bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Treatment of Depression by Dinitrile Succinate
Authors: Harris A.
Published: August 2008

Caspersson, Hyden and Hartelius, in a series of researches at the Caroline Institute, Stockholm, found that (a) nerve cells subjected to heavy stimulation become depleted of nucleoprotein; (b) nitrile compounds administered to the experimental animal hasten regeneration of this nucleoprotein; (c) biopsy specimens of the prefrontal cortex of psychotics removed at leucotomy show a reduction of cellular protein when compared with healthy subjects killed in accidents; (d) nitrile compounds have a beneficial stimulating action in psychotics and sometimes a permanent curative effect. The substance which they used, malononitrile, was toxic, liable to produce severe reactions and only usable with safety if, after the injection, the patient was kept under observation and given sodium thiosulphate at the first sign of trouble. Meyer and Meyer (1949) have adversely criticized their methods and conclusions.
Priscol in Circulatory Deficiency
Authors: Gardner L. D.
Published: August 2008

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the value, especially over the five colder months, of the peripheral vasodilator, benzyl imidazoline (Priscol, Ciba) in the care of the circulatory disorders of the aged.
Loss of Written Language Due to Dissolution of the Phonetic Structure of the Word in Brain Abscess
Authors: Klein R.
Published: August 2008

Written language is a complex function; being built on the spoken word it has to draw on a variety of subsidiary functions which have to be unified in one particular skill. Moreover, the subsidiary functions are not the same for reading and writing; in reading, visual-gnostic factors are of major importance, in writing, special skill of hand and finger is required.
Permeability of the Blood-Brain Barrier to Penicillin in Cases of Parenchymatous Neurosyphilis
Authors: Smith Robert H. F.
Published: August 2008

Since the introduction of penicillin into therapeutics the important question of the penetration of the blood-brain barrier by the antibiotic in infections of the nervous system has cropped up. In vital staining experiments Goldman (1913) observed that the acid semi-colloidal dye, trypan blue, which makes its way from the blood into the tissues, is unable to penetrate into the central nervous system. When the dye was injected into the cerebrospinal fluid it passed without difficulty into the brain substance. These observations were later verified by other investigators and have been verified for other substances (dyes, drugs, toxins, etc.).
Three Aspects of Ego-Organization in Relation to Ether Abreaction Therapy
Authors: Palmer Harold
Published: August 2008

In this paper I propose to describe three varieties of behaviour of patients under treatment by means of ether abreaction.
A Note on the a-b Ridge Count and Intelligence
Authors: Fang T. C.
Published: August 2008

The a-b ridge count, called the a-b count for short, is the number of epidermal ridges crossing or touching a fine straight line drawn joining the triradii a and b on the palm. The triradial point, or the radiant when the former is absent, is not included in the count. It was pointed out in a previous work (Fang, 1949) that, on the assumption that university students are more intelligent than the general population, there is a consistent increase of the mean a-b count with intelligence. The results of the present study seem to agree with this finding.
Evaluation of Electric Convulsion Therapy As Compared with Conservative Methods of Treatment in Depressive States
Authors: Slater Eliot T. O.
Published: August 2008

In an article under the above title (J. Ment. Sci., 1950, 96, 1060-91) S. Karagulla compared the results obtained in six groups of patients. Two groups, male and female, had been treated at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders in the years 1900-39, before electric convulsion therapy had come into general use. The remaining four groups had been treated in the years 1940-48, two, male and female, by electric convulsion therapy, and two, male and female, by conservative measures only. The author had the advice and encouragement of Professor Sir David Henderson, and the final statistical calculations were scrutinized by Professor A. C. Aitken. This background of authoritative support is mentioned here, because some readers may have felt that it lent to the author's arguments and conclusions an added weight.
Some Observations on Neurosis in Farm Animals
Authors: Croft Phyllis G.
Published: August 2008

It is important, at the outset, to define the purposes which can be served by studying the subject of neurosis in animals, and they appear to be twofold. Firstly, animals display emotions in a simplified form, because their behaviour is not influenced by social conventions, and thus one can sometimes recognize vital underlying human feelings which are masked by other less important habits. A simple example of this is seen when two animals are given identical meals in separate feeding dishes; each animal is convinced that the other has a better meal, and they will not be happy till they have changed dishes: in human relationships, the feeling that the other person has something better often plays a major part in determining behaviour, but it is frequently disguised and seldom admitted by the person concerned. The second way in which animals can help in the study of human medicine is in controlled experimental work; for instance, the relative effects of heredity and environment can be studied comparatively easily in animals, and although it is important to remember that arguments based on animal behaviour cannot be applied directly to human behaviour, much can be gained by an exchange of information between workers in the two fields.
Activators and Inhibitors of Hexokinase in Human Blood
Authors: Weil-Malherbe H. , Bone A. D.
Published: August 2008

