Of recent years hysteria has received little scientific study in England, although it was an Englishman—Sydenham—who first placed it on a truly sound and secure basis. It was nearly two hundred years before Sydenham's work on this subject was fully recognized, and then the recognition came from France. With the exception of Brodie's notable contributions—which are fully appreciated in the work before us—no further advance has come from England. The school of the Salpêtrière—Charcot and a very large body of distinguished pupils—at present holds the field, and it is difficult to point to any worker not associated with this school who has lately done anything to advance our scientific knowledge of hysteria. The work, however, which has been done by Charcot and his disciples is now very considerable, and the time had arrived for some authoritative summary. This has been undertaken by Dr. Gilles de la Tourette, who has himself made important contributions to the question, and who possesses many qualifications for the task he has undertaken. His knowledge is wide, his tone is always moderate and judicial, and he is entirely free from that tendency to vague eloquence which has done so much in the past to render difficult a clear conception of hysteria. In this first volume of his work he deals with “Hystérie Normale” or interparoxysmal hysteria.

Max Nordau is best known as the author of an attack on the shams of civilization, which has been translated into many languages. For the preparation of the present book he seems to have saturated himself with the methods and results of modern morbid psychologists from Morel to Lombroso, and has thus been led to the conclusion that the literature and art of the present day may be summed up in the one word which gives the title to his book—degeneration. Not a single recent artist or writer (not being an alienist) is alluded to in this book except to be dismissed as a victim of mental derangement. The works of Millais, Rossetti (who belongs to the group of imbeciles), Swinburne (Magnan's dégénéré supérieur), Verlaine (folie circulaire), Tolstoi, Whitman (moral insanity), Wagner, etc., have all “psychic stigmata” of degeneration as understood by Morel. At the outset the author remarks that his results may be proved by physical examination of the writers and artists in question, and the study of their personal history, but he renounces this interesting task for the easier one of investigating the “psychic stigmata.” This is certainly done with remarkable acuteness, but the author entirely fails to see that the presence in a work of genius of some mental characteristic also to be found in persons of weak or perverted intellect by no means negatives the genius. Max Nordau insists on the presence of serious punning and the collocation of assonant words in various modern writers as evidence of feeble mental power because the same characteristics are found in the literature of the insane. He is not apparently aware that such verbal tricks are specially frequent in Shakespeare, whom he regards as entirely sane.

The author of this book is well known as a psychologist of the modern school, more concerned with facts than with theories. He has collected and summarized most of what may be gathered as to the special psychology of artists, at the same time adding fresh material, the fruit of his own observations. He deals with the anatomical and physiological characters of artists, with the quality of their vision and their memory; with their heredity; while the concluding section is devoted to the pathology of the painter. The book altogether forms a readable chapter in psychology, but, as may be anticipated in the first attempt to deal comprehensively with a new subject, the conclusions reached are not usually very definite.

We had the pleasure of recommending the first edition of this little book to the readers of the “Journal of Mental Science,” and we hope in time to see a third edition. We know that the work has been found a useful text-book for students in the Edinburgh Medical School, and no doubt also in other places. Any medical man who wishes to refresh his knowledge of the spinal cord and brain will find a timely help in Mr. Whitaker's clear descriptions and well-planned illustrations and diagrams. In the present edition the page is larger, and there are now 178 pages instead of 135. The chapter on the methods of ascertaining the location of the different sulci and gyri in relation to the skull and scalp is a useful addition at present, when surgery is busy with new operations on the cranial contents. The principal improvement is, however, in the lithographic plates, of which we have now 40 instead of 22. They are also more elaborate in outline, and the effect of the diagrams has been more carefully studied. The labour in designing these illustrations must have been fully equal to that of writing the text. Mr. Whitaker does not claim to teach any new views in his book, but for a clear and concise description of the nervous centres it has not been surpassed.

There are many unsavoury subjects which have to be considered in medical practice, especially when that is carried on among the insane. The lower animal nature in some patients shows itself often in all its simple beastliness. Yet we do not think, in England, at least, that it is well that such subjects should be fully considered in books which may be bought of any bookseller. Perhaps we are prudish, but we think that the production of this book by Ebing will not add to his reputation, nor will it do any possible good to the medical or the psychological world.

