I feel that some kind of apology is due for my venturing to bring before a society which concerns itself mainly with practical questions what I fear will be regarded as a decidedly unpractical paper. Still, it may not be without advantage once in a way to step aside from the more arduous path of observational or experimental investigation in the region of psychiatry with its exacting conditions, and view things from a more general standpoint. And, while confessedly it may lead to no practical outcome, if by challenging some acknowledged views, and raising a breeze of controversy, however gentle, which may ruffle the quiescent surface of the pool of accepted opinion, it should at least suggest some grounds for a reconsideration of certain important questions connected with psychology and psychiatry, the object of the writer will be achieved.

One of the important schizophrenic symptoms listed by Bleuler (1950) is a disturbance in attention. Bleuler viewed the attention disturbance as a complex phenomenon which was also related to disturbances in thinking and affect, and possibly to individual emotional complexes.

Dr. A. W. Campbell, by way of illustrating the uses of formol, gave a microscopic demonstration of a series of specimens, normal and pathological, taken from various parts of the nervous system, and therewith proved that in formolhardened portions of nervous tissue it was possible to satisfactorily stain all the constituent elements of those tissues and likewise to clearly demonstrate almost all the pathological changes in them which are to be revealed by other previously discovered methods.

The valuable report on the history and condition of the McLean Asylum for the Insane for the year 1858, derives a peculiar importance from the few pages which the Superintendent devotes to the causes of insanity, so far as they were developed and affected by the peculiar circumstances of the year, and were connected with the recent financial crisis and the religious excitements of that period. Dr. Tyler discourses wisely upon these matters, and gives admonitions which, were they heeded, would save many from mental disturbance and more from mental death.