bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Professor Betz's Method of Making Sections of Nervous Tissue
Authors: Tuke Batty
Published: August 2008

Professor Betz, of Kiew, has lately produced brain sections, which have attracted very considerable attention in Vienna. His specimens are of vast extent. He appears to be able to produce thin sections of an entire hemisphere. We append his method of hardening and cutting as it is stated in the “Correspondentze Blatt der deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und Gerichtlich Psychologie, Jan., 1873.” The method of hardening which we wish to bring into notice is as follows:—observing that differences exist in the treatment of the spinal-cord, cerebrum and cerebellum. The spinal-cord—after tbe careful removal of the dura mater, it is placed in spirit of from 75 to 80 per cent., which is tinged a clear brown colour by the addition of Iodine. After from one to three days, during which the preparation must stand in a cool temperature, the Pia Mater and the Arachnoid are also removed; the specimen remaining in the spirit, to which a few drops of Iodine must be added daily for three days, maintaining an ordinary temperature. It is then transferred to a three per cent. solution of Chromate of Potass, and back again to the cool temperature. Here it hardens thoroughly, which is known by the fluid becoming turbid, and by the formation of a brown deposit upon the preparation. When this occurs, it must be immediately thoroughly washed with water, and immersed in a solution of Chromate of Potass, from a half to one per cent. strength, in which it will not become too hard or brittle.
The Perception, &c., of Time as a feature in Mental Disease
Authors: Browne W. A. F.
Published: August 2008

The power or process by means of which Time is mentally recognised and estimated independently of, or before, its external and artificial measurement, has not received a clear or comprehensive solution at the hands of those who have dealt with the subject. Certain metaphysicians connect the idea of duration with that of extension, and conceive that the child, or the savage, may have acquired a notion of intervals, or interrupted extension, from seeing and feeling through the muscular sense the alternate extension and flexion of his limbs; all comparison of such events with the successive changes in objective phenomena, as in days and nights, being the result of subsequent experience. Certain others conceive that our notion of Time originates in our consciousness and observation of succession in our thoughts, feelings, and mental states, a succession which necessarily involves a series of changes separated in time, and order, and nature. Sir W. Hamilton, apparently aware of the difficulty of the problem, says that “Time is a form of thought,” and “if we attempt to comprehend Time, either in whole or in part, we find that thought is hedged in between two incomprehensibles.” Other philosophers, belonging to a more practical school, who may be claimed as psychologists, contend that the subjective element of Time is imparted by the communication of impressions upon the external senses to the sensorium, coming as these must always do in succession with intervals of different length, and, as they often do, of regular length and intensity. It will be observed that in all these hypotheses it is taken for granted that the mind is capable of directing attention to its own conditions, and, to a certain extent, of analysing these, of marking their course, their swiftness, or slowness, their regularity, or irregularity. On the other hand, the phrenologists contend that there is a primitive and special faculty connected with a portion of the anterior lobe of the brain, by which Time, or the succession of events and intervals, is perceived or becomes known to us. My own speculations formerly led me to the theory that the perception of rhythm, or regular sequence, in sensorial impressions was conveyed by the pulsations of the cerebral arteries, either to the whole brain, or to such portion of it as may take cognisance of internal movements or changes. Sir H. Holland, that noble veteran, that learned and travelled and philosophic physician, who has just passed from amongst us, dedicated a chapter in his “Medical Notes and Reflections,” p. 499, to the exposition of “Time as an element in Mental Functions,” in which his chief object is to show that ideas or different modes of mentalisation arise and are propagated in different degrees of velocity and intensity in Time in different temperaments, and in the same individual at different periods, in accordance with the predominant physical or mental condition.
The Madmen of the Greek Theatre
Authors: Gasquet J. R.
Published: August 2008

The seclusion in which the women of Athens lived naturally made the elder dramatists shrink from exhibiting them on the stage as under the influence of violent passion. Euripides departed from this rule, and was lashed for it by his merciless satirist; but even he, who depicted a Medea and a Phaedra, did not venture to bring a raving woman before his audience. There was just one case in which the Greeks would not be justly scandalised by such a presentment— where madness was supposed to be supernatural in its origin, and consecrated by religion, and an instance of this has been happily left us in the Bacchó. My readers have been made acquainted with that beautiful sketch of an epidemic of religious insanity, and I have now to describe an incidental portrait of a “wise woman,” when the spirit of prophecy is upon her, and she speaks as one raving, yet possessed by the God.
A Case of Traumatic Insanity cured by Trephining
Authors: Skae C. Holland
Published: August 2008

J. McB., æt. 21 years. Admitted into the asylum 25th November, 1869. Married, with small family; no member of his family known to have been insane before; light hair, eyes and complexion.
Two Cases of Syphilitic Insanity
Authors: Tuke Batty
Published: August 2008

