in the seventh month of pregnancy, and who, within a few minutes of her delivery, recovered for the time, but fell into deep melancholia in less than five hours afterwards; she was several months in Bethlem. There was, on the other hand, a woman with melancholia at St. Luke's, who recovered on being told of the death of her child, and who is now well at home. Another patient was accidentally scalded by the hot water tap in a bath, and was quite cured from that moment of her mental disorder.

The members of the Association had an opportunity of inspecting, through microscopes on the table, several different sections of spinal cords in the conditions of health and of general paralysis.

Dr. SAVAGE produced these for exhibition.

Correspondence.

To the Editors of the Journal of Mental Science.

SIRS, In reading the report of the Quarterly Meeting of the Association held in Edinburgh in November, printed in the January number of the Journal, I find, in the discussion of Dr. Ireland's paper on Mahomet, an opinion ascribed to me which I certainly did not mean to express, viz.: that the prophet's "supposed revelations were not due to Epilepsy." It appears to me that the idea of the divine mission of Mahomet originated in an Epileptic trance, or some closely allied condition; and that many of his subsequent revelations had a like origin. I am, &c.,

Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum, March, 1875.

JAMES C. HOWDEN.

To the Editors of the Journal of Mental Science.

GENTLEMEN,-As an article on the Physiology of General Paralysis and Epilepsy by Mr. George Thompson, of the Bristol City Asylum, which appeared in the January number of the Journal of Mental Science, and a continuation of that article which was read at a recent meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association in London, have, I understand, created very false impressions as to my views, I should be glad to have an opportunity of stating that on the subjects discussed in that paper and on that occasion I differ, and have always differed, from my friend, Mr. Thompson, toto cœlo.

Mr. Thompson has fallen into a grievous error in representing me as having confidence in the Calabar Bean as a cure for General Paralysis. Were I capable of such optimism, my opinion would be of little moment. While claiming for the Calabar Bean a valuable power of modifying and arresting the progress of that most persistent malady, I have never suggested that it should be regarded as a cure. Mr. Thompson will doubtless be surprised to hear that the two cases of general paralysis to which he refers, which appeared in the "British Medical Journal," and in which recovery seemed to take place under treatment by the Calabar Bean, were published in the form which they there assumed without my knowledge or sanction, and indeed much to my regret. I shall take an early opportunity of setting forth explicitly my notions about the pathology of general paralysis (which is, I presume, what is meant by its physiology,) and my experience in the use of the Calabar Bean, and in the meantime I must ask your permission to protect myself from misconstruction by a general disavowal of any agreement with Mr, Thompson, on any point that arises in his contribution to your pages.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your obedient Servant,

West Riding Asylum, Wakefield, March 17th, 1875.

J. CRICHTON BROWNE.

Appointments.

BEACH, FLETCHER, M.B., Physician's Assistant at Bethlem Hospital, has been appointed Medical Superintendent of the Clapton Asylum for Idiots. BROWN, W. J., M.B., has been appointed Assistant Medical Officer at the Borough Lunatic Asylum, Newcastle-on-Tyne, vice Levinge resigned.

CARRE, GEO. E., M.B., B.A., L.R.C.S.I., has been appointed the Resident Medical Superintendent of the Castlebar District Hospital for the Insane, having been previously the Visiting Physician of the Letterkenny District Establishment.

CONNOLLY, P.R., M.D., M.A., has been appointed Resident Medical Superintendent of the Waterford District Hospital for the Insane, in which he had held the office, since 1856, of Visiting Physician.

ELLIS, J. L., L.K.Q.C.P.I., L.M., has been appointed Assistant Medical Officer to the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, Denbigh, vice Powell, resigned. FLETCHER, ROBERT V., L.R.C.P. Ed., has been appointed the Medical Superintendent of the Ballinasloe District Hospital for the Insane, having been transferred to it from the Waterford District Institution, on the death of the late Richard Eaton, M.D.

FOOT, R. H., M.D. Trin. Coll. Dub., L.R.C.S.I., has been appointed Assistant Medical Superintendent of the Fife and Kinross Lunatic District Asylum, Cupar, vice Mackenzie resigned.

HIGGINS, W. H., M.B., C.M., M.R.C.S.E., has been appointed Assistant Medical Officer to the Derby County Lunatic Asylum.

