Fæces sent to the Laboratory for search for dysentery or typhoid organisms are plated direct on to three previously dried “Rebipel” agar plates by means of a stout platinum wire bent at right angles. The inoculated plates are incubated at 37.5° C. for 18–24 hours and are then examined for suspicious colonies.

That physical changes can give rise to mental symptoms has long been established; it is only necessary to recall the delirium of an acute pneumonia.

In this investigation of blood-pressures in the various forms of insanity, 920 male cases were examined. In order to reduce the numerous variable factors to a minimum, the following procedure was adopted.

In the search for somatic disturbance in connection with the insane, either as a cause or as an effect of mental disorder, the acid-base balance has afforded a field of exploration from time to time. Epilepsy, in particular, has provided material for research on these lines. Bigwood (1) (1924) suggested that the epileptic seizure was preceded by an alkalosis, leading to a lowered blood-calcium content, which, in turn, induced the fit. Marrack and Thacker (2 and 3) (1926) disproved this theory, but found that a high blood-ammonia content obtained at times in epilepsy (4), but was not related to the fit. It was actually a starvation phenomenon. There has been biochemical work on other lines in epilepsy in regard to nitrogen retention (5) on the sugar content, but all with negative results.

Further consideration of the theory that mongolism is caused by a fcetal hyperthyroidism ceasing at birth shows that much can be added to support this view.

The progress made in recent years in the study of vitamins has been phenomenal in that many disorders previously regarded as of infective origin have been shown to arise from deficiency of some particular item of the diet, which quantitatively is infinitesimal in relation to the total bulk of food taken. Although some five vitamins have been identified and their value established, as yet only one has been isolated in pure form and has acquired the distinction of a chemical formula. This vitamin—fat-soluble D—has a powerful influence in the prevention and cure of rickets; and its relation to dentition and caries of the teeth has been established by careful and prolonged experiment. So far as we know at present vitamin D can be obtained by the body from three different sources. The effects on health of sunlight and ultra-violet rays on the skin have been shown to arise from the capacity of the cells of the sebaceous glands of the skin to manufacture under these influences, from the various sterols they contain, a substance—vitamin D—which is then picked up by the blood-stream and distributed throughout the body. The second source is the fat taken in the diet, butter and cream being particularly rich in this respect. It has also been proved that food exposed to ultra-violet radiation acquires in an added degree the capacity to ward off the ill-effects of vitamin D deficiency. The third and, from the point of view of accurate laboratory control, the most important source is that in the form of ergosterol, a compound related to cholesterol, produced by extraction from yeast and other substances. Ergosterol can be obtained in more or less pure form, and after being subjected for a definite time to irradiation by ultra-violet rays becomes converted into a substance which has all the effects of vitamin D.

The aims and objects of mental deficiency institutions in England have altered fundamentally more than once since they were first started. These alterations have, in many respects, been quite as substantial as the changes in outlook of the mental hospitals.

The scope of this contribution is to give an account of the administrative and clinical methods at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, to give a picture of the clinical material, and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the system.

In July, 1927, at a British Medical Association meeting, in the Obstetrics and Gynæcology Section, G. I. Strachan dealt with the mental side of the hygiene of menstruation. He made the statements that in cases where menstruation was influenced in mental disease it was usually in the direction of excess, and moreover he had found no justification for the text-book statement that insanity was usually accompanied by amenorrhœa. A study of the more important text-books of psychiatry reveals a paucity of information on the subject, and this has stimulated me to collect any facts which have bearing on this interesting problem.