B. A., æt. 52. Admitted January, 1873. Member of a liberal profession.
The Mind and its Tenement; Their Mutual Relations
Authors: Robertson C. Lockhart
Published: August 2008

“The knowledge concerning the sympathies and concordances between the mind and the body” saith the founder† of modern science, in discoursing of human philosophy, or the knowledge of ourselves, as he terms it, is “fit to be emancipate and made a knowledge by itself. The consideration is double: either how and how far the humours and effects of the body do alter or work upon the mind; or again, how and how far the passions and apprehensions of the mind do alter or work upon the body. The former of these,” (the influence of the body on the mental state,) continues Bacon, “hath been enquired and considered as a part and appendix of medicine, but much more as a part of religion or superstition. For the physician prescribeth cures of the mind in phrensies and melancholy passions; and pretendeth also to exhibit medicines to exhilarate the mind, to confirm the courage, to clarify the wits, to corroborate the memory and the like: but the scruples and superstitions of diet and other regimen of the body in the sect of Pythagoreans, in the heresy of the Manicheans, and in the law of Mahomet do exceed. … The root and life of all which prescripts is besides the ceremony, the consideration of that dependency, which the affections of the mind are submitted unto, upon the state and disposition of the body.”
On the Terms Delusion, Illusion, and Hallucination
Authors: Blount J. H.
Published: August 2008

It would seem rather superfluous to remark, that no science can be definite or precise, whose terms are undefined and inexact, and that it behoves the student in any science, to understand the terms employed, before he can master his subject; more especially is this the case, where the subject treats of abstract qualities and ideas, whose fundamental terms, themselves expressing abstracts, require defining from the very beginning: and yet, the difficulty I have met with, and which others have experienced in those terms which form the subject of the following remarks, will perhaps shew that such precision is not so universally observed as is supposed.
The Hermit of Red-coat's Green
Authors: Tuke Daniel Hack
Published: August 2008

I wish to bring under the notice of the Association the case of a gentleman who some years ago became notorious through the graphic pen of Charles Dickens, and whose recent death has drawn fresh attention to his strange mode of life. Already nearly 10,000 copies of a biographical sketch of the hermit have been sold, and a brisk sale, I am informed, is still going on, while a large quantity of crockery, tea services, &c., representing his dwelling, have been sold. Being familiar with the residence of Lucas, the so-called Hermit of Red-Coat's Green, near Hitchin, and having visited him, I feel considerable interest in the question of his insanity (if indeed a medical psychologist could question it), and in the larger question whether, if insane, the character of the mental disorder in this and similar cases calls for any interference with the individual's liberty.
4. American Retrospect
Authors: Brown Joseph J.
Published: August 2008

American Journal of Insanity (July).—Dr. John P. Gray gives a condensed account of his pathological and microscopical investigations of 52 cases of insanity. He states that the vessels, nerve cells, and neuroglia undergo changes before marked impairment of the nerve conducting element can be detected. Increase of interstitial matter, multiplication of connective fibres, and diminution of connective nuclei, are prominent features of change. In chronic cases the increase of neuroglia takes place more in the gray matter than in the white, and is more marked in the anterior regions of the brain. This increase may be in connection with the capillaries, or more generally it occurs in localised regions, and circumscribed in walls formed by condensed minute connective fibres.
The Morbid Psychology of Criminals
Authors: Nicolson David
Published: August 2008

We have seen that Simple mental weakness, the first form of weakmindedness, is neither more nor less than a want of mind, in some degree. In it the higher emotions are blunt, perception is dull, and all the processes are backward or sluggish.
The Morbid Psychology of Criminals
Authors: Nicolson David
Published: August 2008

“Look to the needle of your compass, I beseech you, good Sir Astrophel, and tell us, if yon can, whence comes this storm ?”

We now come to the consideration of the last of the three forms of weakmindedness among prisoners, viz., states of mental exaltation. We looked upon the first form, simple mental weakness, as a state of “want of mind,” a negative or irresponsive condition of mind. The second form, states of mental depression, we took as a condition in which there is general inertia of mind with a prominent activity (positive action) in the direction of painful depression.
Contribution to the statistics of insanity
Authors: Mitchell Arthur
Published: August 2008

1. In this inquiry all the asylums of Scotland are regarded as one asylum, and the different institutions merely as different wards of the asylum. A patient transferred from one institution to another is thus regarded as never leaving the asylum, but merely as passing from one ward to another. The words—the asylum—therefore, in this paper, mean an asylum made up of all the asylums of Scotland.
A Short Account of the Transactions of the Mental Diseases Section at the International Medical Congress held at Philadelphia in 1876
Authors: Beach Fletcher
Published: August 2008

