Vol XVII, No 2 (1910)

Hysteria is the most widespread disease in our enlightened society. Who does not know her and where you will not meet her ... Previously, they thought that only a woman had her. The facts of life have completely refuted this opinion, and although it is less common in men than in women, men still often suffer from it. It used to be thought that hysteria is a disease of wealthy, pampered, spoiled people, but a study of soldiers showed that hysteria is not uncommon even between soldiers from the simple strata of the population ... It used to be thought that girls suffer from hysteria, less often ladies, and, perhaps, occasionally young men. But observations have shown that children are not spared from this disease. The reports of the French doctors Bezy, Berillon, Dastarak and many others have given us a very vivid picture of childhood hysteria, not much different from adult hysteria.

The recognition of various diseases, pathological conditions of the human body, is based on several principles, the application of which in each individual case seems to be more or less significant in their totality or in one or another predominant grouping.

Applying the clinical principle in the broad sense of the word to elucidate a pathological state, we try first of all to determine those subjective and objective signs that characterize a given suffering, i.e., we try to determine its clinical symptom complex; often this is enough to recognize the disease and even to predict its further course, and sometimes this also establishes the etiology of the disease; but this is not always the case; on the contrary, in many cases, a single examination of the patient is insufficient, and in order to clarify the properties of the disease, to establish a firm recognition, more or less prolonged observation of the patient is necessary in order to study the development of the clinical symptom complex over time, its modification, in order to observe new symptoms, in order to studying the course of the disease.

The question of obsessive mental states is one of the most interesting questions of modern neuropathology and psychiatry. Closely adjoining, on the one hand, neuropathology and even going far into the realm of ordinary life, on the other hand, it is no less closely in contact with psychiatry, contributing to the understanding of various phenomena of psychopathology. A vast area of observations, in their content freely attributable to mental anomalies, however, cannot be attributed exclusively to psychiatry, apparently on the basis that the completely conscious attitude of the patient to his own sensations, understood by him as a morbid state, makes it difficult to speak of him as about the mentally ill in the ordinary sense of the word.

Since Schmiedeberg's publication of his classic work on muscarine and its action on the heart (Das Muscarin. Das giftige Alcaloid des Fliegenpilzes-Agaricus Muscarius L. - V. Dr. O. Schmiedeberg u. Dr. Richard Corre. 1869), a view has been established on the mechanism of action of muscarine is such that muscarine causes cardiac arrest due to irritation of the vagus nerve in the heart; in this case, cardiac arrest can be eliminated, as the above-mentioned author has shown, by the introduction of atropine, which paralyzes the endings of n. vagi. Prof. Kravkov, in his 1907 textbook Fundamentals of Pharmacology, emphasizes in particular that “the action of muscarine is concentrated on the endings n. vagi". Schmiedeberg has not changed his view on the action of muscarine and atropine to this day, which is clear from his "Grundriss der Pharmakologie" - 1909, although I produced and published in 1894 the work "On the question of the innervation of the frog heart (Neurological Bulletin and Arch. f. Anatomie u. Physiologie) could give rise to a reservation regarding the vagus nerve.

The whole work, written in an easily understandable and literary language, can be divided into two parts. In the first, the author tries to clarify the confusing and contradictory doctrine of neurofibrils on the basis of more advanced methods for staining fibrils. Analyzing the existing methods for staining fibrils, the author gives preference to the Donaggio method, since it does not cause wrinkling of cells and, in addition (with some modification), both fibrils and Nissl bodies can be stained simultaneously.

The thyroid gland, according to the author, has a strong influence on the lipolytic and oxidative functions of the body. Using for his experiments fresh and dried organs of various animals, the author, on the basis of the action of the extract of these organs on fats, comes to the conclusion that the thyroid gland produces an enzyme that decomposes fats; in quantity and strength of the lipolytic enzyme, it is second only to the pancreas and liver.

The author recommends his own device for the production of dermography, which accurately captures a certain area of the skin (5 mm) when irritated, produces a precisely defined pressure and acts on this area of the skin for a precisely measured amount of time (0.5 seconds).

Having described a case of central paralysis in one pregnant woman, the author, on the basis of this case and on the basis of the literature collected on this issue, comes to the conclusion that such diseases depend on autointoxication of the pregnant woman. In the case under consideration, there were no other causes of paralysis other than pregnancy, and the paralysis soon disappeared after childbirth. Numerous literary references to paralysis of a different nature in pregnant women fully confirm the author's idea. According to the author, pregnancy causes the body to produce some kind of gloxips, which, along with other specific diseases of pregnant women (uncontrollable vomiting, eclampsia, etc.), also cause diseases of the nervous system (various neuritis, paralysis, psychosis, etc.).

To the limited literature on this disease, the author adds a description of a case of this disease that he observed in the Odessa Jewish Hospital. The etiology of this suffering, according to the author, should be reduced to the action of the toxins of typhoid infection on the nervous system. In organic and mineral poisons, like alcohol and lead, we have examples of their toxic effect on the peripheral nervous system. The same effect of poisons can be in infectious diseases, in particular, in typhoid. Depending on the strength of the intoxication, neuritis can be temporary, become permanent, and even lead to the loss of the ability of the nerve fiber to undergo regeneration.