The endocrine system is one of the foremost links in the psychosomatic relationship, and its special significance in the study of mental disease needs no emphasis. Compared with our knowledge of the chemistry and basic functions of the hormones very little is known about their more intimate mechanisms of action. It has been possible to assign to some hormones the function of controlling the rate of specific metabolic processes, but whether they do so by a direct reaction with a component of one or more enzyme systems or indirectly by influencing the mutual accessibility of enzyme and substrate is still a matter of discussion. The latter mechanism would depend on a spatial organization involving membrane barriers, phase boundaries or similar discontinuities and, in fact, many hormonal effects which can be demonstratedin vitrowith the aid of intact or sliced tissues disappear when the structural organization of the cell is destroyed. It is, however, well to remember that synthetic and other energy-consuming reactions were believed until recently to depend on the integrity of the cellular organization, but when some insight was gained into the mechanism of biological energy transformation and the function of labile phosphate bonds in these processes, it was possible to demonstrate many such reactions in homogeneous systems. Similarly, the interactions of hormones and enzymes may require the intervention of unstable mediators, and control of these factors might allow their reconstruction in cell-free extracts. In any case, it is more satisfying to account for the great specificity of hormonal action on the basis of a chemical reaction with specific enzymes than by a mechanism leading to predominantly physical changes.
Glutamic Acid and Glucose As Substrates for Mammalian Brain
Authors: McIlwain H.
Published: August 2008

Effects of substances on the respiration of unstimulated portions of mammalian brain have been used in the past as aids to understanding or suggesting their actions on the brainin vivo.The present paper gives data with respect to glucose and glutamic acid, which show some of the limitations of such interpretations. It also describes the application of new experimental means of examining the metabolic effects of added substances in relation to the functional activity of the brain.
Studies in Learning Impairment. I: Schizophrenic and Organic Patients
Authors: Hall K. R. L. , Crookes T. G.
Published: August 2008

Ability to learn and retain relatively unfamiliar materials has been shown to be impaired in many clinical syndromes, both organic and functional. The testing of this ability features in some form or other in several clinical tests of intelligence, such as the Wechsler Scale and the Binet, while it is more directly tested in the various memory scales. As is well known, efficiency of learning declines with age, and can be greatly reduced by organic brain damage. There is evidence also, which we shall briefly review, that it can be variably reduced in schizophrenia and in psychoneurosis.
The Problem of “Orality” and of its Origin in Early Childhood
Authors: Goldman-Eisler Frieda
Published: August 2008

The concept of “orality” as used in this paper indicates a certain constellation of traits or habitual reactions which are, or are assumed to be, derivatives, whether direct or modified, of behaviour patterns characteristic of early childhood. The importance of the mouth as the first erotogenic zone and as the organ generating fundamental attitudes of giving or receiving, waiting or being impatient, and hoping or despairing, has been stressed by psychoanalysis. According to psycho-analytic theory, the oral phase, that is, the first period of libidinal development, plays a most important part for later character development in as far as gratification, or frustration, of the oral impulses is assumed to have a determining influence on character-formation in later life.
Studies in the Physiology of Awareness: the Incidence and Content of Dream Patterns and Their Relationship to Anoxia
Authors: Doust J. W. Lovett
Published: August 2008

The study of dreams is a study of a group of epiphenomena associated with states of diminished awareness. No matter whether such dreaming occurs in natural sleep, in states of reverie interspersing normal levels of consciousness or in pathologically or pharmacologically induced aberrations of consciousness, it would appear that the principle that dreams do not occur other than at levels of lessened awareness is generally accepted. From the point of view of neurophysiology, it also seems reasonably clear that the formation of the visual and auditory hallucinations, illusions and delusions forming the manifest formal content of dreams is dependent upon fairly precise cerebral localization, the temporal lobe and Brodman's area 19 being especially important in these respects (Penfield and Erickson, 1941). Psycho-physiologically a number of attempts have been made to assess the nature and quality of stimuli normally inciting dreams. From Maury (1861) onward the effects of various physical stimuli (Klein, 1930), of auto-suggestion (Arnold-Forster, 1921), of post-hypnotic suggestion (Prince, 1939) and of projection phantasies (Malamud and Linder, 1931) have been noted. Psychologically the dynamics underlying the mechanisms of the dream instinct have been investigated especially by Freud and his followers. Freud's opinion that the dream represents an attempted wish fulfilment has been modified by Jung, who emphasizes its compensatory function, by Adler, who conceived of the dream as a method for testing possible future situations in phantasy, and by Stekel (1943), for whom the dream was a symbolic manifestation of the “internal conflicts” of the individual. Finally, the observations of Monge (1929) concerning the increased incidence of disturbing dreams when dwellers at high altitudes suffer from chronic mountain sickness, and of McFarland (1937) on the changing dream habits of a party of mountaineers in the Chilean Andes as they ascended steadily to ever-increasing altitudes (and hence to progressively greater degrees of anoxic anoxia), are of immediate interest. They are in direct line with the findings of anoxaemia in sleep (Lovett Doust and Schneider, 1951), and suggest a positive relationship between the manifest content of dream patterns, emotional tension, reduced awareness and anoxaemia.
Clinical Electrocardiography with an Electroencephalograph
Authors: Fabisch Walter , Williams E. G.
Published: August 2008