Having had the opportunity of attending the International Medical Congress at Philadelphia in the capacity of a delegate, by the kind invitation of the Committee of the Congress, it has occurred to me that a short account of the proceedings in the Mental Diseases Section may perhaps be interesting to members of this Association.
Reflex, Automatic, and Unconscious Cerebration: A History and a Criticism
Authors: Laycock Thomas
Published: August 2008

VIII.—Turning from the living mechanism and its energies, to the energies derived from without that move it—the “strings of the puppet”—to use the mechanical phraseology, we come upon another class of words and phrases which are ambiguously used in the “old metaphysics,” but which have a definite and wholly different meaning in studying the organic bases of mental life. These are such words as impression, irritation, suggestion, and the like. I may be permitted to state, somewhat dogmatically, what is now admitted generally, that all changes in the constituent matter of living things result from the operation of physical or molecular energies therein. This being so, the cerebral series of changes involved in mental states of the individual, and constituting the process termed cerebral reflex action, are due to as purely physical causes as those on which spinal reflex action depends. And this is true, not less as regards feelings like corporeal pain, and sensations, than as regards the highest work of the intellectual faculties. This operation of physical energies, however, was not recognised by Marshall Hall and Dr. Carpenter in 1838, nor, indeed, by physiologists in general. One source of the difficulty experienced in doing this is in the imperfect appreciation of what is physically included under the word impression. Thus, an anonymous defender of the views of the eminent physiologists named observes, in 1846, in opposition to my views—
Torquato Tasso
Authors: A. C. M.
Published: August 2008

There is no error in opinion or judgment, no widespread prejudice, so difficult to eradicate or overcome as one that is founded on sentiment, and when the sentiment is a generous one, seeking to make some atonement for supposed injustice done in the past, in thought or in deed, the prejudice will be apt to cling the more tenaciously. “Peace to Torquato's injured shade,” exclaims Byron in his heart-stirring lines—but was this a just apostrophe? Nobly gifted, deeply afflicted and unfortunate though he was, was Tasso indeed injured, as implied, by his fellow man? Most sad and suffering as his life became, we may be committing a deep injustice in asserting it to have been brought upon him by cruelty or even unkindness; and a fair impartial review of his whole life and circumstances would seem to reveal a far different history. This has been most forcibly impressed by reading the pages of one who from the outset seems to have believed in the grievous wrong done to Tasso by Alfonso d'Este, and to have viewed every event by the light of a preconceived opinion; while to one coming without opinion formed to the perusal of these pages, ignorant until then of the course of events, they would seem, we think, strikingly to set forth the very opposite view; the very facts the author brings forward in evidence of his assertions seeming to furnish the strongest indications of a contrary explanation. To any one coming with even a moderate knowledge of mental disease to the study of this sad life, it will surely seem one in which the tendency to, and at length declaration of, this malady can be most clearly traced out from the very early days of Tasso down to the very last hour of his life. This is not to disturb the shade of Tasso, rather to yield it the desired rest; for who would not rather think of him as bowed beneath the weight of a sad inscrutable affliction sent by no mortal hand, than as the victim of cruelty and injustice, which would indeed have been scarcely human in their refinement, but of which we must consider Alfonso d'Este may have been most unjustly accused?
Case of Sudden and Complete “Aphasia” and Partial “Right Hemiplegia,” Lesion of “Broca's Convolution,” with a Small “Hœmorrhage” in Substance of Corpus Callosum, &c
Authors: Atkins Ringrose
Published: August 2008

The particulars of the following case may be sufficiently interesting to place on record, as bearing on the morbid anatomy of aphasia, and, further, as illustrating the negative results which follow localised destruction of convolutions posterior to the “Fissure of Rolando.” The patient, an elderly imbecile female, had been an inmate of the Cork District Lunatic Asylum for the last forty-five years. She was invariably quiet and docile, clean in her habits and person, and sufficiently rational to answer ordinary questions addressed to her quite correctly. She spoke slowly, and with emphasis, but always used the right words to express her meaning; and there was never any noticeable defect in her speech, so far as her powers of conversation went. She had a peculiarly long and pointed tongue, which she took a pride in exhibiting, and which she was able to protrude to an enormous extent. There was no loss or deficiency of motor power whatever, and up to some little time before her death her general health was excellent. On December 29th, 1875, she suffered from a severe attack of erysipelas of the face and scalp, which was, however, subdued in a few days by inunctions of mercurial ointment and liberal support. During this time she became extremely dull and apathetic, being with difficulty roused; but on being pressed could still answer questions rationally. As the erysipelas passed away she returned to her former condition, being quite as well and as intelligent as before.
Some Remarks as to providing increased and Better Means for Educating the Insane of all Classes
Authors: Lalor Joseph
Published: August 2008

