REVIEWS, BOOK NOTICES, ETC. THE ST. LOUIS MEDICAL GAZETTE, first volume and number, with an editorial staff of well known medical gentlemen and an attractive table of contents, is on our review table. It is to be a Monthly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, and must find and hold a place in Medical Literature, if its Editorial Staff continues its present excellent showing. Its Managing Editor is Martin F. Engman, M. D. Its Associate Staff embraces; Charles G. Chaddock, M. D.; George C. Crandall, M. D.; Carl Fisch, M. D.; Frank L. Henderson, M. D.; Phillip Hoffman, M. D.; Bransford Lewis, M. D.; Hanau W. Loeb, M. D.; Norvelle W. Sharpe, M. D.; Albert S. J. Smith, M. D.; George M. Tuttle, M.D. C. R. H. Davis, Publisher and Financial Manager. Price $1.00 a Year in Advance. MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE RAILWAY SURGEON AND THE NEUROLOGIST. Presented in the Fourth Annual Meetingof the American Academy of Railway Surgeons, held at Chicago, Oct., 6-8, 1897. By J. T. Eskridge, M. D. Neurologist to St. Luke's Hospital and President of the State Board of Commissioners for the Insane Asylum, Denver, Colo. "In conclu The conclusion of this interesting address is as follows: sion, I wish to say that I believe every railroad or large corporation should have a consulting neurologist, and that the chief Surgeon of the road should insist that a careful neurologic examination be made of most of the injured as soon after accident as possible, especially in those cases in which there is likely to follow a suit for damages." Auto-Intoxication in its Relations to the Diseases of the Nervous System. By Daniel R. Brower, M. A., M. D. Professor of Mental Diseases and Therapeutics, Rush Medical College; Professor of Mental and Nervous Diseases, Woman's Medical School, and Post-Graduate School, Chicago, Ill. A Study of the Blind. An Analysis of 180 Pupils of the Pennsylvania Institution for Instruction of the Blind. By F. Savary Pearce, M. D. Instructor in Physical Diagnosis, University of Pennsylvania; Chief of the Medical Dispensary of St. Agnes' Hospital, Philadelphia. Brief Mention of Neurological Cases Successfully Treated. By Irving C. Rosse, A. M., M. D., F. R. G. S., late Professor of Diseases of the Nervous System, Georgetown University; Mémbre du Congrés International d' Anthropologie Criminelle, etc., Washington, D. C. Abdominal and Pelvic Surgery. Extracts from Clinical Lectures and Society Transactions. By Wm. H. Wathen, A. M., M. D., LL. D. Professor of Obstetrics, Abdominal Surgery and Gynecology in the Kentucky School of Medicine, etc., Louisville, Ky. Report of Cases of Chlorosis and Anaemia treated with Nucleo-Albumins and Bone Marrow, with Photomicrographs of the Blood before and after Treatment; Also Hints on the Use of Fleischl's "Hæmoglobinometer." By Ephraim D. Klots, M. D. Eulogy on Jenner. Delivered before the Jenner Contennial Memorial, held under the auspices of the Golden Belt Medical Society of Kansas, at Salina, Kan., Oct., 1, 1896. By Wm. B. Dewees, A. M., M. D., LL. D. The Clinical Value and Chemical Results of Using Professor Gaertner's Mother Milk in Children. By Louis Fisher, M. D. Professor of Diseases of Children in New York Clinical School of Medicine, etc., New York City. Neurotic Eczema. By L. Duncan Bulkley, A. M., M. D. Physician to the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital; Dermatologist to the Randall's Island Hospital; Consulting Physician to the New York Hospital, Etc. Circumcision, with a Description of a Pair of Circumcision Forceps. By Alex. L. Hodgdon, M. D., Dispensary Physician to the Department of Nervous Diseases, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore. President's Address, Delivered at the Twenty-First Annual meeting of the American Neurological Association, June 5, 1895. By Philip Coombs Knapp, A. M., M. D., of Boston. A Clinical Study of Kryofine. By Sidney V. Haas, M. D., late House Physician, and J. Bennett Morrison, M. D., late House Surgeon, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. Diet for Consumptives. By Reynold W. Wilcox, M. D. Professor of Medicine and Therapeutics in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, New York. The Role of Uric Acid in Certain Types of Neurasthenia and Allied States. An Expression of Disturbed Metabolism. F. Savary Pearce, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa. Nosophen and Antinosine in the Treatment of Genito-Urinary and Venereal Diseases, with Report of Cases. By Claude A. Dundore, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa. Ueber die künstliche Hervorrufung der Sinnestäuschungen bei an hallucinatorischen Formen von Wahnsinn leidenden Alcoholikern. W. v. Bechterew. Von Prof. Diseases and Injuries of the Sixth Nerve. By Dr. J. H. Thompson, Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology, Kansas City Medical College. Ueber die Bedeutung der Cardiaca bei der Behandlung der Epilepsie. Von Prof. W. v. Bechterew, of St. Petersburg. 