A multiple channel electroencephalograph permits the simultaneous recording of several leads in electrocardiography. In order to utilize for this purpose the electroencephalograph installed in this hospital, a method has been worked out to record in groups of three the 3 standard leads, the 3 augmented unipolar limb leads, and 3 unipolar precordial leads consecutively, changing over from one group to the other simply by turning a switch. The technique here described is used in connection with a four-channel Marconi electroencephalograph.
Relationship between Insulin Coma Threshold of Schizophrenic Patients and their Resting E.E.Gs
Authors: Chamberlain G. H. A. , Lyketsos G.
Published: August 2008

The E.E.Gs. of schizophrenic patients have been studied by a number of workers, notably Davis and Davis (1939). P. Davis (1939, 1940, 1942) attempted a classification of schizophrenic records, defining the main types of pattern. Gibbs et al. (1938), Jasper et at. (1939), and, more recently, Hill (1946), have noted the presence of epileptic activity in the E.E.G.s of catatonic schizophrenics.
Spectroscopic and Photo-Electric Oximetry in Schizophrenia and other Psychiatric States
Authors: Lovett Doust John W.
Published: August 2008

The purpose of this paper is to outline the application to various psychiatric conditions of a test which measures peripheral capillary oxygen saturation and to discuss the significance of the findings. It is convenient to commence with a brief review of some previous work concerning the relevance of anoxaemia to psychiatry.
Sympathetic Blockade in the Treatment of Anxiety States
Authors: Smith S.
Published: August 2008

Paton and Zaimis (1949) showed that the members of a series of compounds composed of two tri-methyl ammonium groups linked by a polymethylene chain had various actions, such as producing neuro-muscular blocking, inhibition of cholinesterase, a muscarine-like action and a blocking of impulses at the autonomic ganglia. It has been found that hexamethonium is the most active of the above compounds in these respects, and the autonomic ganglionic blocking properties have clinical applications. Hexamethonium is usually used clinically as a dibromide.
The Use of Colour in the Paintings of Psychotics
Authors: Robertson J. P. S.
Published: August 2008

Students of the paintings produced by mental hospital patients believe that schizophrenics show peculiarities in their use of colour. Impressions in the matter have been summarized by Reitman (1950). Schizophrenics, especially the chronic, seem to favour colours avoided by others, particularly shades of mauvish-red. They put colours into relationships that others find displeasing. They employ colours more boldly than others. Sometimes, it would appear, they purposely depict objects in colours at variance with those possessed in real perception.
Adrenal Cortical Function and Response to Convulsive Therapy in a Case of Periodic Catatonia
Authors: Ashby W. Ross
Published: August 2008

Any patient who shows a regularly recurring change of mental state will be of particular interest to the research worker, for in the recurrence, by acting as his own “control,” the patient provides the best of all comparisons.

Such a patient, a woman aged 39, provided the basis for this work. Usually sensible and well spoken, she would, about every twenty-first day, become confused and incoherent. Convulsive therapy (E.C.T.) always caused an immediate improvement, and within two or three days she was well again. (Previous experience had established that the confusion had little spontaneous tendency to recover.) As she provided this regular cycle, a systematic investigation was made over several months into those aspects more particularly relevant to the effect of E.C.T. on the adenohypophyseal-adrenocortical system, for a previous study (Ashby, 1949) had suggested that E.C.T. might owe its effectiveness to action through this system.
Conceptual Impairment in Depressive and Organic Patients of the Pre-Senile Age Group
Authors: Hall K. R. L.
Published: August 2008

The problem of differentiating, in patients of the pre-senile age group, the degree and quality of intellectual impairment that is due to depression from that which is brought about by some organic, cerebral deterioration is one of some practical importance. It is, in fact, as Henderson and Gillespie (1950) stress, an important point to determine with regard to the prognosis of depressive cases of this age” whether or not there is any complicating organic process causing a failure of memory and efficiency. If such is present then the prognosis must be viewed much more gravely than would otherwise be indicated.”
Metabolic Response to Electrical Stimulation in Separated Portions of Human Cerebral Tissues
Authors: McIlwain H. , Ayres P. J. W. , Forda Olga
Published: August 2008

Electrical stimulation of different areas of the human brain has hitherto been confined to experiments with the brainin situ, in living subjects. It has been carried out while the brain received its blood supply from normal sources. By chemical analysis of the arterial and venous blood and measurement of its rate of flow, information has been obtained on how metabolic changes in the brain vary with changes in its activity. However, these conditions can give information only about gross biochemical changes associated with stimulation; they are cumbersome, and would not indicate abnormal reactions in small areas. Also, they detect differences only in substances which are actively exchanged with the blood stream.
Studies in Learning Impairment. II: Psychoneurotic Patients
Authors: Hall K. R. L. , Crookes T. G.
Published: August 2008