A Special Committee, apppointed by the Charity Organization Society, have had under their consideration for a considerable time the subject of placing Institutions for Idiots, Imbeciles, and Harmless Lunatics on the most comprehensive and satisfactory footing. The investigations of this Committee, and the report to be made by them to the Parent Society, will be likely to have much influence on the determination of many questions in which our Association has a deep interest. The Committee have evinced laudable anxiety to obtain advice and information, and to consider their subject cautiously, thoughtfully, and impartially. I think they have, in consequence, the strongest claims on the confidence and thankfulness of our Association. From a communication made by the Committee to the Social and Statistical Society of Ireland, and from being furnished, through the kindness of Dr. Hack Tuke, with copies of its agenda up to this, I happen to have become acquainted with the views of the Committee, and I propose to avail myself of the opportunity thus afforded, by making some remarks on a few of the conclusions they have arrived at. I shall, however, try to do so in a way that will not, by any means, hamper the proceedings of the Committee, or the full and free expression of their opinions; but which may conduce to a community of opinion, and a co-operation in action, or, at least, to a friendly and harmonious rivalry between the Charity Organization Society and our Association, calculated to produce most desirable results.
Asylums and their Neighbours. Can Neighbours help?
Authors: Hawkins H.
Published: August 2008

The aim of this paper will be to endeavour to show that neighbours of public asylums for the insane—occasionally using the term neighbours with some latitude—may, under certain circumstances, contribute to the well-being of selected patients, by services of various kinds; moreover, that not only residents in the vicinity, but also friends at a distance, may have a share in alleviating the affliction, perhaps even of promoting the convalescence, of inmates of these hospitals. Among 65,000 persons approximately computed as the number of patients in asylums and other institutions, there are many who are absolutely friendless and unvisited. Some come from distant counties, or even from foreign countries, beyond the range of practicable visits; others have outlived their relatives and friends; or these have, in course of time, discontinued their intercourse; others, again, saddest case of all, are perhaps deliberately deserted, purposely shunned, from selfish apprehension lest responsibility of maintenance or of assistance should be incurred, or from reluctance that their acquaintanceship with an inmate of a lunatic asylum should become known. So, from one cause or another, there are not a few patients who become, abruptly or gradually, cut off from communication with the outside world, practically forgotten as “dead men out of mind.” Yet, in many of these, there must surely exist yearnings after sympathy and that disinterested friendship which, “all for love and nothing for reward,” would take a personal interest in themselves.
The Pathology of Mind in the Lower Animals
Authors: Lindsay W. Lauder
Published: August 2008

In a paper on “The Physiology of Mind in the Lower Animals,” in the Journal of Mental Science for April, 1871 (p. 79), I endeavoured to prove that other animals than man possess the same kind of moral and intellectual endowments and apply them to the same practical purposes that he does. The object of the present paper is to show that Mind in the lower animals, or certain of them, is liable to be affected by the same causes of disturbance—is subject to the same forms of defect or disorder—as in man.
Morison Lectures on Insanity for 1877
Authors: Sibbald John
Published: August 2008

Lecture II.—Insanity in the Middle Ages.
Presidential Address, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, on Friday, July 26th, 1878
Authors: Crichton-Browne J.
Published: August 2008

Gentlemen,—On taking formal possession of this chair, to which your generosity has called me, which confers honour on its occupant because it has been tenanted by a succession of able and distinguished men, and which is to me especially venerable, because my father once filled it, I shall, I believe, be conforming to excellent precedents if I begin by passing in rapid review before you the principal occurrences of the last twelvemonths, affecting the interests of the Medico-Psychological Association.
On Thought without Words, and the Relation of Words to Thought
Authors: Ireland William W.
Published: August 2008

Naturally, if a child be dull or stupid, he will be slower to learn the use of the senses or the muscles, and, accordingly, we find that some idiots of the lowest type are not able to learn to walk or grasp. I remember one case distinctly where the only acquired motions were receiving food into the mouth, and following with the eyes the spoon with which he was fed.
Physiology and Pathology of the Sympathetic System of Nerves
Authors: Eulenburg A. , Guttmann P.
Published: August 2008

The disease described by Heberden (1768) as Angina Pectoris, which is sometimes also termed Stenocardia, is not an anatomically definable cardiac affection, but rather a group of symptoms, originating in very different and for the most part unknown conditions. Although, therefore, we include a short account of it in this essay, we do not wish to indicate it as our belief that it is caused exclusively by changes in the sympathetic system, but that it seems to us that the latter, inasmuch as it takes the principal part in the formation of the cardiac plexus—which is almost certainly the starting point of angina pectoris—is undoubtedly in some way connected with the occurrence of the phenomena under consideration.
Two Cases of Pulmonary Disease with Hemiplegia Developing by Stages. Prof. H. Senator, Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift. Nos. 4, 5, and 6. 1879.
Authors: Geoghegan Edward G.
Published: August 2008