The author cites three case histories of patients with tabes dors., where attacks of pain were accompanied by a significant increase in body temperature. According to the author's observation, the course of t° could not be influenced by extraneous causes, and its increase is determined by the main process. As for the reasons for such an increase in t °, the author puts it in direct connection with pain (in the cases cited, pain was always accompanied by fever) and the origin of both is explained by the action of toxins formed in the cerebral fluid and acting on the centers of the spinal, medulla oblongata and, perhaps, even, brain.

Studying the urine of patients with progressive paralysis, the author, among other things, believed that with a solution of mercuric nitrous oxide (10%), the urine of such patients, when boiled, gives a gray and sometimes even black precipitate (Dr. Efimov's reaction is with worms). Such a reaction is more or less constant and is considered by the author to be an auxiliary “remedy for diff. paralysis diagnosis. He obtained a positive result in 84-91% of the patients with progressive paralysis studied by him.

A brief review of the publications presented in the journal Psychotherapy for 1910 in No. 1-No. 2, scientific works are presented, the authors are Yu., in the article by I. E. Osipov and the articles of the authors N. A. Vyrubov, P. D. Petkachev and E. N. Dovbny.

Having clarified in detail the physiological role of the cerebral appendage (hypophysis cerebri) in the body, the author recommends the use of preparations of this gland for acromegaly, Basedow's disease, infectious diseases, idiocy and insomnia. Preparations, according to the author, should be used only sterile, in the form of physiological and glycerin extracts.

The article by a well-known neuropathologist-psychiatrist from Berg is of great interest, distinguished by his characteristic brilliant exposition, depth and originality of thought. Dubois points out that the modern clinic, in its ceaseless development of its experimental aspirations, has become too materialistic and has forgotten the "soul". Meanwhile, every practical doctor is well aware that the cure of the patient is due not so much to medicine as to psychotherapy. The author does not deny the obvious need for treatment with physical, material means of such diseases, which are based on material causes (trauma, infection, intoxication, diathesis), although here the influence of psychotherapy is quite large: physical treatment is faster and more expedient when the patient is in a cheerful, good mood; the patient must be able to make willingly and firmly follow the doctor's prescriptions - and this is the field of psychotherapy.

The most interesting of the reports under consideration is the report on the psychiatric department of the Kharkov Provincial Zemstvo Hospital. First of all, attention is drawn to the intensive scientific activity of doctors of the provincial zemstvo hospital in general and psychiatrists in particular. anatomical and published 4 papers on psychiatry.

The largest group of reports at the conferences, pathological and anatomical, is connected, in all likelihood, with the activities of the dissector of the hospital, Professor N. F. Melnikov-Razvedenkov, who often personally delivered reports and demonstrations.

The book was published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital. The author, in connection with the chronicle of the hospital, briefly reviews the history of psychiatric care in Russia in general, and thereby makes a contribution to the little developed history of psychiatry in Russia. In parallel with this, he acquaints the reader with the development of charity for the mentally ill in 3. Europe. All transitions in the view of the mentally ill, reflected in the forms of attitude towards them on the part of the administration and society, both in our country and abroad, are described by the author by periods, in some detail, with reference to documentary data. The attitude towards the mentally ill, as the sick, has been established in Russia only since 1762.

The organizing committee for the convocation of the First Congress of the Russian Union of Psychiatrists and Neurologists informs the comrades of the following: March 10, p. in Moscow there was a meeting of the commission with the powers of the council of the Union of Psychiatrists and Neurologists. The meeting was attended by V. K. Rot, A. N. Bernshtein, V. N. Ergolsky, R. N. Vanovsky, P. B. Gannushkin, N. A. Vyrubov. The meeting adopted the following resolutions: The commission imposes on the Moscow members of the commission the duties of an executive committee with the functions of an organizing committee. The Commission instructs the Executive Committee to be guided as an instruction by the paragraphs of the Articles of Association of the Union defining the functions of the Board and the Organizing Committee, and decides that the officers of the Executive Committee are at the same time officers of the Commission. The Commission decides to send agendas for meetings of the executive committee as far in advance as possible to all members of the commission. Send agendas for general meetings of the commission 10 days before the meeting.

The year ended is the eighteenth year of the life of the Society; its activity was aimed at the implementation of the same tasks as before, and was expressed in the development of the burning modern issues of neurology and neuropathology in the broad sense of these concepts by the available forces of the Society and its visitors and the publication of a special journal "Neurological Bulletin.

Last year, the Society had 9 regular scientific meetings, which took place in the premises of the Clinic of Nervous Diseases or in the auditorium of the Physiological Cabinet of the University on Wednesday evenings every month, except for summer vacation time. 21 messages were made on them.

Dr. A. A. Opokin delivered a message: Toward the Recognition and Treatment of Traumatic Intracranial Suprapaholic Hemorrhages.

Prof. V. N. Tonkov. You gave Krönlein's classification. Now it is customary to distinguish between the median by the median plane and the median by location. What is yours?

Report Average by location.

A.V. Favorsky. What role could play in your diagnosis of aphasia if your patient was unconscious; the presence of consciousness is necessary for the diagnosis of aphasia.

Speaker. However, surgeons express themselves that way.