In the first part of an experimental study of learning impairment (Hall and Crookes, 1951) the present writers described some of the distinctive features of the performance of schizophrenic and organic patients on two learning tasks. Brief reference, by way of introduction, was also made to studies of learning efficiency in psychoneurotic patients which were carried out by Zangwill (1943, 1946) and Trist (1941). These writers, and also Davis (unpublished), noted particularly some of the reactions and types of failure that neurotic patients sometimes show, with special reference to the Rey performance test. Certain reactions to the test were felt to be characteristic, for example, of patients with anxiety states or hysterical reactions, although none of the writers had carried these observations further or confirmed them experimentally.
The Relation of Laterality of Lesion to Performance on Weigl's Sorting Test
Authors: McFie J. , Piercy M. F.
Published: August 2008

The Colour-Form Sorting Test was described by Weigl (1927) as one of a series of investigations into the nature of the psychological deficit resulting from a cerebral lesion. The material consists of 12 pieces: four squares, coloured severally red, yellow, blue and green; four circles, similarly coloured; and four equilateral triangles, similarly coloured (Fig. 1). They are presented in a random arrangement to the patient, who is asked to group them according to any similarity he sees; and when he has sorted them according to one principle, is then asked to sort them according to another.

Other problems involving sorting were presented in Weigl's study, and have been used in a number of investigations, particularly of the effects of frontal lobe lesions. Rylander (1939) found that his group of patients with frontal lesions differed significantly from the normal controls in the number of principles found for grouping 15 objects. Halstead (1940) used 62 common objects, and also found that patients with frontal lesions tended to find fewer principles for sorting than did patients with cerebral lesions located elsewhere. Subsequently Halstead and Settlage (1943) developed a mechanized grouping test, using geometrical figures: three patients, with frontal lesions, and one with a left occipital lesion, made many more errors than did the normal controls; while a patient with a right occipital lobectomy and one with a left parietotemporal lesion performed normally in this respect. Finally Halstead (1947) found that, of his group of ‘indicators” of cerebral damage, a similar test (No. 2) not only differentiated reliably the patients with cerebral lesions from the normal controls, but also gave a significantly higher error score with cases of frontal lesion.

Goldstein and Scheerer (1941) included Weigl's test in their experimental study of abstract and concrete behaviour; and Trist and Trist (1943) and Brody (1943) noted impairment on this test in cases of general paralysis and the presenile dementias.
The use of “Etamon” for High Blood-Pressure in Electrocerebral Treatment
Authors: Davies Glyn , Paterson A. Spencer
Published: August 2008

When electroshock is given, there is generally a rise of blood-pressure for a time. It is therefore stated in various text-books that the treatment is contra-indicated in cases of hypertension. Even premedication with thiopentone and curare does not always succeed in lowering the pressure to a safe level. It is also known that the initial rise in pressure may be followed by a subsequent compensatory fall, so that any drug which prevents fluctuations of arterial tension is likely to be of value. Etamon [tetra-ethyl ammonium chloride (T.E.A.C.)] lowers the blood-pressure by acting on the synapses of the sympathetic nervous system.

Many hospitals have found that electronarcosis is a valuable adjunct to treatment, as it is frequently successful when simple electroshock has failed. On many older patients, however, in whom this treatment is especially useful, the rise of blood-pressure can be very marked; and even forward placement of the electrodes does not always avoid this complication.

At the West London Hospital it was therefore decided to try out the effect of Etamon (Burroughs Wellcome). The bromide salt has the same effect. This drug has been used to lower the blood-pressure in hypertensive states, but there are certain disadvantages in its prolonged use for this purpose. Its administration, however, to combat a temporary rise of blood-pressure lasting 20 to 30 minutes is without any ill effects at all.
Some Further Observations on Head-Banging and Allied Behaviour
Authors: FitzHerbert Joan
Published: August 2008

In a paper published in the Journal of Mental Science for July, 1950, I suggested that head-banging originated in the infant's desire to reproduce the thrust of the mother's apex-beat against his head while he was being nursed on her left arm, either as a means of self-comfort or in retaliation for what he had felt to be an attack or as both combined. In the present paper I propose to analyse this infantile experience further, and to trace to some of its component elements certain other peculiarities of childish behaviour.

I shall begin by considering the case of a bottle-fed baby, that is to say, one who at every feed is held in his mother's left arm with his right temple against her left breast (and I shall suppose that the mother is not herself a case of dextrocardia.) In addition to the teat in his mouth and the milk being swallowed, such an infant feels the thrust of the mother's apex as a series of taps against his head which tend to impart to the latter a rolling side-to-side movement, he hears her heart-beat as a rhythmic lub-dup, he feels the rise and fall of her chest in respiration as a slower to and fro rocking of his whole body, and he hears the sighing rustle of her breathing beneath his ear. The sound and thrust of the heart-beat are of course louder and stronger at the limit of the mother's expirations, and indeed the tap of the apex may be felt only then. In other words, the suckling hears two separate series of interwoven unsynchronized rhythmic sounds continuing throughout the whole of his feeding times. In addition to all this, he feels the warmth of the maternal body, the steady clasp of the mother's arm, he smells the milk and the woman's body odour (sweaty, or scented by her soap and talcum powder), and lastly, he feels (and may smell) her breath as an intermittent warm breeze on his face and in his hair. The mother seldom speaks while she is feeding her baby, and the room is often quiet, mother and child being alone together. A breast-fed baby also feels smooth warm skin under his fingers, but he has the mother's heart against his head, during only half his feeding times.

