September 6, i 694 j 



NA TURE 



449 



DEAF-MUTISM. 

 Deaf-Mutism. By Holger Mygind, M.D., Copenhagen. 



(London : F. J. Rebman, 1894.) 

 A FEW months ago, in noticing "The History of 

 ■'*■ American Schools for the Deaf," we spoke of the 

 treatment of deaf-mutes, and regretted the fact that we 

 hear so little of that work in England. Before us we 

 have another book, again of foreign origin, in which is 

 described, exhaustively and systemalically, the pathology 

 of deaf-mutism. The materials used in its compilation 

 are almost entirely obtained from Denmark, and, 

 although published in England, and revised by an Eng- 

 lish specialist of note, the book may be said to have a 

 somewhat foreign flavour. With the exception of special 

 chapters upon the subject in Wilde's, Field's, and Toyn- 

 bee's works on diseases of the ear, little is to be found in 

 English writings, and there are no books dealing solely 

 with deaf-mutism wiitten by Englishmen. This may, 

 perhaps, be accounted for by the fact that in the table of 

 recent statistics of the distribution of deaf-mites in 

 various countries, England and Wales stand twentieth 

 in a list of twenty-three, showing only fifty-one of these 

 unfortunates per thousand inhabitants. Ireland and 

 .Scotland stand higher in the table, with seventy-seven 

 .mil fifty-seven per thousand respectively. Still, even 

 with the happily low rate of deaf-mutism in this country, 

 it is a matter for regret that no Englishman has pro- 

 duced a work upon the subject. 



Dr. Holger .Mygind performs his task very well. To 

 begin with, he arranges it in a systematic manner, and 

 treats each part as exhaustively as lies in his power. 

 Devoting his introduction to definition, literature, classi- 

 fication, and distribution, he gives evidence of con- 

 siderable patient research, in discarding the classifica- 

 tion of deaf-mutes according to the degree of its 

 symptoms for that according to its etiology, he does 

 wisely, the former being as unscientific as it is misleading. 

 It is a pity that "Creed" should have been included 

 imder the heading " Distribution," since Dr. Mygind 

 shows that the apparent greater frequency among certain 

 religions is, as one would expect, really due to the relative 

 numbers of persons professmg such religions ; while the 

 well-known fact that the Jews produce a larger number 

 of blind, idiotic, and deaf-mute individuals than the 

 races among which they live, is due, doubtless, to the 

 consanguineous marriages practised by the Hebrews. 



Perhaps the most mteresting part of the work (the 

 whole of which cannot be otherwise to the student of 

 pathology) is the chapter which deals with etiology and 

 pathogenesis, and in which such conditions as climate, 

 water, hygiene, heredity, and the like are discussed. With 

 regard to heredity, Dr. Mygind brings forward a series of 

 facts (the collection of which must have caused consider- 

 able labour) referring to the appearance of deaf-mutism 

 uid other pathological conditions among the relatives of 

 deaf-mutes, and from these facts endeavours to formulate 

 some definite laws concerning the heredity of deaf- 

 mutism. These laws, it is stated, are difficult of inter- 

 pretation, and seem in many respects to differ from those 

 which relate to other pathological conditions and diseases, 

 a fact to be accounted for by the number and variety of the 

 causes of deaf-mutism, and consequently of the causes of 



NO. I 297, VOL. 50] 



each individual case. The matter is further complicated 

 by the presence of factors, equally important, which tend 

 to neutralise the transmission of morbid tendencies. It 

 appears that deaf-mutism is, in many instances, the com- 

 bined result of the transmission of various influences 

 which fall into two groups — those which originate in ear 

 diseases, and those which originate in nervous diseases in 

 the family. 



The material from which the chapter on morbid 

 anatomy is based is formed from the reports of some 139 

 autopsies, the principal of which are collected in an 

 appendix. The morbid changes in the ear are classified 

 under the heads of external ear, middle ear, and laby- 

 rinth. From the evidence here collected, it seems that 

 the pathological conditions differ rather in extent and 

 intensity than in quality from those generally found in 

 ear diseases, and, from appearances alone, it is in many 

 cases impossible to decide whether the changes are of 

 fcctal or post-fcetal origin. Dr. Mygind sums up the 

 question of pathology in these words : " Deaf- mutism 

 is, therefore, from an anatomical point of view, in most 

 cases to be considered as a result of an abnormality of 

 the labyrinth." 



We congratulate Dr. Mygind upon the successful com- 

 pletion of a task which must have been at once laborious 

 and interesting. To the pathologist, whether general or 

 special, the work cannot fail to be a source of interest, 

 and it is to be hoped that the work done by the author in 

 thus bringing together so much that is known upon the 

 subject will be productive of good. 



P. MACLEOD YEARSLEY. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



A Text-book of Physiological Chemistry. By O. 

 Hammarsten, Professor of Medical and Physiological 

 Chemistry in the University of Upsala. Authorised 

 translation from the second Swedish and from the 

 Author's enlarged and revised German edition, by J. 

 A. Mandel, Assistant to the Chair of Chemistry, 

 Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York. (New 

 York : John Wiley and Sons, 1893.) 



Prof. Hammarsten is so highly esteemed for his 

 work and views on the more specially chemical side 

 of physiology, that a textbook from his pen was 

 looked for with keen anticipation. Unfortunately a 

 knowledge of the Swedish language is not as yet an 

 accomplishment possessed by more than a favoured few, 

 however essential it may become in the future, so that 

 when his text-book first appeared its contents were 

 largely inaccessible to the majority of would-be readers. 

 As a consequence of this. Prof Hammarsten was asked 

 by numerous colleagues to provide a German version of 

 the first Swedish edition. Unable to comply with this 

 earlier request, he yielded to a strongly renewed similar 

 proposal after the appearance of the second Swedish 

 edition, and in 1S90 he published the work in German, 

 translating it himself In its German dress the text- 

 book is so well known and approved that detailed 

 criticism or renewed commendation is now scarcely 

 necessary. Written " to supply students and physicians 

 with a condensed and as far as possible objective 

 representation of the principal results of physiologico- 

 chemical research, and also with the principal features 

 of physiologico-chemical methods of work,' the book 

 was not regarded by its author as " complete or detailed " 

 from the point of view of the specialist. Clear, yet 



