cxlii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



oppressed by a feeling of hopelessness that such a view can still be 

 seriously presented as the only alternative to the reign of chance, 

 How one can fail to see in the course of evolutionr evealed by science, 

 with Its wonderful coincidences touching human nature at every point, 

 any less of final cause than that which we are forced to postulate in 

 the destiny of man is a problem too great for the writer. From such 

 a standpoint one must deny the validity of natural law or the evi- 

 dence of his own consciousness — how much better to combine them 

 with the same divinity immanent in both. The question as to order 

 of treatment may then be left to convenience. Will the author re- 

 gards as the main constituent of personality and to it, therefore, the 

 first place should be given. After a discussion of the proper order of 

 presentation, the paper closes with a plea for a psychology of social 

 personality — "the empirical psychology of the social mind." 



Peripheral Neuritis Following Alcoholism. 



Arthur Maude in the British Medical Journal, Feb. i8, 1893, 

 describes a case of peripheral neuritis resulting from alcoholism in 

 which a prominent symptom was the exaggeration of the patellar re- 

 flexes. After a period of abstinence these symptoms disappeared. 



Spinal Muscular Atrophy. 



Thompson and Bruce (Edinb. Hospit. Reports, 1893) report the 

 case of a child in which at the age of two years a weakness of the 

 legs became apparent and continued until all the muscles of the body 

 became involved in the weakness and atrophy. After death at six 

 years autopsy revealed simple idiopathic dystrophy. The nerve-cen- 

 tres contained degenerated fibres and the cells of the ventral cornua 

 of the cord particularly in the lumbar region exhibited signs of simple, 

 non inflammatory atrophy. 



Cerehrine. 



The curious dispute respecting the virtue of the cerebral extracts 

 continues. Dr. G. Hammond reports cases where subcutaneous in- 

 jection has produced marked improvement in tabes. The patient in 

 one case regained control over bowels, bladder and sexual organs, 

 and was able to run up and down stairs. The knee jerk, however, 

 had not returned. 



J. Collins has used Gibier's preparation in locomotor ataxia with 

 similar results. 



