If I were asked the especial and characteristic features of this present day, I should most certainly take good care to enumerate that one (feature) which seeks to modify or even undo the legislative acts of our progenitors, that is to say, of those who, living in the new or early times—not the old times—were without that needful experience and knowledge wherewith to realise the truth. As you know well, the science of our forefathers was, at its best, a poor and sickly thing—sadly misshapen and badly used; and as to Psychology, it was, indeed, at a miserable discount.

The last Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy contains a series of suggestions to the Visiting Justices of asylums on the appointment and duties of officers to these institutions. In these suggestions the appointment of Visiting Physicians is commented on in the following terms:—

In spite of the inability of organic arsenical compounds to stem the course of general paralysis, nevertheless, as each new member of this group appears it is given a trial in the hope that it may do good. This has been done in many cases in the, absence of evidence supporting the use of the drug, and where the only justification for its use appears to have been its relation to salvarsan. The results have always proved discouraging, and indeed in many cases the dissolution process has actually been hastened.

A discussion on the origin and nature of pachymeningitis hæmorrhagica at the present time is very desirable on account of the remarkable difference of opinion of those who have studied it. Two theories regarding its formation exist, and the best pathologists and neurologists have ranged themselves almost equally on either side. This fact of itself betokens that each view probably has some elements of truth in it, and that neither contains the whole truth. What, then, is greatly to be desired under these circumstances is a new theory that will combine the elements of truth contained in each of the old theories, and supply the deficiencies of both.

At the commencement of our description of subdural membrane formation, we deferred consideration of the sudden lessening of intracranial pressure, which we regard as the most important cause of its production. This is a point we shall take up now, along with some other general questions connected with subdural membrane formation.

We are all prepared to grant that alcohol is a poison in a general sense, and that any use of it for the pleasurable sensations it produces may lead to discomfort, to folly and to disease, and yet the majority of our adults persist in its habitual use, and readily take the risks of future suffering for the sake of present daily enjoyment.

It seems to me proper to stress from the beginning that there are various types of depressions. Often they are ill-defined, while at other times they fit into the clinical entities of manic-depressive reactions or later-life (involutional) groups. In addition, psychoneurotic depressions are also recognized. However, the essential nature of all these types of depressions is still poorly understood. Treatment therefore cannot be based on an aetiological concept or be specific for depression, but must be based on the psychopathological data.

During the last few years great importance has been attached to the consideration of the treatment of those patients who, though not permanently insane, presented mental symptoms requiring immediate and active treatment. Physicians who are brought into contact with large numbers of cases of bodily disease are generally agreed that many of them exhibit mental symptoms concurrently with their bodily illness which are entirely due to the disease itself, such as the initial delirium of pneumonia or the profound depression of influenza.

Medical men are often called upon to give evidence as to the mental condition of an individual, charged with crime, at the time of committing the crime. They are also expected to give an opinion as to whether by reason of insanity the accused was incapable of knowing the nature and consequences of his act, or did not know that what he was doing was either wrong or contrary to law. The question is frequently one of life and death for the accused, and therefore it is very necessary that medical men should understand the inner working of a criminal's mind before they venture an opinion regarding his mental condition. In India we have hitherto depended for our guidance on books written by learned authors who base their conclusions on conditions prevailing in their own countries, and cannot be expected to know the conditions of Indian life. I feel the time has come when we should begin to collect first-hand information regarding our criminals from our own observations. I am afraid very little work has been done in this field in India, and it is time that we compare our results with those obtained in the West. It is with this object that I venture to submit this paper, so that it may stimulate others in India also to work on these lines.

Our conception of the ætiological significance of myxœdema in reference to those forms of mental disorder generally known under the name of “insanity of myxœdema,” has undergone considerable modification since the time when hypothyroidism was regarded as the principal causal factor. The almost dramatic effect of thyroid treatment gave rise at first to a justifiable optimism. This for a while tended to obscure the possibility that a deeper-lying disorder of mind might exist, which would be naturally brought into prominence by the peculiar disturbance in the functioning of the brain associated with this state of disordered metabolism.

This study is an attempt to assess the value of certain drugs commonly used in psychiatric practice in decreasing the hyperactivity of patients. It is one of a series investigating tranquillizers and mental disorder in mental deficiency practice (Craft 1958).