INGLIS, THOS., L.R.C.S., has been appointed Assistant Physician to the Royal Edinburgh Asylum.

LEVINGE, E. G., A.B., M.B., L.R.C.S.I., has been appointed Junior Assistant Medical Officer of the Hants County Lunatic Asylum, Knowle, Fareham.

PITTS, Mr. B., has been appointed Physician's Assistant at the Bethlem Royal Hospital for Lunatics, vice Beach, appointed Medical Superintendent of the Clapton Asylum for Idiots.

POWELL, E., M.R.C.S.E., has been appointed Second Assistant Medical Officer at the Essex Lunatic Asylum, Brentwood, vice Shone, resigned.

SECCOMBE, G. S., L.R.C.P.L., M.R.C.S.E., has been appointed Assistant Medical Officer to the Metropolitan District Asylum for Lunatics, Caterham, vice Younger, appointed Apothecary to the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum,

Hanwell.

YOUNGER, E. G., L.R.C.P.L., M.R.C.S.E., has been appointed Apothecary to the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum, Hanwell, vice Williams, appointed Medical Superintendent of the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, Denbigh.

A GOOD APPETITE.

An unfortunate lunatic, who died in the Prestwich Asylum on the 18th ult., seems to have lived not wisely but too well. A post-mortem examination led to the discovery of no fewer than 1,841 articles in his insidenamely, 1,639 shoemaker's sparables, 6 4-inch cut nails, 19 3-inch cut nails, 8 2-inch cut nails, 18 2-inch cut nails, 40-inch cut nails, 7 inch cut nails, 39 tacks, 5 brass nails, 9 brass brace buttons, 20 pieces of buckles, 1 pin, 14 bits of glass, 10 small pebbles, 3 pieces of string, 1 piece of leather three inches long, one piece of lead four inches long, and one American pegging awl-the total 11lbs. 10ozs. It seems strange that any man's state of mind should be such that he could take as much pleasure in eating the contents of a rag-and-bottle shop as of a butcher's or pastry cook's establishment; but the story shews that if, as often alleged, the equilibrium of the mind is to a great extent dependent on the digestion, so the converse is true, that the

appetite is, more than we are aware of, dependent on the condition of the brain. This poor lunatic, who gormandized on rusty nails, broken glass, and other rubbish, was probably little more mad than many other persons who habitually eat food, if not "unfit for human consumption," at least so injurious to the constitution that it causes premature death. If an alderman, for instance, were really in his right senses, he would not live on turtle and punch; it is because he is guided by appetite rather than by reason that he is so often afflicted with gout, and dies, universally respected, no doubt, but still before his time. The guests at any large dinner party are, as a rule, equally "crazed." They do not, it is true, swallow their knives and forks, or feed in quite such an extravagant fashion as the Prestwich lunatic, but the difference between him and them in the matter of sanity as regards their appetites and diet is a mere question of degree.-Pall Mall Gazette.

SALARIES OF OFFICERS OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

At the monthly meeting of the Governors of the Clare District Hospital for the Insane on Saturday, the 13th of March, several applications of officers and servants of the Institution came under consideration. After considerable discussion, the applications were refused in toto, and the following resolution, proposed by Lord Dunboyne, and seconded by Lord Inchiquim, adopted unani. mously:"That in future if any officer or servant of Ennis Lunatic Asylum proposes to make an application for increase of salary, he should make such application on the 1st February each year, and that it should be accompanied with the resignation of the office."

CORRECTION.-In Dr. Ireland's article on "The Hallucinations of Mahomet and others," in the last number, read corpora quadrigemina for optic thalami in the reference to Dr. Luy's Theory of Hallucinations.

THE W. AND S. TUKE PRIZE ESSAY.

Some of the descendants of WILLIAM and SAMUEL TUKE (the former of whom proposed the establishment of the York Retreat in 1792, and the latter wrote the "Description" of the humane system of treatment commenced there) having placed at the disposal of the Medico-Psychological Association the sum of One Hundred Guineas, the Association offers a prize of this amount for

"The best series of original Cases and Commentary, illustrative of the Somatic Etiology of various Forms of Insanity, accompanied, when possible, in fatal cases, by reports of post-mortem examinations and microscopical preparations— their bearing on the symptoms being pointed out."

