In a reprint from this journal Professor Pick describes the case of a woman æt. 41 years, who after confinement showed symptoms of mental derangement. She was much excited and tore her clothes; speech was much disordered. When admitted to the clinique at Prague she was found to speak indistinctly, slurring over some consonants. The same deficiency was found in her writing, which scarcely recalled the words she was supposed to signify. She could understand reading, and what was said to her, though her intelligence was notably impaired. After a short stay in the hospital she was discharged, but was brought back eight months after in a much worse condition. In her writing, both to dictation and spontaneously, she only reproduced a few letters, though she copied correctly. There was paresis of the right side. The mental power went on diminishing, and the speech getting more unintelligible, till she died of pneumonia ten months after admission.

Dr. de Moor, in his presidential address to the Belgian Society, in view of the well-known fact that insanity is often overlooked in the law courts, urges the importance of judges being able to acquire, as at Heidelberg University, some knowledge of the mental condition of criminals, and of diseases of the mind generally. Moreover, he would reserve the mental examination of accused persons or prisoners to medical men with special diplomas. The selection of a lunacy expert should always be granted to the defence in a trial. In important cases he is in favour of two experts giving evidence, one of whom should be chosen by the defence; in case of their disagreement, the magistrate, with the consent of the defence, could select a third expert, whose decision would be practically final. In some cases, it is highly desirable that the accused should be placed under observation in an asylum for a limited period (the German law fixes this limit to six weeks). Such a sojourn by a special enactment could be made without prejudice to the accused. In addition to giving correct information concerning the mental condition of the accused (detection of simulation, etc.), such a period of observation in an asylum would turn out to be of real benefit as regards the treatment of the really insane. In exceptional cases the six weeks of observation granted by German law might be extended by permission of the magistrate upon request of the defence. Dr. de Moor in this address does not pretend to deal fully with this question, but merely makes a few suggestions well worth consideration.

This is a most thoughtful paper, of the greatest interest, on the question of the prevention of the spread of venereal diseases, and well worth close study. It is only possible here to give some of the author's conclusions and suggestions. A careful examination of evidence (statistics, etc.) shows that prostitution is the cause of the spread of venereal diseases; that clandestine prostitution is answerable for quite two thirds of this; that in three quarters of the cases a woman prostitutes herself before her legal majority; that prostitutes are generally recruited among girls seduced and abandoned; etc. It therefore follows that the great source of venereal diseases arises from the clandestine prostitution of young women; moreover that man is particularly responsible for its spread. The protection of the young woman against seduction is of the first importance, and it is especially in this connection that the prophylaxis of venereal diseases becomes a social question. The error of those in favour of “regulations” is that they have dwelt particularly on the fact that the diseased prostitute is immediately much more dangerous than the diseased man, losing sight of the not less evident fact that the best means of avoiding the evil would have been to protect her against the man who contaminated her.

This number is wholly occupied by a paper on this condition. The author has already in previous numbers described seven cases, and he now records fourteen others, in addition to which he has collected from various sources over fifty cases.

The author recalls that since Quinke, in 1891, directed the attention of the Wiesbaden Congress to the use of lumbar puncture, numerous publications have appeared on the subject. He observes that the high expectations of the therapeutic value of this operation have not been realised, any improvement following being seldom lasting. It has been used with most effect in acute, serous, and sero-purulent meningitis, and less so in simple hydrocephalus, brain tumour, and tubercular meningitis. Lumbar puncture has, however, been an important addition to our means of diagnosis. Through it we are able to ascertain whether there is abnormal increase in the spinal fluid. This gives an important indication in cases of brain tumours and of serous meningitis with obscure symptoms. In doubtful cases of tubercular meningitis the detection of tubercle bacilli in the spinal fluid determines the diagnosis of the disease.

In three numbers of this weekly, Dr. Krayatsch, Director of the Asylum at Mauer-Oehling in Lower Austria, shows what has been already done, and what is farther proposed to be done, in Lower Austria for young idiots and imbeciles. By the census of 1890 there were returned, in a population of 2,800,000, 3000 idiots and cretins, of whom 400 were considered to be of a school-attending age. But Professor von Wagner, in his investigations on cretinism in Styria, has shown that in the year 1899 there were as many as 284 boys and 184 girls in institutions for the care and training of weak-minded children in Lower Austria.

The author criticises adversely the experiments and theories of Dr. Ceni published in a paper analysed by Dr. Sainsbury in this Journal (vide page 782), and records a series of observations which he has made with a view to testing Ceni's results.

In this paper the author has put together some general observations suggested by his exceptional experience in the treatment of the inebriate. It is noteworthy that, on the whole, his attitude is distinctly optimistic. In the first place he pleads for more discrimination of cases. He distinguishes three classes of inebriates: (1) paroxysmal cases, where there are often premonitory symptoms in change of character, morbid impulses, etc., treatment of which may abort the attack; (2) delusional inebriates with mental exaltation, which may be prodromal to general paralysis; for such cases rest and change with eliminative and subsequently tonic treatment are indicated; and (3) senile and demented cases.

The General Meeting was held at the Derbyshire County Asylum, Mickleover, on Thursday, February 12th, 1903. Dr. J. Wiglesworth, the President, occupied the chair.