The first case was one of putrid bronchitis, with chronic ulcerating pneumonia. The first paralytic symptom was weakness, with increase of temperature and sweating in the right arm, followed next day by almost complete motor paralysis of this limb. On the third day the arm was convulsed, and subsequently the whole body was seized with tetanic spasms, causing opisthotonism (three attacks). In a few days the inferior branches of the facial became paralysed on the right side. Next the speech was affected, and lastly came motor paralysis of the right leg. The patient, without looking, had no idea in what position his right limbs lay. During this short time rapid atrophy of theright arm had taken place.
2. Italian psychological Literature
Authors: Gasquet J. R.
Published: August 2008

Professor Verga has collected the statistics for all the asylums in continental Italy (excluding, therefore, Sardinia and Sicily), taken on the night of December 31, 1874. There were then 170·79 lunatics to every 100,000 inhabitants, a proportion somewhat higher than in England, Ireland, and France, but lower than in Scotland. In the province of Naples, where the ratio was lowest, it was 1 to 903; while in Lombardy, where it was highest, it was 1 to 435. In Umbria the proportion of insane persons had doubled in 15 years, and in Lombardy nearly tripled in 10 years.
3. American Psychological Literature
Authors: Tuke D. Hack
Published: August 2008

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases. New Series. Vol. 1.
Hyoscyamine, and its Uses
Authors: Savage George H.
Published: August 2008

This being a paper read for the purpose of eliciting the experience of others, does not purport to be anything more than an account of my experiences of the drug, and my opinions as to its uses.
Two Cases of General Paralysis
Authors: Macleod William
Published: August 2008

I.—Notes of a Case of Paralysis of the Insane discharged from the Yarmouth Naval Asylum, in which amendment commenced during an attack of Erysipelas of the face.
Notes on Criminal Lunacy in France
Authors: Tuke D. Hack
Published: August 2008

In the report of the International Congress of Mental Medicine, which appeared in this Journal in October, 1878, I referred briefly to the discussion which took place upon the provision made, or proposed to be made, in France for criminal lunatics and lunatic criminals. I was not, however, able to give at that time the conclusions arrived at in the debate, nor did space allow of my giving an account of the Quarter at Gaillon for insane convicts. I am now able to supply both omissions, and believe that the information conveyed as to what is being done across the Channel will be of interest to those in Great Britain and Ireland who are concerned directly or indirectly with the important subject of criminal lunacy.
Presidential Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association, Wednesday, July 30, 1879
Authors: Lush J. A.
Published: August 2008

At Page 54 of the First Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy they state that in June, 1846, there were in England and Wales 23,000 persons of unsound mind.
A Case of Tumour of the Brain associated with Epilepsy and Catalepsy
Authors: Beach Fletcher
Published: August 2008

S. B., aged 16 years, was admitted into the Clapton Asylum, May 7th, 1875, with the following history. She was born a healthy girl, having no mental defect. She enjoyed good health up to nine years of age, when she became the subject of chorea, supposed to have been caused by exposure to the sun. She was sent to Margate, in the hope that the change might prove beneficial to her, but the chorea continued. Four years ago, while bathing, epileptic fits came on, and soon afterwards the chorea ceased. Her intellect is said to have become weak after the fits were noticed. She has never since been free from them. She was sent to Caterham and afterwards to Hampstead Asylum, whence she was transferred to Clapton.
1. American Psychological Literature
Authors: Tuke D. Hack
Published: August 2008

The number of the “American Journal of Insanity” Vol. xxxiv. No. 3, contains the address on “Mental Hygiene,” delivered by Dr. Gray, the Editor, at the International Medical Congress, at Philadelphia. To cite all the passages which convey the principal truths which Dr. Gray wishes to enunciate in his terse and striking language would occupy a large part of the space at our disposal. The term is certainly employed in a very comprehensive sense. It “covers all the broad field of human energy, embracing all the professions and every branch of industrial life. It looks after man's moral as well as his intellectual nature, for the two cannot be separated. It enters into his domestic and social conditions, and follows him in his duties as a citizen.” The problem is no less than to discover the best scheme for the development of human nature and the control of his passions.
2. French Retrospect
Authors: McDowall T. W.
Published: August 2008