Cases not seen by the writer may be cited, but must be distinguished from those actually witnessed by himself.

The W. and S. TUKE PRIZE is open to all without restriction as to country, profession, &c., but the right is reserved to withhold it, should there be no essay of sufficient merit. Essays, to be written in English, and not in the author's handwriting, to be sent in a sealed envelope, bearing the motto of the essay, and containing the name of the writer, to the undersigned, not later than June 30th, 1876. The microscopical preparations, but not the essay, to belong to the Association.

Bethlem Royal Hospital, London.

Dec., 1874.

W. RHYS WILLIAMS, M.D.,

Hon. Sec.

THE JOURNAL OF MENTAL SCIENCE.

[Published by Authority of the Medico-Psychological Association.]

No. 94. NEW SERIES,

No 58.

JULY, 1875.

VOL. XXI.

PART 1.-ORIGINAL ARTICLES.

A Chapter on some Organic Laws of Personal and Ancestral Memory. By T. LAYCOCK, M.D., &c., Physician in Ordinary to the Queen for Scotland, and Professor of the Practice of Physic and Clinical Medicine in the University of Edinburgh.*

I propose to show that organic memory consists in cerebral processes, regulated by the laws of evolution and reversion, and common as vital processes to both plants and animals.

I. The origin of acquired habits, instincts, and capabilities, and their transmission hereditarily as atavism are now too well known to need special illustration. What I now would affirm is, that the manifestation of these according to the laws of heredity is better understood if considered as a reversion to antecedent vital processes in parents, and to be classed with memory. On the other hand, that higher development of the brains which coincides with increase of knowledge, is a manifestation of the great law of evolution. But loss of memory, dependent on the defective brain-nutrition of old age, when evolution ceases, is not uncommonly associated with a return to the thoughts and habits of early life, being a reversion to that which the individual had inherited from his own childhood and youth, and so analogous to ancestral reversions, or heredity proper.

The problems to be solved may be considered from other points of view. Organic memory, as a whole, includes two distinct processes. The one consists in the brain-changes which follow upon an act of attention, and constitute the record of mental states; these are the result of physical impressions received by, and acting on the brain at the

This paper is the substance of a chapter written in 1872 for (as yet) an unpublished work.

XXI. '

11

moment of attention, which is the present. The second cannot occur unless the antecedent process-the record-has been completed, because it consists in a reversion to that process. Now, in the atavistic transmission of instinct and of other capabilities, whether in plants or animals, the end is attained by means of a microscopically small particles of living matter endowed with the property of evolution or development. In the formation of this particle there is both a record of ancestral qualities and a reversion to one or other of the primary forms of living matter. A simple analysis of the leading facts of organic memory serves to show that evolution of the primordial germ is analogous to evolution of brain and of mental power. In the two parental elements which, when integrated, constitute the primordial cell, there is a storing up, or record potentially, of the organic capabilities of each of the parents; so also there is a like storing up of capabilities in the molecular encephalic tissues. And just as the primordial cell is capable of evolution and development under fitting conditions, so are the latter. These apply equally to reversion, which is the correlative of evolution. In the formation of the primordial cell there is a reversion to one of the simplest and most elementary forms of life. What, therefore, is termed heredity is an evolutional reversion potentially to antecedent modes of activity, manifested in parents and ancestors, as in like manner reminiscence is an evolutional reversion to antecedent modes of activity manifested in the individual. Again; just as acquired ideas and notions dependent upon memory tend to evolve, concurrently with brain evolution, into more comprehensive notions so as to develop systems of thought; so, consequent on the contact with new external conditions, the evolving organism acquires and transmits new instincts and capabilities, and enters upon wider external relations. We may, therefore, assume as to these general laws, that the vital processes whereby all is attained that is included under cerebral development and mental activity are comparable with certain vital processes in the lowliest organisms.

That definite tissues of the brain and combinations of braincells and molecules subserve definite vital processes in memory and reminiscence is now an unquestioned fact. How the results of these processes become a part of the transmissible elements of the primordial cell, formed by the integration of the sperm-cell and the germ-cell, remains to be elucidated;