As a result of two operations which were performed on a rhesus monkey with the object of working out an approach for the destruction of the anterior nuclei of the thalamus, not only were the latter involved, but lesions were also produced in the frontal lobe. The lesions were largely caused by the removal of firm adhesions which had developed after the first operation. The motor disturbances and the mental changes which appeared after the second operation revealed some features which had much in common with a clinical syndrome previously observed in a patient who had died from a frontal lobe tumour in the same region. For this reason it seems worth while to record and to discuss these two cases. The experimental operations may be described in some detail in order to explain the extent of the lesions produced.

Absence of sneezing or inability to sneeze was found in 2.6% of psychiatric patients, although only half complained of the symptom spontaneously. This was the most frequent of a triad of features, the others being infrequent attacks, of coryza and light-headedness. Endogenous depression was the commonest psychiatric diagnosis, followed by schizophrenia, but ‘asneezics' differed significantly from controls in their diagnostic distribution; they also tended to be older, poorer, and less educated. The course and outcome of the asneezic triad ran almost parallel to those of the primary psychiatric illness.

A survey of patients with drug-related problems seen in London casualty departments during the course of one month revealed 1,706 separate incidents. In 477 cases the patients were dependent on drugs, and more than 40 per cent were dealt with by only five hospitals, all in the West End of London. The remaining 1,229 incidents involved non-dependent patients who had taken a drug overdose, and these cases were distributed more evenly between hospitals all over the Greater London area. The implications of this study for service planning and for further monitoring of the patterns of drug misuse are discussed.