This book is an important contribution to a very difficult subject. It is carefully and clearly written, and every line in it gives evidence that the subject-matter has received deliberate attention. Amidst the much loose writing of the present day, it is a relief to turn to a piece of close reasoning so ably set forth.

In this work Dr. Bruce embodies the results of his researches on the pons and medulla, their various nuclei and tracts of fibres. The method employed was that of Weigert, or some of its modifications, and was applied to structures obtained from the human fótus from the fifth month up to the full time. It is well known that this method has already yielded most valuable information regarding the origin and course of many tracts in the cord and other parts of the nervous system, and in Dr. Bruce's hands, besides affording the material on which the illustrations are traced, it has been the means of his adding still further to our knowledge of these structures.

This work is the report of Bicêtre Asylum for 1890, and produced by Bourneville, with the assistance of his junior colleagues, Messrs. Camescasse, Isch-Wall, Morax, Raoult, Seglas, and P. Sollier.

It is with much pleasure that we receive from time to time evidence of the spirit with which the Grahamstown Asylum is being administered by Dr. T. D. Greenlees, formerly assistant medical officer at the City of London Asylum. We regret that from pressure on our columns we have hitherto contented ourselves with feeling instead of expressing this pleasure in the pages of the Journal. The above Magazine is edited by Dr. Greenlees, and no doubt affords instruction and amusement to the inmates of the asylum.

This Journal shows no indication of waning vigour. In fact the present number contains a large amount of interesting matter. One note on “Nervous and Mental Derangement from Organic Sulphur Compounds” has reference to the instances of derangement of mind induced by exposure to inhalation of sulphuretted hydrogen related by Dr. Andrew Wilson on the observation of Dr. Wiglesworth. Dr. Richardson recalls his own observations presented to the British Association in 1870. He introduced the study of the effects produced by chemical substances modified by the introduction or abstraction of simple elementary parts, and insisted that it was necessary to commence with a base, and to follow the modifications of its actions through the varied compounds formed upon it. He indicated the peculiar action of the substance known as mercaptan or sulphur alcohol. It was shown that a person brought under its action was subjected to strange variations of mind and body, viz., a desire to sleep, a strange, unhappy, dreamy sensation as from some actual or impending trouble, succeeded by an easy but extreme sense of muscular fatigue, so that the limbs felt too heavy to be lifted, and with depression and slowness of pulse for several hours. Sulphur compounds were also shown by him to be readily constructable in the animal economy, and a new field of inquiry was opened as to their presence in the air of a sick room and in the excretions. When we know how minute a proportion of sulphur alcohol will produce mental depression bordering on suicidal propensity, we may infer that the formation of sulphur compounds within the body would account for many examples of excessive temporary prostration, for the cause of which we have as yet no explanation.