The other occasions on which a woman commonly holds a child firmly against her breast are, of course, when she is trying to comfort a crying baby, or to restrain a struggling toddler from escaping to some forbidden activity. Here the child is angry and the mother herself often either anxious or angry or both, so that her heartbeat is greatly increased in force, and the furious infant feels it as a series of aggressive blows on his head, each of which is accompanied by a bumping noise.
Psychological Changes Due to E.C.T. As Measured by a Battery of Tests Given Repeatedly
Authors: Hetherington Ralph
Published: August 2008

The majority of investigations into psychological changes due to E.C.T. have been undertaken to assess the effect of treatment on the patient's memory. Sherman, Mergener and Levitin (1941), testing for retention of material assimilated on the same occasion as it had to be recalled or recognized, found no significant effect of E.C.T. upon memory. Zubin and Barrera (1941) found that E.C.T. removed the saving that would otherwise have occurred between learning and re-learning paired associates. They also reported that the effect of treatment on the recognition of material was less severe than on its recall, and this was confirmed by Mayer-Gross (1943).

The present paper reports psychological changes which have been found to take place during a course of treatment with E.C.T. as well as before and after. The investigation is a development of a pilot experiment undertaken with Dr. M. Roth which was briefly reported at the International Congress of Psychiatry, Paris, 1950.
The Patients' Attitudes to Leucotomy and its Effects
Authors: Stengel E.
Published: August 2008

It is perhaps not surprising that there have been no studies on the leucotomized patients' attitudes to the operation and its effects. There has been no practical reason for giving that problem special attention. Leucotomized patients have not spontaneously voiced complaints about the operation, even when the result was unsatisfactory. It seems that their apparent silence has been taken so much for granted that psychiatrists have failed to realize that it is an astonishing phenomenon. Here is a group of patients who have been subjected to an operation of which the pros and cons have been widely discussed in public. Many have left hospital free from symptoms but socially handicapped by the side-effects of the operation. Yet there has been, as far as this writer is aware, no instance of litigation in connection with the surgical treatment of mental illness. Part of the explanation for what seems to be a collective indifference to, if not general approval of, the operation and its effects may be found in the type of mental disorder for which this treatment has been most frequently applied: among the patients thus treated there have been many schizophrenics who even after the operation remained out of touch with reality, but that explanation does not apply to the numerous patients who were operated on for affective illnesses and neuroses.
Cortisone in the Treatment of Schizophrenia
Authors: Rees Linford , King G. M.
Published: August 2008

Recent research has given rise to the hope that the secretory products of the adrenal cortex might be useful in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Two main lines of research have stimulated renewed interest in the role of the adrenal cortex in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. A number of investigations have produced evidence that the responsivity of the adrenal cortex of schizophrenic patients to stress is lower than that of normal controls (Freeman et al., 1944; Hoagland et al., 1946; Pincus and Elmadjian, 1946; Pincus et al., 1949).

Another series of investigations has shown that adrenocortical activity is stimulated by insulin coma therapy, electronarcosis and electroconvulsive therapy (Hemphill and Reiss, 1942; Mikkelsen and Hutchins, 1948; Rees (1949a); Parson et al., 1949).

Cranswick and Hall (1950) reported that desoxycortone acetate and ascorbic acid appeared to be therapeutically valuable in schizophrenia. Rees and King (1951) carried out a controlled investigation on the treatment of schizophrenia with desoxycortone acetate and ascorbic acid, and found no evidence that the method was of any therapeutic value. It was pointed out that the investigation did not preclude the possibility that other products of the adrenal cortex might be therapeutically useful in schizophrenia.

The present paper describes a controlled investigation in the therapeutic value of cortisone administration in schizophrenia.

We are indebted to Dr. Ernest Evans, Consultant Physician, East Glamorgan Hospital, for making available a supply of cortisone for the investigation.
Studies on the Physiology of Awareness: An Oximetric Investigation of the Anoxaemia Accompanying Insulin Coma Therapy
Authors: Doust John W. Lovett , Schneider Robert A.
Published: August 2008

This investigation deals with the measurement, by a peripheral method of discontinuous spectroscopic oximetry, of the arterial blood oxygen saturation levels in a group of schizophrenic patients undergoing insulin coma therapy.

