RECENT LITERATURE. 



Diseases of Orientation and Equilibrium.^ 



The little volume of 2 9 1 pages is not a monograph in the sense of 

 a collection of all the types of cardinal cases which are on record, but 

 the publication of clinical lectures on a definite material of Grasset's 

 own observation. This, in one way, implies some limitations of the 

 discussion of the topic ; on the other hand, it has the feature of fresh- 

 ness and directness so often found in French lectures. 



The "documentary introduction" contains the records of 4 cases 

 of tabes, i of diffuse myelitis, 3 of cerebral hemiplegia, 3 cases of 

 cerebral lesion with autopsy, one case of organic lesion and hysteria, 

 I of post-hemiplegic ataxia (with autopsy), i of praeparalytic hemi- 

 chorea, 2 of cerebro-spinal syphilis, 1 of hysteria, i of lateral amyo- 

 trophic sclerosis, i of "chlorobrightisme," and one of cerebellar origin 

 with autopsy. The second part discusses the anatomo-physiological 

 data concerning the nervous apparatus of orientation and equilibration, 

 the third the principal diseases in which it is involved, the fourth the 

 symptomatology, with a study of the symptoms and the seat of the 

 lesions, the fifth a synthetic summary and the 6th is devoted to prin- 

 ciples of therapeutics. 



The whole plan is highly to be commended. It is a move in the 

 right direction : the writer starts from that which is open to observa- 

 tion and study in the living patient and groups around the needs of 

 clinical explanation what data pathological anatomy and experiment 

 can furnish, instead of starting from dead pseudo-anatomical wisdom 

 to explain the symptoms, a plan which dulls the interest in clinical 

 observation and le'ads to the notion that anatomy is the only salvation 

 and aim of pathology. 



In the anatomical part, G. recapitulates the facts under the head- 

 ing of "centripetal paths of orientation," "centrifugal paths of equi- 

 librium," and the "centres," in the concise schematic manner of the 



1 Les Maladies de I'Orientation et de I'equilibre. Par J. Grasset. Paris, 

 Felix Ale an, 190 1. 