The Progress of General Paralysis in the Hereditarily Insane.—By Marandon de Montyel.—The introduction of this paper deals at considerable length with the question of the action of hereditary tendencies in the development of mental diseases. We had not thought that it was now necessary seriously to discuss the belief that insanity is a chastisement of sin, and a just punishment of those who have wandered from the ways of our Lord. In regard to prognosis, most will agree that hereditary tendency to insanity and other nervous diseases diminishes the probability of ultimate recovery. But Dr. Doutrebente has stated that among such, les candidats à la folie, general paralysis tends to become chronic, to remit and even to continue for 10, 15 and 25 years, although its mean duration is usually believed to be from 2 to 3 years, or only 13 months, according to Calmeil. It is naturally enough asked, “How is it that in general paralysis alone the disease is ameliorated, whilst in all other diseases the tendency to incurability and death is increased by inherited morbid tendencies ?” Dr. Doutrebente is equal to the occasion by saying, “We think the time is not far distant when general paralysis will no longer be considered a form of insanity, but a morbid entity, an interstitial encephalitis, which may be complicated by any form of insanity, without thereby constituting a distinct species. He also says, in his paper on the “Different Forms of Remissions in General Paralysis:” “It is not hereditary, at least in the same way as insanity, and it is not usually met with in families tainted by a progressive morbid heredity, especially towards insanity,” and he agrees with M. Lunier that it is due to a special form of heredity, one of temperament, normal and non-morbid.
Presidential Address, delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association, Friday, July 30th, 1880
Authors: Mould George W.
Published: August 2008

A question that has been prominently before the public for the past few years, and which has not always been discussed with the cool reason so weighty a subject demands, is the control, custody, and treatment of the insane community known as private patients; and for the purpose of present argument I class those patients as private patients whose cost is defrayed without aid from the State—either in the matter of board, lodging, or attendance; for though private patients who reside in hospitals for the insane receive this aid, the building in which they reside is provided from special funds (and most hospitals have a small income from invested funds or annual subscriptions), it amounts to very little, and is absorbed in the free cost, or mitigation in the cost of maintenance, of a few patients. In speaking of lunatic hospitals, I leave out of the question the great Hospital of Bethlem, where the maintenance of the patients is entirely defrayed from the funds of the charity.
Chemical Restraint and Alcohol
Authors: Davies F. Pritchard
Published: August 2008

From the earliest historic period insanity seems to have been regarded as a disease that required restraint. The teaching of Conolly showed the fallacy of this view as regards mechanical restraint, and now—at all events in this country—medical psychologists are unanimous in condemning the practice, and the tendency is to give an ever increasing freedom to the mentally afflicted. Notwithstanding this, however, it cannot be denied that although the inmates of our asylums are no longer chained to walls, tied up in strong garments, or otherwise made harmless by mechanical means, a vast deal of what has very appropriately been termed “chemical restraint” goes on, and goes on, I believe, to the great injury of those it is supposed to benefit.
On the Early Phases of Mental Disorder, and their Treatment
Authors: Kesteven W. B.
Published: August 2008

The hallucinations of the senses in the insane resemble the voluntarily induced semi-consciousness of the mesmerised. In the mesmeric trance there is the disregard of external agencies that is seen in the maniac who, regardless of suggestions from without, carries out his own wild train of thought in apparent unconsciousness of what is going on around him, or even memory of what has occurred to him, after the trance or the paroxysm has passed away—and so in sleep, dreams prove an active state of the cerebral centres, although no recollection of them may remain on awaking. Sleep has been likened to temporary death, and so dreaming may be compared to temporary insanity. The insane man walks about in a waking dream; he is a veritable somnambulist. The somnambulist, like the maniac, or the ecstatic, has but a confused recollection, or no remembrance at all of what has occurred in the attack of mental disorder, or in their perilous sleeping performances, like Fakirs in their trance-like condition, they become insensible to external influences.
Presidential Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association, held at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, August 2nd, 1882
Authors: Gairdner W. T.
Published: August 2008

Gentlemen,—In taking the chair of this Association allow me to offer to the members, whether present or absent, my sincere thanks for the honour they have done me in electing me their President. I frankly confess that I was not at all prepared for this honour, nor do I see quite clearly even now how it came about that a body of men devoted, both by personal tastes and by official position, to the cultivation of one particular branch of the great medical art and science, should have thought fit to honour with their confidence one whose relations with that special work are only those of the profession at large. At all events, it may justly be said that in having thus acted, you have most emphatically pronounced for the doctrine that the profession of medicine, and the healing art on which it rests, are one, and not manifold; and that as among the different churches, and even sects, we may hope to find a common Christianity, so among all the distracting specialisms of our own profession, we may reasonably hope to find one faith, one object, one discipline of the mind, and, to a great extent, one great science, both of mind and of bodily function, underlying all the diversities of our various careers as physician, surgeon, gynæcologist, oculist, aurist, alienist, &c.
The Data of Alienism
Authors: Mercier Charles
Published: August 2008

If I fix a square peg into an oblong hole, the fact that they do not fit is instantly perceptible; but it is manifest that the. several percepts of the peg and of the hole must precede the perception of the relation of non-adjustment subsisting between them. Furthermore, if I want to determine how much the peg lacks in size, I must measure separately both the peg and the hole before I can calculate the amount of the hiatus between them. What is true of this simple case of adjustment is true of the complex case of the adjustment of the organism to its environment. However rapid and apparently immediate may be the cognition that a patient is insane—is unadjusted to his environment—yet that cognition must be preceded by a previous knowledge both of the organism itself and of the environment with which his adjustment has failed. The truth of this statement, which is involved in the definition of Insanity, may not be at once apparent, but a little consideration will render it clear. It is manifest that before pronouncing a man insane, we must first know something about him, but that we must also take into account his environment is, perhaps, not so self-evident.
On the Pathology of General Paralysis
Authors: Wiglesworth Joseph
Published: August 2008

