis might lead to the production of immune and anti-bodies in sufficient amount as to effect an amelioration in the symptoms, if not a complete arrest in the progress of this deadly malady.
Mental After-Care
Authors: Rayner Henry
Published: August 2008

Mental after-care, since the establishment of the Association bearing this name more than forty years ago by Mr. Hawkins the then Chaplain of Colney Hatch, has become very generally adopted in most countries.
The Method and Uses of Cisternal Puncture
Authors: Dawson W. S.
Published: August 2008

The puncture of the cisterna magna was proposed and carried out in 1919 by Wegeforth, Ayer and Essick, who performed a series of experiments on animals before applying the method to man.
A Survey of American and Canadian Psychiatric Opinion as to Focal Infections (or Chronic Sepsis) as Causative Factors in Functional Psychoses
Authors: Hobbs A. T.
Published: August 2008

This subject has caused much discussion among psychiatrists since the presentation of a paper dealing with this matter which was read before the American Psychiatric Association at its annual meeting held in Quebec City in June, 1922.
Some Notes on Encephalitis Lethargica
Authors: Marshall Robert
Published: August 2008

The following notes are derived from the case-records of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, by kind permission of the medical staff, and are placed before you on the suggestion of Col. Dawson. They are an analysis of a series of 42 cases of encephalitis lethargica treated as in-patients of the Hospital between October 5, 1918, when the first case was admitted, and December 31, 1923. Of these 42 patients, 14 died in hospital, and of 28 who survived 2 died within a year of leaving hospital; 18 replied either in person or by letter to my circular letter of inquiry, and I was unable to trace the remainder.
Twenty-eight Years' Lunacy Experience in Egypt (1895–1923)
Authors: Warnock John
Published: August 2008

There being no law on lunacy in Egypt, all procedure is by administrative orders. The Government has the right to take any steps necessary to secure public order. There is no Habeas Corpus Statute in Egypt. The Criminal Code prohibits illegal sequestration, but if the sequestration is done by the Government with a proper motive, it is apparently justifiable legally. The existing public hospitals for the insane belong to the Central Government; the local municipalities and commissions have none. In the local general hospitals, however, under the Public Health Ministry, there are special rooms constructed for the temporary accommodation of insane persons awaiting certification, or too ill to travel. The Lunacy Division of the Ministry of the Interior administers the hospitals for the insane and issues the necessary orders, which are, however, signed by the Minister; it also proposes the annual budget, and expends the sums granted according to the regulations of the Ministry of Finance. Grants for buildings are made to the Public Works Department, which plans the buildings on the instructions of the Lunacy Division, arranges the contracts, and supervises construction. The Division is almost as autonomous as a Government Department can be; and subject to the technical regulations of the various Ministries and the approval of the Minister, can decide its own questions. The legal Counsellor of the Ministry of the Interior advises it in legal questions, and defends it when attacked in Court. For the present the Director of the Division also acts as Director of the chief hospital at Abbâsîya, but the arrangement should be altered on the passage of a Lunacy Act.
Sir Frederick Needham, M.D.St.And., M.R.C.P.Edin., M.R.C.S.Eng.
Authors: C. H. B.
Published: August 2008

With perhaps the exception of the youngest in our ranks, there can be no member of the Association or, indeed, of our branch of Medicine, who learnt of the death of Sir Frederick Needham without realizing that an important link was thereby severed in the sequence of those who, in our time and in their respective spheres of action, have rendered great service to psychological medicine, especially in bringing about the many improvements that have taken place during the past three-quarters of a century in the conditions under which insane patients are housed and treated.
The Case of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold
Authors: Smith M. Hamblin , Fairweather Anne
Published: August 2008

America has lately been the scene of a murder, and a consequent trial, both of which were remarkable even for that land of sensations. The circumstances of the crime were quite out of the ordinary. The questions discussed at the trial were of the utmost psychological and medico-legal importance. The local newspaper reports, together with many other details, were sent to us through the kindness of Mr. Stephen M. Reynolds, of Chicago. We thus have information which few, if any, in this country possess. The actual trial lasted thirty-two days. The mere reading of the reports was a heavy task. We then had to separate from the mass of journalism those points in the evidence which might be taken as established. And we think that a summary thereof may be of general interest.
The Boarding-out System in Scotland. (1)
Authors: Gibson George
Published: August 2008

Any paper on the “boarding-out system” in Scotland would be entirely incomplete without a reference to the recent death of its distinguished advocate and supporter, Dr. John Fraser. For seventeen years as a Deputy Commissioner Dr. Fraser visited patients throughout the length and breadth of Scotland, and his interest and enthusiasm in the method lasted to the end of a long life. His devotion to duty and the high standard he always set are fully appreciated by one who, as a Deputy Commissioner, is privileged to come after him, and finds a daily difficulty in adequately following in his footsteps. It is matter of real regret that he is not with us here to-day.
The Sensitivity of the Sympathetic Nervous System to Adrenalin in Some Cases of Mental Disorder
Authors: McWilliam Wm.
Published: August 2008

Last summer we had admitted to our hospital a case of the involution period in the female, which presented such notable features from the clinical aspect that I was stimulated to the discovery of the “whys” and “wherefores” it presented. An involution case, I found myself confronted with certain problems of an endocrinological nature, which are the experience of all psychiatrists.
A Case of Cerebral Tumour
Authors: Forsyth Wm. Leonard
Published: August 2008

Post-mortem examination of brain.—The dura and leptomeninges are normal and there is no excess of fluid. The right hemi-cranium is health. Section of the left shows a large area of rather recent hæmorrage into the substance of the white matter of the left occipital lobe. This area is confined to the white matter of the lobe, and does not communicate with either the posterior horn or the descending horn of the lateral ventricle, or the exterior.
The Myth of the Unconscious Mind
Authors: Bolton Joseph Shaw
Published: August 2008

To believers in portents the circumstances surrounding the evolution of a great personality are ever of interest, and to such the birth of the promulgator of the myth of the unconscious mind must especially appeal, surrounded as it is by features of a truly extraordinary character.
The Cerebro-spinal Fluid in Encephalitis Lethargica
Authors: Hancock Allen
Published: August 2008

Encephalitis lethargica, or epidemic encephalitis as it is now usually called, is becoming more generally recognized throughout the world, and while diagnosis is usually easy in those cases with a clear history, and who show the “encephalitic syndrome” to a marked degree, much confusion has arisen in the case of some patients who have shown clinical features which have led observers to arrive at a diagnosis of this disease when later investigations have shown that this conclusion has not been a correct one.
The Fœcal Acidity in the Insane Epileptic
Authors: Cobb Geoffrey
Published: August 2008

The following is a brief synopsis of some notes relating to the acidity of the fleces in epilepsy. These results were obtained and compiled as preliminary data, anticipatory to the carrying out of further investigations with regard to epilepsy. The fæcal acidity of 50 female epileptics, who were chosen at random from those undergoingtreatmentin hospital, was determined. These estimations were not detailed, but were of sufficient accuracy for comparative purposes. In each case the term “acidit” denotes that quantity of normal sodium hydroxide solution, measured in cubic centimetres, required to neutralize the total quantity of acids extracted from 100 grm. of the given specimen of fæces. Several analyses were carried out in each case.