I Principi Fondamentali della Anthropologia Criminale. Guida per i Guidisi Medico-forensi nelle questioni di imputabilita. Dei DOTTORE GUISSEPE ANTONINI. Manual Hoepli. (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1906.) This series is perhaps too well known to need a detailed description. The subjects treated are by no means restricted to medicine. The volume under discussion is a book about four by six inches and contains 167 pages besides the list of other volumes of the series which occupies 64 pages. Its chief defect is common to the whole series and is the white cloth binding with pale blue stripes and red and black lettering, which is hardly durable enough for a book which is supposed to be carried in the pocket and subjected to frequent handling. The book is divided into four chapters: Introductory, Criminal Anthropology, Medico-Legal Application, and Insanity. In the last the author adheres to the classification of Tanzi, and each form of mental disturbance is well but briefly described. It is no matter for wonder that pellagra should be more fully treated than any other form. The chapter begins with admirable directions for the physical and mental examinations. The book will be chiefly valuable in this country as a combined exercise in Italian and an introduction to the views of Italians upon anthropology and psychiatry. Both of these functions it will serve admirably. W. R. D. Pneumonite Crupale con Speciale Riguardo alla sua Cura. Dei DOTTORE ANTONIO SERAFINI. Manual Hoepli. (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1906.) This book covers 222 pages and is divided into ten chapters, entitled Introduction, Etiology, Pathological Anatomy, Symptomatology, Anomalous Forms and Irregular Types, Course-Termination-Mortality, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Prophylaxis, and Therapy. The work is written in a very pleasing manner and the interest of the reader does not flag. It is difficult to pick out especial points of interest but perhaps the section on serum therapy is most interesting on account of the comparative novelty of the subject. In this the author first reviews the subject of immunity, then considers the work which has been done to isolate a specific antipneumonic serum, describing the work of Pane and giving the results of himself and others with his serum, finally discussing the anti-pneumonic serum of Fizzoni in the same manner. The whole work is well worth a perusal. W. R. D. Prontuario di Posologia dei Rimedi più usati nella Terapia Infantile. Dei DOTTORE ANTENORE CONELLI. Manual Hoepli. (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1906.) This compend of therapeutics for children is well arranged and is a convenient means of reference for dosage, etc. Under each drug is given the synonyms, characteristics, properties, incompatibles, dosage for various ΤΟ ages, means of administration, and antidotes. An introduction gives information in regard to feeding, baths, douches, and general therapeutic measures. The book concludes with a list of drugs and the average dose of each. It contains 186 pages. W. R. D. Seventh Annual Report of the State Board of Insanity of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the Year ending September 30, 1905. This report is one of the best state reports that we receive, as it is not unnecessarily padded by the inclusion of individual hospital reports, and the subject of insanity in Massachusetts is treated tersely yet with sufficient detail to satisfy the most exacting. The report proper occupies 141 pages, and an appendix containing financial statistics, statistical tables, directory and index, occupies 56 more. The whole is neatly bound in black cloth. Family care of the insane which has been successfully carried on for several years continues to enlarge its function, forty patients have been added to the number cared for in this manner, making a total of 253, and as recommended in the last report, an act of the legislature has been passed permitting the trustees of the various institutions to carry on this form of care which hitherto has been solely under the control of the state board. An interesting discussion is recorded on the subject of the criminal insane and their segregation which cannot but be suggestive to those interested in this class. W. R. D. Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Third Series, Vol. 27. Printed for the College: (Philadelphia, 1905). Unlike its predecessor, this volume contains a number of papers of neurological interest. The titles of these papers are: "The Relief of Uræmic Hemiplegia by Lowering Intracranial Pressure (Ten Cases)," by R. N. Willson; Four Cases of Cerebrospinal Meningitis, Probably Due to the Pneumococcus," by R. N. Willson; “On Autosuggestion in Hysteria, Apropos of a Case," by Alfred Gordon; "The Treatment of Selected Cases of Cerebral, Spinal and Peripheral Nerve Palsies and Athetosis by Nerve Transplantation," by W. G. Spiller, C. H. Frazier, and J. J. A. Van Kaathoven; and A Case of Cerebellar Tumor," by Burton Chance. Besides the above the medical and surgical papers are of special interest. A symposium on Roentgen Ray Therapy" contains many points of value The whole volume is quite up to the high standard which has been set in previous years, both in the quality of the papers and in the mechanical details. 66 W. R. D. Abstracts and Ertracts. Le signe de Kernig dans la paralysie générale. Par le DR. DARCANNE. The author states that Kernig's sign is frequent in the final period of general paralysis and, although encountered less often, nevertheless exists in the earlier periods. Twenty-six women and four men were examined. Of the twenty-six women, ten showed the sign distinctly, one doubtfully. Eight of these ten were in the final stage-two were in the second period. Of the four men, one was in the first stage. The author considers Kernig's sign in these cases to be due to a central lesion or a medullary lesion, and this view is confirmed by the fact that it is often accompanied by an exaggeration of the reflexes, ankle clonus and Babinski's sign, signs which indicate a lesion of the spinal meninges or of the pyramidal tracts. He thinks that the sign is of diagnostic value, inasmuch as it is often present in the early stages, when the ArgyllRobertson pupil is not present. It is of prognostic value in that it indicates in general paralysis the rapid evolution of the disease and the near approach of medullary troubles. RICKSHER. On the Etiology of Asylum Dysentery. M. D. (Cantab.) Thesis, with some recent additions. By W. BERNARD KNOBEL. The Journal of Mental Science, April, 1906; pp. 317-345. The author at the outset defines dysentery, and following Manson, understands it to mean that there are symptoms indicating an inflamed condition of the colon, and is synonymous with colitis. He further distinguishes, because of the uncertain etiology, "asylum" dysentery