510 Reviews, Book Notices, Etc. Die Erröthungsangst als eine besondere Form von krankhafter Störung. Von Prof. W. v. Bechterew, of St. Petersburg. Treatment of Hemorrhage from the Genitals in Obstetric Practice. By Gustavus M. Blech, M. D., Chicago, Ill. Some Remarks and Reports Upon Specimens in Abdominal Surgery. By H. O. Walker, M. D., Detroit, Mich. Medical Expert Testimony in the Kelley Murder Trial. By Walter Channing, M. D., Boston, Mass. Ueber den suggestiven Einfluss der acustischen Sinnestäuschungen. Von Professor W. v. Bechterew. Neue Beobachtungen über die Bechterew, of St. Petersburg. Erröthungsangst". Von Prof. W. v. Primary Tuberculosis of the Rectum, with Report of Cases. By Leon Straus, M. D., St. Louis, Mo. Some Fads and Fallacies of Modern Rectal Surgery. By Leon Straus. M. D., of St. Louis, Mo. Some Personal Observations in Abdominal Surgery. By H. Tuholske, M. D., St. Louis, Mo. The Truth About Cigarettes. Papers read and discussed by The MedicoLegal Society of N. Y. Ueber das Hören der eigenen Gedanken. Von Prof. W. v. Bechterew, of St. Petersburg. The Growth of Commercialism in Medicine. By John Shrady, M. D., New York, N. Y. Ueber die Anwendung der Bettruhe bei Geisteskranken. Von Prof. W. v. Bechterew. Zur Behandlung der Myotonie. Von Professor W. v. Bechterew in St. Petersburg. Faulty Metabolism, Nutrition and Growth. By W. A. Walker, M. D., New York. Ueber Frühsymptome der Tabes dorsalis. Von Prof W. v. Bechterew. Physician-in-Charge of the Department of Psychiatry at the Government Hospital at Charcow. 1. NOTWITHSTANDING the voluminous and very com plete literature of epilepsy, systematic investigations as to metabolism in epileptics have not been undertaken until recently, neither a comparison of their metabolism with that of healthy persons, nor for the determination of the connection between metabolic changes and epileptic seizures. The few observations of this sort by several investigators refer merely to individual cases and so permit no important generalization. However Haig's researches were recently published, which demonstrated the close connection of attacks of migraine with variations in the excretion of uric acid, and were likewise extended to epilepsy, so intimately related to migraine, of which 'this author succeeded in demonstrating a like connection in several cases. Since then Mairet, Bosc, Féré, Voisin, Peron and others. have intimated the variations in the toxicity of the epileptic's urine due to the seizures, and here and there in liter *Translated by Dr. W. Alfred McCorn, assistant physician at McLean Hospital, Waverly, Mass late of the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane. : ature opinions have ever been more distinctly expressed that the probable cause of many nervous symptoms is to be sought in an intoxication or auto-intoxication of the organism. All this led me in 1893, while connected with the clinic of my honorable teacher, Prof. P. J. Kowalewsky, to formulate a scheme for investigating metabolism in epileptics, whose purpose is: 1st, to investigate as completely as pos sible the metabolism in different forms of epilepsy, and 2nd, to study metabolism under different kinds of treatment. I began these researches early in 1894, when I undertook the management of the Department of Psychiatry of the Government Hospital. From the large amount of material at my disposal I selected the most typical cases and investigated the metabolism of five epileptics for 110 days. From these and other supplementary experiments described in my first paper* I arrived at the conclusion that epileptic seizures have a twofold effect on metabolism. The first changes, due to seizures, occur constantly and are to a certain degree pathognomonic; the others, though frequent, have no constant connection with the seizures in the same or different patients. The first refer to the changes in the uric and phosphoric acids; the second-to changes in the the urine, the urea, chlorides and sulphates. constant was the connection asserted in the tioned between the disease seizures and the excretion of uric acid, whose quantity before the seizures was markedly lowered, while after them it was equally increased, so that the preceding diminution in the quantity of uric acid was fully equalized by the subsequent increase. I then stated, that by reason of the variations in the excretion of uric acid, I did not deem it possible to admit the theory advanced by Haig for the explanation of migraine as applicable to epilepsy also. According to Haig's theory, the attacks of migraine, as well as the epileptic seizures, should be due to the uric acid retained in the blood of the organism prior to the seizure. It seems to me that the relation of the uric acid to the seizures must be very complicated, and that quantity of Especially paper men *Untersuchungen über den Stoffwechsel bei Epileptischen. Charcow. 1895, (Russian) |