Dr. Moll's latest book, “Der Rapport in der Hypnose,” is published under the auspices of the German Society for Psychological Research. This Society, we might add, was formed in November, 1890, by the amalgamation of the “Psychological Society” of Munich, and the “Society for Experimental Psychology” of Berlin, and corresponds, in a more sceptical sense, to the “Society for Psychical Research” in this country. A knowledge of the above fact explains at once the standpoint from which the question is approached. It is well known that the purpose of the societies mentioned is to investigate impartially all kinds of phenomena brought under their notice, and not a priori to reject such phenomena as impossible. In the same way Dr. Moll has taken in hand the assertion of the so-called mesmerists, that in the hypnotic rapport there is at work some kind of unknown influence, which cannot be appreciated by our generally recognized senses, and which they call animal magnetism; and he has considered it worth the trouble of making a great number of experiments in order to test the influence of animal magnetism in and on the hypnotic condition, especially in producing the so-called rapport. The last number of this Journal contained a review of an article by Professor Wundt on hypnotism, in which the question of animal magnetism, telepathy, etc., is rejected without experimental investigation as a scientific impossibility. To this article Dr. Moll refers at the end of his book, saying that Professor Wundt was not quite correct in stating that only those give their time to experiments of the kind mentioned, who thoroughly believe in the phenomena they are going to investigate, for it is almost needless to say that Dr. Moll comes from his experiments to the same conclusions at which Professor Wundt arrives without experiments, through scientific reasoning. Professor Wundt's standpoint is very good for the limited number of those who are so well-informed in science as is the Leipzig Professor himself, and able absolutely to follow the course of his logic, but the standpoint adopted by the societies mentioned, and also by Dr. Moll, is certainly the more suitable and practical one for convincing the greater number of people of the erroneousness of the assertion that there is such an invisible and powerful factor at work in hypnotic suggestion as “animal magnetism.” The latter standpoint also avoids the objection of unfairness from the opposite side. It is almost superfluous to say that the number and variation of the experiments which Dr. Moll performed and describes is as complete and thorough as we have become accustomed to expect from Dr. Moll's former work. His knowledge of the subject and of the related branches is very wide, and to us it was especially interesting to read his remarks on the taming of wild beasts, and the conclusions he draws from the analogy of the influence of the dompteur on his animals and Of the hypnotizer on the person with whom he is en rapport. We doubt whether Dr. Moll's latest book will find so wide a circle of readers as his book on “Hypnotism” has found. Hypnotism in itself is so interesting that such an excellent book as the one mentioned could not fail to find a large circulation. It is, however, not everybody's liking to read about experiments which all prove to be failures, i.e., to find a record of negative results only. The greater number of people—and this is certainly true in the case of a large number of those who are interested in hypnotism, and to this latter class alone the remark of Professor Wundt applies—in performing or witnessing experiments, expect and want to see positive results, and are unable to appreciate that the failure of an experiment is quite as valuable from a scientific point of view as a successful experiment. Dr. Moll's “Rapport in der Hypnose” is a collection of negative results with regard to the proof of the existence of animal magnetism, and therefore of great scientific value, although not to medical hypnotizers, who knew them already.

The lectures of which this book is composed were delivered at the Paris “Faculté de Médecine” in 1891, and deal with some of the most important diseases of the spinal cord, especially with the chronic scleroses.

This is a welcome contribution to the diseases of the nervous system from the prolific pen of Prof. Charcot, and a worthy addition to his already numerous volumes on the subject. It is for the most part a record of clinical lectures delivered, and of cases observed, at the Salpêtrière between 1889 and 1891, and reported by M. Georges Guinon, chef de clinique, and other of Prof. Charcot's assistants.

This is a reprint of the Croonian Lecture (March 24th, 1892), published in “The Phil. Trans. R.S.,” t. clxxxiii., p. 299.

We are obliged, in consequence of the press of matter, to postpone to the next number our review of this work, which we commend to readers interested in the insanity of the poet. The subject is one which has long engaged our attention, and we intend entering at some length upon the study of Cowper's mental affection.

Leicester and Rutland.—The rate of mortality was high—14 per cent. on the average number resident. There was an epidemic of diarrhóa, which caused four deaths. Forty cases of influenza occurred, and several deaths were due to the sequelæ. The cause of the outbreak of diarrhóa was not discovered, though Dr. Higgins was assisted in his examination by the Medical Officer of Health and a hospital physician. Such outbreaks are too common in asylums, and unfortunately efforts to discover their origin are frequently unsuccessful.

The following notes may, perhaps, be of service to those engaged in pathological work, including the preparation of museum specimens, in asylums:—

The following is taken from a resume of Dr. Bjeljakow in the “Wjestnik Psych.” (viii. Jahrgang, Heft 2), as given in the “Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychatrie” (xviii. Band, 1 Heft). Dr. Bjeljakow, who has studied the subject in a hospital of St. Petersburg, has confined his observations to cases where there was distinct inflammation of the middle ear. Out of 135 post-mortem examinations which he made during four years 17·12 per cent. suffered from internal otitis. Of these one of the patients had melancholia, one paranoia hallucinatoria acuta, eight paranoia hallucinatoria chronica, two secondary dementia, three epileptic insanity, four general paralysis, one acute delirium, one senile dementia, and three hebephrenia. The author, at the end of his paper, gives the following conclusions:—