The story of the founding of the German Institute of Psychiatric Research reveals the astonishing fact that a great enterprise, requiring millions of marks, and serving in the first instance purposes of pure science, has been carried into execution, even amid the tumult of the war, in little over a twelvemonth. The preparatory work dates back, of course, to the pre-war period, but the scheme had to give place to the great task of the day, until, on January 6th, 1916, with the subscription of the first half-million marks, the possibility of its materialising came suddenly within reach. Six months later the future of the new Institute was firmly assured, and on February 13th, 1917, His Majesty King Ludwig was able to grant the charter that gave it being. On June 10th, 1917, was held the first public meeting at which the position of the Institute with regard to the development of our science could be made plain, and in April of this year (2) five of the seven departments originally projected had taken up their work under the leadership of eminent savants. The others will follow as soon as the circumstances of the time permit a satisfactory solution of the problem of personnel.

IN order to understand venous stasis in its several relationships to the functions of the brain, it is advisable to refer to some of the problems which have been the most difficult with which neurologists and psychiatrists have had to deal. The aspects of the problems studied have been so varied, and the interpretations of the phenomena so widely different, that it has hitherto been almost impossible to obtain any degree of unanimity of opinion. In dealing with the aetiology and pathology of disease one of the first considerations ought to be to determine, if possible, the existence of physical or mechanical factors of causation.

In the Journal of Mental Science, vol. xlviii, 1902, p. 53, I described a case of degeneration of the optic thalami in a male patient, and pointed to the fact that the symptoms were chiefly those of very advanced dementia.