On Trephining in Epilepsy due to Injury of the Skull. By Dr. M. G. Echeverria.

The Retrospect has been done from the following periodicals and papers; but is not yet finished in the following pages:—

During the last few months, the air has been rife with public clamour against private asylums and “mad doctors,” or “body snatchers.” Mrs. Weldon, who escaped between the signing of her certificates and her removal to an asylum, gave in an address, delivered in St. James's Hall, extending over two hours and a half, a detailed narrative of the attempt to place her in an asylum last April, her flight, and her determination not to rest until the Lunacy Laws are amended. A gentleman who had been in an asylum, placed there, he asserted, by his brother, an M.P., because they differed in politics, entered upon a tirade against the Russians, and was with difficulty brought back to the question by the meeting. Mrs. Weldon gave a song, and after a resolution had been passed, thanking her for her discourse and expressing the opinion that the Laws of Lunacy required amending, the audience separated. The meeting was orderly, and Mrs. Weldon had no occasion to use a rattle, with which she had provided herself, to call her audience to order.

The following are extracts from a very interesting and important paper by Dr. Coates in Vol. lxi. of the “Medico-Chirurgical Transactions.” They certainly show that if microscopic investigation is so fruitful in such “functional” diseases, we need not despair of yet demonstrating under the microscope the lesions of convolutional structure in acute mania or melancholia.

In the Archivio Dr. Porporati communicates two papers on insanity in women connected with the physiological changes of the sexual organs. The most novel part of these are his observations on insanity beginning during pregnancy. In most of his cases this was characterised by hatred of the husband, against whom groundless accusations of cruelty were made. The patient sometimes recovered after delivery, but this was more frequently followed by no benefit.