The association between tissue anoxia and insulin hypoglycaemia was first established by Campbell and Dudley in 1924. Dameshek and Meyerson (1935), using the arterio-venous oxygen difference method with the internal jugular vein as the source of venous blood, showed that the injection of insulin in coma doses was accompanied by an anoxaemia in the schizophrenic patients they studied. This work was confirmed by Himwich, Bowmanet al.(1939), and in another paper Himwich (1951, p. 277) and his co-workers found that the correlation of progressively developing clinical symptoms with the decrease of cerebral oxygen uptake was a closer one than the correlation with the more acute fall in the blood-sugar curve. An important symptomatic aspect of insulin hypoglycaemia includes the progressive changes in the levels of consciousness accompanying the approach towards coma. Wilder (1943) has outlined some of these changes, and Frostig (1940) and Himwich (1951, pp. 258-265) have delineated these awareness thresholds and discussed their relationship to the Hughlings Jackson theory of the phyletic organization of the central nervous system. Thus, during thefirst hourfollowing insulin injection, somnolence and lassitude appear to be associated with suppression of cortical and cerebellar activity; in thesecond hourfurther clouding of consciousness, sometimes with excitement, perceptual disturbances, periods of confusion, exacerbations of previously existing hallucinations and latent psychotic syndromes are seen; in thethird hourmotor restlessness and loss of consciousness suggest the release of basal ganglia and hypothalamus; in thefourth hourdeepening stupor and depression of exteroceptive sensitivity indicate a probable release of the midbrain and suppression of pyramidal function; in thefifth hourthe deep pre-mortal coma presages medullary release. Similarly, it is with awareness changes that many workers prefer to diagnose the “real coma” level in a patient under treatment. Thus Sakel (1937) held that coma was to be diagnosed when no further personal contact with the patient was possible, and Kalinowsky and Hoch (1946) agree that the real coma level is reached when it is completely impossible to awaken the patient.
The Effect of Electrical Stimulation of the Brain on the Perception of Pain
Authors: Croft Phyllis G.
Published: August 2008

The fact that electrical stimulation of the brain can produce unconsciousness in man and animals has been known since the eighteenth century, and from time to time this knowledge has been used in the production of anaesthesia for surgical purposes; Hobday, in 1932, performed castrations and herniotomies in small animals under electrical general anaesthesia, and in 1935 Hertz used electrical anaesthesia for laparotomies in dogs. To-day electrical stunning is used in bacon factories with the object of rendering pigs unconscious before slaughter. Electroconvulsant therapy (E.C.T.) is widely used in mental hospitals for the treatment of certain conditions, and recently Freeman (1948) has modified this technique to produce surgical anaesthesia for prefrontal leucotomy.

In some instances electrical anaesthesia has proved satisfactory, but there have been reports of “distorted consciousness” after E.C.T. in human subjects (Morgan, 1950), and of electrical curarization after industrial accidents (Hume, 1935); in these conditions the subject is conscious of sensation but unable to make voluntary movements. Such a condition is only appreciated when the subject is questioned after regaining full consciousness, and hence, if it occurred in animals, it would not be readily recognized.

The object of the work described in this paper was to determine the effect of the many variables of electric stimulation, and to investigate the state of consciousness of human subjects and animals after electric stunning. It was hoped thus to provide a basis for future work on electrical anacsthesia and to acquire a better understanding of the action of E.C.T.
Observations on the Relation Between Insulin Coma Dosage and Prognosis in Schizophrenia
Authors: Freudenberg R. K.
Published: August 2008

The evidence for somatological differences between various types of schizophrenia and its different stages of severity or chronicity is still scanty and often contradictory. The present investigation mainly concerns itself with endocrinological factors. Kraepelin, already, suggested disturbances in the endocrine system. The incidence of schizophrenia in different age-groups, especially its steep rise at puberty, reaching its peak at 20 in men and 25 in women and the rapid decline of its occurrence after these ages (Haas, 1938), has for a long time pointed to the sex steroids as an important factor in the pathology of this disorder. Hemphillet al.(1944, 1945, 1948) found an atrophy of the testes in many cases of schizophrenia, and considered the severity of the testicular change to be proportional to the severity of the psychosis. They suggest that the testicular lesions are not the cause of schizophrenia, but probably effects of the “pathogenic process” and related to hypothalamic or pituitary function. In confirmation of these findings Hoskins and Pincus (1949) observed the output of androgen in schizophrenics to be significantly lower than in normal men. Sears (1937) made similar observations in females, and found that the blood-œstrin level of female schizophrenics was much lower than in normal women. Possibilities for primary endocrinological factors suggest themselves; the “pathogenic process” can, however, still be primarily a psychological “stress” in this new constellation or a combination of both, or the effect of another central disturbance. Some of our somatological findings can, therefore, tentatively be interpreted as related to or identical with the primary stress or others only as secondary correlates or results, though the present state of our knowledge does not yet allow a final decision as to what is primary and what only secondary. Recent evidence, on the relationship of sex hormones and insulin (Houssay, 1951) suggests that oestrogens have a “sensitizing” and androgens a “desensitizing” effect. An investigation into the insulin sensitivity in clinically different schizophrenic groups and the two sexes expressed in the amount of insulin needed to produce a hypoglycaemic coma should, therefore, throw some light on other endocrinological mechanisms.
The Effects of E.C.T. on the Drawings of Depressed Patients
Authors: Hetherington Ralph
Published: August 2008

A study of the effects of E.C.T. on mental efficiency and retentivity has already been published (Hetherington, 1952). The present paper reports the effects of E.C.T. on drawings made by the same group of patients. Workers such as Prinzhorn (1922), Maclay, Guttmann and Mayer-Gross (1938), Anastasi and Foley (1943), Martin and Weir (1951) and Raven (1951) have been concerned with analysing unrestricted or “free” drawings of widely varying nature. Other workers, such as Burt (1921) and Goodenough (1926) have used restricted drawings usually of “a man” more specifically for the estimation of intelligence. Anastasi and Foley (1941) have reviewed the work done with the drawings of abnormal people, and have drawn attention to the lack of control groups, the rarity of quantitative assessments, and the danger of over-interpretation of the drawings on the part of observers. In order to meet these criticisms, patients' drawings have been compared in the present paper with those of a group of normal untreated people, assessments of the drawings being limited to quantitative measurements of area and position on the page, or to subjective judgments of consistency of style undertaken by several observers working independently.
Teaching Aids in Clinical Psychiatry
Authors: Millar W. M. , Valentine Max
Published: August 2008

The effective teaching of Psychiatry to medical students remains a formidable problem for many reasons apart from the actual methods employed by the teacher. Allocation of adequate time to the subject, the attitude of other teachers and students towards it, the facilities provided by local hospitals, clinics and other institutions alike contribute to the difficulty in establishing Psychiatry as a major subject within the medical curriculum. It is with the problem of teaching method alone that this paper wishes to deal: first to outline the inherent difficulties commonly encountered; secondly to describe the design of structures and equipment found useful in overcoming these difficulties in some measure; and thirdly to point the way for possible future development.
The Concentration of Adrenaline-Like Substances in Blood during Insulin Hypoglycaemia
Authors: Weil-Malherbe H. , Bone A. D.
Published: August 2008

Since the demonstration of increased sympathetic activities during insulin hypoglycaemia by Cannon, MacIver and Bliss (1924) the assumption has been current that hypoglycaemia also increases the concentration of circulating adrenaline, and repeated attempts have been made to verify this experimentally. Brandt and Katz (1933), using the perfused rabbit ear, the isolated rabbit ileum and the enucleated frog eye as test objects, found that human blood possessed adrenaline-like activities during hypoglycaemia, while control blood was inactive. Meythaler and Wossidlo (1935) reported that the blood of subjects injected with insulin caused an increased vasoconstriction of the perfused rabbit ear and, more recently, Meythaler, Lobenhofer and Haggenmiller (1951) found that the response varied according to the constitutional type of the subject. Heilbrunn and Liebert (1939), however, observed no uniform effects when they tested the blood of patients undergoing insulin shock therapy with the frog perfusion technique; while there was a rise of adrenaline-like activity in some patients, others showed a fall and some failed to show any definite pattern. The results of Tietz, Dornheggen and Goldman (1940) and of Tietz and Birnbaum (1942) who used Shaw's colorimetric method indicated little change in the first two hours after insulin injection, but in the later stages of hypoglycaemia there was a more consistent tendency towards an increase of concentration. The proportion of adrenaline in the chromogenic material estimated by Shaw's method increases during hypoglycaemia, according to Raab (1943). Kalaja (1942), with a fluorimetric method, also found an increase of the blood adrenaline level after insulin injection. On the other hand, Richter (quoted by Jones, 1939) who used the method of Shaw came to the conclusion that adrenaline was not present in significantly increased concentration in arterial blood during those stages of hypoglycaemia when the clinical picture suggested the possibility of adrenalinaemia.
Experimental Studies of a Perceptual Anomaly. II. Confirmatory and Explanatory Experiments
Authors: Shapiro M. B.
Published: August 2008

The first paper in this series described a number of experiments on a single subject, carried out to investigate an anomaly observed during performance of the Kohs Blocks test. This anomaly consisted of making the model correctly but rotated. (Illustration 1.)

The first hypothesis adopted to explain this observation was that anomalies of perception are functions of disturbed figure-ground relations (Goldstein and Scheerer, 1941). This hypothesis is not precise enough to permit a deduction which would make possible an exact experimental test, i.e., a deduction defining the conditions which would produce a measurable change in the rotation phenomenon. It was therefore necessary to arrive at more definite ideas about figure-ground relations. Such ideas were found in three hypotheses developed by Goldstein and Scheerer (1941) to account for variations in speed of carrying out the Block Design test. The first of these is that the square orientation (e.g., Cards a and b in Illustration 2) of a figure would tend to diminish the frequency of appearance of the anomaly, while the diamond orientation would increase it (e.g., Cards c and d in Illustration 2).
The Response of the Neurotic Personality to Abreaction
Authors: Hordern Anthony
Published: August 2008

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to results achieved in selected neurotic cases treated by short-term abreactive techniques in St. Clement's Hospital during recent months. Patients usually stay in for about two months; as yet it is too early to assess long-term results of this form of treatment, but it is felt that some of the initial results are extremely encouraging.
Studies on the Physiology of Awareness: The Effect of Rhythmic Sensory Bombardment on Emotions, Blood Oxygen Saturation and the Levels of Consciousness
Authors: Lovett Doust John W. , Schneider Robert A.
Published: August 2008

Biological rhythms exist in a rich variety and almost bewildering profusion to attend and equilibrate the physiology of man. Such dynamic phasic activity appears not only to be intimately concerned with the phenomenology of life and biological processes in general, but is also to be found in purely chemical systems (Hedges and Meyers, 1926). Modalities of the periodicities associated with life can be divided into those external to the organism—including diurnal and climatic variation, sun-spot activity, etc., and into those inherent within the individual such as the respiratory and cardiac rhythms, the menstrual cycle, sleep and awakening. Only less well marked are certain psychological periodicities such as “cyclothymic “variations in mood and personality. In the course of the present century much painstaking research has attempted to link external with internal rhythmic activities, significant correlations being adduced between seasonal variation and, for example, the incidence of psychiatric disorder (Huntington, 1915), immunity from disease (Spencer and Melroy, 1943, Webster, 1944), temperament and behaviour (Petersen, 1934-36; Mills, 1942), and an impressive array of biochemical and physiological variables ranging from blood pH, lactic acid and protein to breath-holding time, plethysmography, tests of hand strength and fatigability, dark adaptation time and various tests of urinary function (Petersen, 1947).
Individual Differences between Interviewers and their Effect on Interviewees' Conversational Behaviour
Authors: Goldman-Eisler Frieda
Published: August 2008

Flexibility in adjustment on the part of the interviewer is commonly regarded as one of the main qualifications for good interviewing and part of an interviewer's skill. The high estimation of the spontaneity of the interviewing situation, which has been one of the main reasons why the interview as a technique has retained its popularity against more standardized and reliable methods, rests largely on the presupposition that skilled interviewers can adjust their own behaviour and steer the interviewing situation freely so as to obtain optimum rapport and maximum information. Thus Oldfield (5) considers changes of topic, attitute and tempo of great significance for the conduct of the interview. He particularly stresses the importance of changes of tempo; pauses in the conversation, he says, if “badly chosen may easily break the trend of the relationship which is being built up. On the other hand, if well chosen, they may contribute markedly to the success of the interview.” No evidence, however, exists to show to what extent skilled interviewers actually are free to adjust themselves to any particular interviewing task or which aspects of their interviewing behaviour are more subject to adjustment than others.
The Diagnostic Significance of Certain Tests of Carbohydrate Metabolism in Psychiatric Patients and the Question of “Oneirophrenia”
Authors: Mayer-Gross W.
Published: August 2008

In a previous communication (1951) it was shown that the hyperglycaemic factor described by Meduna and Vaichulis (1948) in the urine of psychotics consisted of two fractions, and that the more active and specific of these was of a protein nature. Morgan and Pilgrim (1952) have prepared concentrates of this factor from the urine of male and female schizophrenics, and have produced further evidence that it is a protein or a substance strongly bound to a protein. In normal male urine they did not find a measurable quantity of the factor.
The Electroencephalogram in Aged Patients of a Mental Hospital
Authors: McAdam W. , McClatchey W. T.
Published: August 2008

This paper describes a preliminary survey, in which an attempt was made to discover if recognizable E.E.G. patterns could be correlated with consistent patterns of behaviour in a group of aged mental hospital patients.
The use of Electroplexy in Mental Disease with Clouding of Consciousness
Authors: Roth Martin , Rosie J. M.
Published: August 2008

Clouding of consciousness is a common feature of organic psychoses. It may be of any degree of severity from acute delirium to some diminished capacity for clear thinking and impairment of retention for recent experiences. However, such a diminution in the level of awareness also occurs occasionally in “functional” mental disorders; severe and rapidly evolving attacks of mania or depression may be associated with some degree of clouding of consciousness, and Meduna in some recent papers (Meduna and McCulloch, 1945; Meduna, 1950) has redirected attention to “oneirophrenia,” an acute psychotic disorder originally described by Mayer-Gross (1924) in which clouding of consciousness is the general rule.
Human Behaviour Reactions to Organic Cerebral Disease
Authors: Reinhold Margaret
Published: August 2008

Difficulty occurs at times in the diagnostic differentiation between the manifestations of organic cerebral disease and those of hysteria, particularly in patients who suffer from symptoms which are largely subjective in nature, and which are not accompanied by physical signs. An attempt is made in this paper to discuss behaviour reactions which are characteristic of organic cerebral disease, and which, if present, exclude the possibility of the disease being “hysterical” in nature.