It is not the object of this paper to give an exhaustive account of the pathology of general paralysis, but rather to describe what appears to us, as the result of our own observations, to be the most prominent histological feature of this fascinating and fatal disease.
On the Character and Hallucinations of Joan of Arc
Authors: Ireland William W.
Published: August 2008

In a former paper read to a meeting of this Association I attempted to gather together what has been handed down to us about the nervous disorders and hallucinations of Mahomet, of Luther, and of others great in history. It gave me much gratification to see that the paper formed the text of an interesting discussion. As we learn more of the influence of external circumstances and physical conditions on human belief and conduct, the records of the past are read in a new light. As science shows us the relation of events previously unknown, we see more surely how things really occurred; what was perplexing becomes clear; embellishments and additions fall off; and we are confirmed in the belief that the past was governed by the same laws as the present. Thus the knowledge of nervous diseases, and the experience gained by the study of hallucinations, illusions, and the errors and deceptions of the human mind, may explain some of the difficult problems of history.
The Data of Alienism
Authors: Mercier Charles
Published: August 2008

The second law of heredity is equal in importance to the first, and since it is of special importance in the study of insanity, and since both the law and its consequences have been hitherto almost overlooked by alienists, it is necessary to insist upon it with additional emphasis, and to discuss it at some length. This is the more necessary since there has been no formal enunciation of this law, although the several positions that it includes are very generally recognised. The following is the somewhat cumbrous expression of what I propose to call the Law of the Limited Dissimilarity of Parents.
Some Observations on the State of Society, past and present, in Relation to Criminal Psychology
Authors: Nicolson David
Published: August 2008

I have sought to point out and to illustrate how all-pervading was the hold which the belief in witchcraft obtained upon all classes of society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I have pointed out how a species of criminal lunacy arose in connection with this belief; and how in the same connection, society might be said not only to have created a crime, but also to have manufactured the criminals.
2. German Retrospect
Authors: Ireland William W.
Published: August 2008

Johann Ranke, of Munich (cited in the “Centralblatt für Nerven-heilkunde,” 1 Juni, 1882), has studied the relative size of the crania of the inhabitants of the town and country, upon a hundred males and a hundred females from villages, and two hundred skulls from the city of Munich. He finds that, though the size and stature of the country people are greater, the cranial capacity is less in both sexes. The mean capacity of 200 skulls of both sexes was
The Data of Alienism
Authors: Mercier Charles
Published: August 2008

The study of the Laws of Heredity, as conducted in the preceding papers, has resulted in a definite conclusion, it is true, but in a conclusion as to tendencies only; and whatever facts we may ascertain in the family history of a patient, however numerous and however damning they may be, they can never warrant us in inferring anything whatever with respect to that patient, beyond the existence of a tendency in one direction or another. To ascertain how far, and in what proportion, these tendencies, in so far as they concern the Structure of the Organism, have become actualities, recourse must be had to the study of the Physique, which is the outcome of the combinations, and conflicts of the laws of inheritance. Or, in other words, the Physique is the form which the organism has assumed under the action of the developmental forces.
On the Recovery and Death-rates of Asylums as Influenced by Size and some other Circumstances
Authors: Chapman T. A.
Published: August 2008

I have been incited by Dr. Rayner's paper in the “Lancet” of Dec. 80, 1882, to look up various old calculations of mine, bearing on the relation of size of asylums to efficiency and economy, and think it may be worth while to throw them together, that any lesson they may contain may be elicited. I find I have various tables of the relation of cost of maintenance in asylums to their size, and also several relating to the relative rates of recoveries and deaths in asylums of different sizes.
Lunacy Legislation in Holland
Authors: Cowan F. M.
Published: August 2008

As in France, so in the Netherlands there is but one law relating to the care of persons of unsound mind. It was issued on the 29th of May, 1841, and consequently is posterior by about three years to the French law.
The Prognosis in Insanity
Authors: Thomson D. G.
Published: August 2008