or "asylum" colitis as a separate sub-group. He presents tables showing how prevalent the condition (dysentery) is in asylums and how large is the death rate, both of which feaures are in contradistinction to the comparative rarity in the Metropolitan general hospitals and workhouses and poor-law infirmaries in London, and further, the condition does not prevail at all in any of the prisons in England and Wales. The total number of deaths from dysentery in all the asylums in 1903 was 257, and the total number of deaths in England and Wales from this cause for the same year was 310, showing the large number of deaths in asylums from a condition comparatively rare elsewhere. With this as a starting point the author endeavors to show in detail some of the factors which seem to be of importance from the standpoint of etiology with a discussion of views of other writers. The Bacteriologie features are first discussed, and the author opposes the view that all cases of dysentery are the result of the action of one micro-organism, believes that many varieties, either acting singly or producing a mixed infection, are capable of producing the disease. He then notes that the B. dysenteria (Shiga) and the amoeba coli are known causes of dysentery-the former of epidemics in Japan, and the latter of the endemic forms common in the tropics. Other organisms thought to be etiological factors are the B. coli communis, and B. pyocyaneus. It is noted that the B. enteridis sporogenes was the probable cause of the outbreak at the Derby County Asylum in 1899. The work of Goodliffe and Gemmel in connection with an outbreak at Lancaster County Asylum, which lasted for two years, is next spoken of. Here a microorganism resembling the B. coli was isolated, but Goodliffe regarded it as a distinct micro-organism, and he termed it the bacillus of ulcerative colitis. The author next quotes the results of Eyre at Claybury in 1904. who found the B. dysenteriæ (Shiga) to be the micro-organism present in the stools; and McWeeny, who in April, 1905, who in series of cultures showed an organism he had isolated from the stools, which resembled the typhoid bacillus. The author inclines to the view that the organism described by Eyre, Goodliffe, and McWeeny are types of the same bacillus, but expresses doubt as to its exact nature, there not being sufficient evidence at the present time to assume that any given micro-organism is the etiological factor. He then discusses other factors which have possibly some significance in the causation, firstly discussing the soil, he states that the disturbance of the subsoil is a factor to be reckoned with, and in support of this quotes outbreaks in new asylums which were planned and built with special care as to hygienic arrangements, and further in certain asylums which had been peculiarly free from dysentery after extensive alterations, necessitating disturbance of the subsoil, epidemics occurred. Next the fact that breathing sewage effluvia may cause outbreaks of dysentery is noted, and evidence is quoted in support of this, showing how individual cases of diarrhoea have followed, after a short interval, the inhalation of putrid sewer gas. This is avoided in London, for example, by diluting the sewage. The way in which this gas acts as a causative agent is thought to be by lowering the resistive powers. He furthermore states that an atmosphere laden with a fæcal odor does in time decidedly lower the power of resistance, quoting Alem's Experimental Work. This fæcal odor or "privy atmosphere" exists in asylums owing to the untidy habits of many patients, and this cannot be altogether overcome despite everything that may be done. This the author considers a "potent predisposing factor." The classes of patients most often affected are next discussed, and it is noted that general paralytics among the males, and katatonics among the females, with patients of both sexes suffering from organic dementias, i. e., patients who are markedly deteriorated; also present to a less extent among the chronic psychoses and absent in congenital cases, which is worthy of note, since in congenital defectives there is, as is well known, a reduction in the natural immunity of the tissues. Cowan and Claye Shaw's view that asylum dysentery is due to a trophic lesion of the intestine and the refutation of this theory by Mott is mentioned by the author, and he is of the opinion that the throwing out of the theory in its entirety has been detrimental to the advancement of our knowledge concerning the condition, and notes that a disturbance in the function of the cortical nerve cells as a result of the disease process might result in a secondary disturbance in the trophic function possessed by the nerve cells in the cord, and as a consequence a lowering of vitality of the tissue cells in the intestines, thereby lowering their resistive power. The author then gives an extract from a paper by Lorraine, Smith, and Tenant on "The Growth of Bacteria in the Intestine," where these observers state that any lowering of the trophic power of the intestinal wall with a consequent increase in bacterial growth would first be noted at the ileocæcal valve and then in the large intestine, and the author states that the region of the cæcum is frequently the seat of the greatest inflammation. Certain cases of cord lesions are then given where there was associated acute inflammation of the colon. He next notes various conditions which are probably due to impairment of the neurotrophic functions and concludes there are good grounds for regarding as one of the most important factors in the causation of asylum dysentery, the alteration in the normal control exercised by the intestine over the growth of colon bacteria and a diminution of the resistive powers of the intestine to outside organisms. The question as to whether the condition is contagious is next discussed, and statistics are just quoted to show that in the London County Asylums there has been no diminution in the number of cases since greater precautions have been taken to isolate patients suffering from dysentery, and here presents several charts which go to disprove any relation between the occurrence of fresh cases and the transference of patients after an attack of dysentery from one ward to another, and finally concludes that there is no evidence to show that dysentery is contagious. As to the age at which asylum patients are most likely to be subject to dysentery the author notes that in the average of cases corresponds with the average age of patients. Males, 50; females, 51-53. Furthermore it rarely occurs in children. Males and females are equally liable to be affected. Occupation does not appear to have any influence on the occurrence, nor does filth eating, as has been stated by various authors. Meteorological conditions do not appear to influence to any great extent the incidence of dysentery. As |