Litefmy Notices. Ixxxvii 



rent. The author believes that consciousness involves active metabol- 

 ism in the cells. These results were embodied in the Croonian Lec- 

 ture, March, 1892. {Philos. Trans., CLXXXIII.) 



Cerebrine in the Treatment of Ataxia. 



Dr. G. M. Hammond reported before the New York Medical 

 Society a case of locomotor ataxia which had been treated with hypo- 

 dermic injections of cerebrine prepared by Dr. W. A. Hammond. 

 The symptomatic complex was apparently unmistakable and after ten 

 weeks' treatment almost complete restoration resulted. 



Olincal Investigations of Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Idiocy.^ 



This volume by the physicians of the Bicetre Asylum is largely 

 devoted to idiocy and related phenomena. The cases are classified 

 under (a), Idiocy with traumatism or malformation; (b), Idiocy with 

 arrested development of convolutions and cerebral atrophic sclerosis ; 

 (c), Idiocy due to simple atrophic sclerosis of the convolutions; (d), 

 Idiocy associated with cerebellar tumor ; (e), Idiocy with meningo- 

 encephalitis; (f), Idiocy with epilepsy. The reports of cases are 

 very full and clear. 



The author states that the pathology of meningo-encephalitis dif- 

 fers from that of general paralysis of the insane, which it greatly re- 

 sembles, in that the cortical vessels are degenerated and the degenera- 

 tion of the nerve cells is secondary to that of the vessels, while in 

 general paralysis the reverse is the case. 



It would appear from numerous examples that the heredity of 

 cerebral malformations is total,- like that of the color of the eyes, for 

 example. Thus Dr. Bourneville says that he has never observed any 

 attenuation in the course of degeneration in families by well-selected 

 alliance or mtermarriage with the normal ; in such cases the children 

 are healthy or degenerate, but, if degenerate, rarely less so than the 

 diseased parent. 



In microcephalic idiocy the antecedents are usually pathological 

 on one side or the other and frequently there are convulsions in in- 

 fancy. The patients are not necessarily undersized or deficient in 

 sexuality. The theory that the premature ossification of the cranium 

 is the cause of restricted brain development is certainly not universal- 

 ly applicable. 



The work is comprehensive and conservative. 



^ Recherches Clinique et Therapeutiques sur I'epilepsie, I'hysterie, et I'idi- 

 otie. Par M. Bourneville. Paris: Vve Babe et Cie., 1891. 