Mental Exaltation, Mania.—The question of the Prognosis in Mental Exaltation—Mania—in its various forms, is a far more debatable and uncertain matter than in melancholia. The symptoms in melancholia being of a negative character due to a lowering or suspension of brain activity, we do not look for all those diversities, endless varieties and aspects which we may find in mania, be it simple, acute, or chronic. Generally there is an increased vitality, a state of hyperæsthesia, an increase in the activity of the brain, generally of the whole brain, and we must believe that these states will not so easily end in complete resolution as the condition of merely depressed action, or rather no action, which obtains in melancholia—I mean in melancholia generally, and not those states of acute melancholia which are supposed to be closely allied to the state which in other brains and under other subjective circumstances would give rise to mania from a pathological point of view. If this increased activity does not rapidly terminate in resolution, one of two things must occur—either exhaustion or atrophy, resulting in death or dementia, will supervene, or abnormal tissue will invade or replace healthy nerve paths or areas, and chronic aberration of mind ensue.
The Special Training of Asylum Attendants
Authors: Clark A. Campbell
Published: August 2008

Seven years ago Dr. Clouston read a paper to this Association “On the Question of Getting, Training, and Retaining the Services of Good Asylum Attendants.” Such a paper could scarcely fail to attract considerable notice and elicit a very hearty discussion, for the subject is one of far-reaching importance to us as asylum physicians, and of very great moment in the interest of the insane. To get the best raw material possible, and to manufacture out of it the best asylum attendant possible, were two great aims suggested by Dr. Clouston, and the subsequent discussion of his paper showed that the Association was fully alive to these, and the serious obstacles which lay in the way of their accomplishment. If the aims here indicated should be more fully realised in the future than in the past, we will probably find that the third desideratum, viz., the keeping of our attendants for a reasonable length of time, will be realised in like proportion as the others. We all willingly admit that the first serious difficulty is how and where to get them. What will attract the best raw material into the asylum market ? or, putting the question in a negative way, what is it that does not attract the best raw material into asylums? These questions will admit of a variety of answers, many having their root in the idea of non-respectability. Undoubtedly the status of an attendant is at present an inferior one in the industrial scale. Some common popular notions are that the rougher and stronger the material the better is the attendant; that it is not a trade for men, and is suited only for the coarser types of women; that it leads to nothing reliable or desirable as a permanent occupation; and that as a life-work it is not sufficiently respectable to satisfy an average ambition. These and other considerations materially affect the supply of good attendants. Seeing, therefore, that in attendants themselves we find the best advertisement, and through them may command the highest success, it is worth considering, whether or not it is possible for us to advertise asylums, in such a way as to attract to them the better raw material which we crave so much after, and which we need so much. If the public mind must be educated to better purpose we must go upon a new tack. We shall require to bring more elevating influences to bear upon our attendants. In raising their social and industrial status we shall raise them in the estimation of the public and themselves, and may reasonably expect a more marketable article by-and-bye. It is surely fair, in the interest of all concerned, that attendants should receive from us the best possible training of which they are capable. There is reason enough for it in this, that as medical helps they will then develope more fully, and their work will become a life-work worthy of the name.
On the Pathology of Mania
Authors: Wiglesworth Joseph
Published: August 2008

In investigating the complicated phenomena of mental action, normal and abnormal, it is not sufficient that we confine our attention to the nervous system in its latest stage of development, but we must direct our thoughts to the manner in which it has been built up; in other words, if we wish to understand how the nervous system acts, we must see how it has been developed.
Visceral and other Syphilitic Lesions in Insane Patients without Cerebral Syphilitic Lesions
Authors: Mickle Wm. Julius
Published: August 2008

It has been stated by some that it is syphilis originally mild and benign in its manifestations, that is most apt to cause cerebral syphilis; one saying that the subjects most liable to cerebral syphilis are those in whom the secondary symptoms have been slight or transitory; another asserting that often one can find no history of preceding cutaneous or other affection of either the secondary or tertiary order; another, that any syphilis may be followed by specific cerebral affections, the original mildness of a syphilis being no guarantee against future cerebral affections of syphilitic origin, and that the great majority of the cerebral affections are furnished in examples of syphilis which is of medium severity, or (less often) is benign. This last observer, in 47 cases of cerebral syphilis, found three after severe or grave syphilis; 30 after syphilis of medium severity, and 14 after syphilis benign in its manifestations. As stated by myself in a paper∗ published more than seven years ago: “It is particularly in instances where syphilis affects the nervous system that its evolution is sometimes insidious; that its later lesions are not preceded by its usual characteristic development on the exterior of the body, or by only a partial, or slight, or transitory development; and that the diagnosis is surrounded by obscurity. This is the opinion of several writers on the subject, and more than once the fact has forced itself upon my attention.”
The Basis of Consciousness: An Answer to Prof. Cleland
Authors: Mercier Charles
Published: August 2008

The motives that impel me to take up the cudgels against Prof. Cleland are written in the thirty-second chapter of the Book of Job. Far better would it have been had the challenge been accepted by someone whose authority and standing were comparable with those of Prof. Cleland, but in default of such a champion my feelings are those so vividly described in the seventeenth and three following verses of the said chapter, by Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram.