This is a study not merely of the effects of alcohol, whether as manifested in inebriety or when taken for experimental purposes, but of the intoxication impulse generally. The author believes there is a danger of regarding natural phenomena too readily as abnormal. He considers that the methods used by many who have been inspired by Lombroso illustrate this, and remarks that the conclusion of Nordau that all society is pathological is the logical result of an indiscriminate search for abnormalities. Thus we must beware of too hastily regarding the intoxication impulse as abnormal. It has played a part of the first importance both among uncivilised and civilised peoples. “Indeed, it is hard to imagine what the religious or social consciousness of primitive man would have been without them [intoxicants].” The first part of the paper is devoted to an account of the part played by this impulse in the religious and social life of early civilisations. This is followed by an analysis of the state of intoxication, accounts of experiments with intoxicating doses of alcohol, and observations on a series of inebriates. The authors experiments show that in intoxication, unless well advanced, the rapidity of simple mental processes is not decreased. The rapidity of tapping was most affected. Ability to control a reflex wink was greatly increased. There is increased activity of the associations, emotions, and sensations which make up the self. The increase of self-confidence and the diminution of suspicion are important points in their social bearing. “The intimate relation of intoxication to the social impulse undoubtedly accounts—in part at least—for the widespread and persistent use of intoxicants. Doubtless it made possible wider social relations than could otherwise have been maintained.”

There exists still much difference of opinion as to the part played by cancer in the ætiology of insanity. In the case here related by Jacquin, he believes that the malignant tumour was a strong factor in the causation of the insane attack; but it is important to remember that injections into the body of the tumour were made, and that some septic mischief was set up thereby. A woman, æt. 31 years, was admitted into the Hospital de la Croix-Rousse (Lyon) on July 3rd, 1899, with a swelling on the right side of the neck of the size of a walnut, thought to be lymphadenoma. Three days later iodoform with ether was injected into the tumour after incision. After a few days' suppuration the wound healed. Three months later, the patient returned with the tumour a good deal larger—the size of a small fótal head. There was a good deal of pain, and signs of pressure on the right brachial plexus were present. Every third day arsenical injections were made into the tumour without any result. On November 29th, the patient was admitted into Bron Asylum suffering from delusions of persecution, with hallucinations of hearing and sight. From a fistulous opening in the tumour, very fótid blood-stained matter escaped. There was marked cachexia. The delusions and hallucinations persisted, fever set in, the general condition grew worse, and the patient died on February 12th. There was no autopsy.

Under this title, Dr. Pianetta discusses the pseudo-paranoiac symptoms which occur in degenerate subjects, illustrating his remarks by three personal observations. As characteristic of the group of “paranoids” which he describes, the author indicates that they manifest a tendency to erroneous interpretation of outside impressions in some special direction, without, however, elaborating a systematised delirium; their mental state is thus that of incipient paranoia,—at times, perhaps, undergoing an exacerbation which renders them for the moment symptomatically indistinguishable from cases of typical paranoia. The author points out the affinities of these cases to the paranoia sine delirio of Tanzi and Riva, and to Magnan's mental degeneracy with episodic syndromes, with which, indeed, the cases recorded appear in all respects identical. The first observation is that of a man with hereditary taint, in whom mental disorder first appeared shortly after marriage; recovery was rapid, but the patient subsequently manifested neurasthenic symptoms with a disposition to hypochondriacal, self-depreciatory, and persecutory ideas. Generally these ideas had an obsessional character and were more or less readily repressed, but at times they acquired the force of delusions, were supported by hallucinations, and on one occasion led to a suicidal attempt. The author draws special attention to the passage from obsession to delusion in this case. The second observation refers to an individual hereditarily unstable, eccentric, and morbidly vain, who presented at intervals a tendency to disconnected delusions, chiefly hypochondriacal and persecutory. In the third observation, the patient, aged twenty-three, mentally degenerate as a result of insane heredity and of infectious disease in childhood, presented at intervals imperfectly defined delusions of persecution. Of very defective ethical development, he was repeatedly condemned for theft and for sexual offences, and two of his persecutory episodes occurred in prison.

Dr. Deiters commences his article by stating that, since Samt's investigations on the forms of epileptic insanity, it has generally been recognised that the mental symptoms are very characteristic; indeed, some hold that the presence of epilepsy may sometimes be inferred from the psychical manifestations alone. Sometimes, however, insanity combined with epileptic seizures takes a different character, approaching the forms of other vesaniæ. He gives at some length the description of a patient fifty-five years old, who had epilepsy combined with delusions of a paranoic nature. He had led a vagabond life, had been in prison for stealing, and had been passed on to a workhouse as incapable of earning a livelihood. When admitted to the asylum at Andernach, he was found to be lazy and indifferent, to have religious delusions, and suspicions of being poisoned. He said that at night people put “oprigus” under his nose, and that he was going to be made pope. Finally, he imagined that he was actually crowned as pope, and that Christ had appeared to him and held a chalice over his head, etc. Other cases of hallucination and systematised delusions have been described by Gnauck, Pohl, Buchholz, and others. Magnan thought that several psychoses might exist together. Deiters observes that the forms of insanity which he specifies are technical divisions rather than specific diseases, but that fairly distinct forms may supervene the one upon the other. He thinks that the mind never remains intact after repeated epileptic seizures. Epilepsy prepares the ground for insane ideas, but the character and sequence of these ideas may now and then take an unusual course.

This is a dissertation on one of the rarer visceral symptoms found in epileptics. The opening paragraphs concern themselves with a description of the history of the symptoms, how it was first observed in horses. Passing from this, the author discusses analogues in the fermented stomach cravings found in man and the lower animals. He puts on record several cases to show that hunger may be manifested in epileptics as “faim-valle” is in horses, and is of opinion that, when it is better understood, it will be oftener met with.

Attention is drawn to Lasnet's notes on the Sakalavas or West Coast Malagasies published in the Annales d'Hygiène et de Médecine Coloniales, which include the description of a curious epidemic nervous affection met with amongst the natives. It begins suddenly, and consists of incessant shaking of the body, accompanied by irregular movements, incoherent speech, and delirium; the patients indulge in wild bacchanalian dances, finally falling to the ground panting and foaming at the mouth. Some clamber up the rocks, while others pass whole days in pools or rivers, declaring that they are forced to remain there by spirits. They present meanwhile a most wild appearance, and, if not dancing, walk straight before them with head erect and eyes constantly rolling. It is very communicable.