Vol V, No 4 (1897)

The question of the connection between the frontal lobes and the various parts of the brain still remains far from solved completely, despite a whole series of studies in this direction. In view of this, at the suggestion of the highly respected teacher V.M.Bekhterev, I undertook this work with the aim of clarifying this issue in detail. My study consisted in the destruction of the frontal lobes in animals with the subsequent processing of their brains according to the Marchi method, and in addition, in a detailed study of physiological phenomena in the operated animals. But regarding the second part of my work, I intend to speak in another section, limiting myself at the present to the anatomical part. Before proceeding to the presentation of the results obtained by me, I will try to briefly outline the literature of the question of interest to me. The literature on the connections of the frontal lobe with various areas of the brain is directly adjacent to the literature on the connections of the cerebral cortex in general and seems to be very extensive, which is why I will confine myself to a more detailed sketch of a part of it, concerning more or less controversial issues, mentioning only briefly about the research on which there is a contradiction.

The Nissl method showed that every nerve cell consists of two substances: the main one, which does not stain with this treatment, and the other, interspersed with the first, having a selective affinity for the main aniline dyes. The type, method of distribution in the nerve cell of this chromophilic substance is different depending on the nature of the group to which this nerve cell belongs. Most often, this substance is in the form of grains, differing in an extreme variety of size and shape. This new word in the study of the structure of the nerve cell gave, together with the darkness, a new basis for the study of the issue of changes in the nervous cells in the active state. Thanks to this, a number of studies by authors appeared, such as Hodge, Vas, Mann, Lambert, Lugaro, Levi, Valensa, Magini, whose purpose was to answer the question whether the nerve cells change during activity, and if they change, then what are these changes, which is, consequently, the histological picture of the process of excitation of the nerve cell. To regret, the data, which appeared to answer this question, disagree with each other. In fact, the size of the calm nerve cells, decreasing with irritation, according to Hodge, increases according to Vas and according to Lambert's opinion, they remain without changes. Chromophiles according to Vas and Lambert, moving into an irritated cell to the periphery, according to the opinion of the other authors, do not change their position. The amount of nuclear chromatin increasing along Vas decreases according to Mann. Also contradictory data and volume of changes in the size of the nucleus and nucleolus. Only one thing is that all researchers agree, this is that neither the size nor the number of chromophiles change during the appearance of irritation of the nerve cell. True, Mann says that during rest, various coloring substances accumulate in the cell, which are then consumed during activity, but this indication does not seem to refer to chromophiles, but to the chromatin of the nucleus.

The painful condition, known in medicine under the name of alcoholic automatism, alcoholic trance, alcoholic somnambulism, despite its significance in forensic medicine, has been the subject of research from a relatively recent time. In 1878, the observations related to this were described by Professor Magnan, who expressed the proposition that alcoholic automatism is the result of the complication of alcoholism with epilepsy and that automatic states are observed only in such chronic alcoholics who have epilepsy. Since 1879, several papers by Dr. Crothers have been published on this issue. Further cases of alcoholic automatism have been described by Drs. Kinney, Collin, Chamtemesse, Souques and others.

In the present essay, I mean to present the characteristics of the initiator of the religious and social movement that appeared among the Muslim population of eastern Russia, the peasant of the Kazan province V. Bogutdin and some of his closest associates.

In the specialized literature for the last time, a description of a rather peculiar nervous suffering began to come across, which Pitres and Régis called erythrophobia and the most prominent symptom of which is the periodically arising fear of reddening, on the one hand, a fearful reddening of the face, on the other hand. Apparently, the first indication of such a combination of clinical phenomena we find in Casper back in 1846. But the observation of this author, known to me only from the work of Westphalya (Ueber Zwangsvorstellungen. 1877. Berl. Klin. Woch. 1877), is too cited last day in general terms, so that one can speak about him with the desired certainty. After Casper, not one of the clinicians focused their attention on such cases, and only in 1896 appeared almost simultaneously several works devoted to the suffering of interest to us. Dugas (Revue philosophique, dec. 1896), Campbell (Brif. Med. Journal, 25 sept. 1896); Breton (Gazette des hôpit. 20 oct. 1896), Pitres et Régis (Archives de Neurologie 1896 No. 9. p. 253), Bekhterev (Review of Psychiatry 1896, No. 12; 1897 No. 1 and 8), Chigaev (Doctor 1897 30), Manheimer (La médecine modern 1897 No. 8) published a whole series of observations in which the clinical picture of suffering is described in great detail and where its main features are already quite definite.

In this session, we will allow ourselves to report the observations made in the laboratory and the highly respected teacher, prof. N.A.Mislavsky, on the structure of the spinal cord in sterlets.
Our communication will be reduced, mainly, to the description of: 1) neuroglia cells, 2) ependyma cells and 3) nerve cells with the help of the substance. We will not touch upon the literature on this issue, since we consider our observations to be incomplete. Let's just say a few words about the methods that we used in our research.

The present research of the venerable professor a few years ago served as the topic for his public lecture. In its present form, this study was published in the second edition, corrected and significantly supplemented, containing 126 figures in the text and with the attached tables of notes. Thus, the second edition of the extremely interesting and completely original work of prof. Dogel has already appeared in the form of a solid monograph.

The author's monograph under the title written out is the result of partly personal observations of the author, and is mainly based on the study of the clinical material of the hospital therapeutic clinic of Moscow University (about 200 cases). At the beginning of the work, the author gives a general description of the clinical picture of gastrointestinal disorders in neurasthenics and hysterics, and then briefly gives 17 history of illness, taken from the archive of the clinic for the last 5 years.

Everyone knows the terrible drama that played out among the sectarians of the Ternovsky farmsteads: 25 people were subsequently (in groups) buried alive, dying to die a free death. This terrible Ternovo event is in our time an unprecedented fact, deserving a deep and comprehensive study. The extreme fermentation that led the sectarians to such a gloomy denouement should equally interest the historian, psychologist, forensic scientist and doctor - psychiatrist: each of them will find in this everyday drama a rich material for their scientific research.

The research of the author seems to be very interesting for a neuropathologist and psychiatrist. It is difficult to convey the essence of the content of this work in the abstract, and therefore we will limit ourselves here only to the advice to read it in the original.

Child 2 y. Ill 3 weeks later after influenza with acute delirium (Amentia) and recovered during the 3rd month of illness.

On the basis of seven observations, the author describes a form of acute illusionary insanity, which deserves a special name, because it develops after a prolonged depressive period, without any depleting reasons for the body, in the absence of an inherited predisposition — during Climacterium.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Medical Department is included in the State Council with a presentation on borrowing from the capital of public funds the amounts necessary for the construction of District Hospitals for the mentally ill. These sums will also be used to build the District Hospital in Vilnius, designed for the provinces of the north-western region.

On November 19, the upcoming 1897, it will be 30 years since the opening of the clinic for mental illnesses at the Imperial Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg. In addition, a new, completely separate building at a mental health clinic, intended to serve as a clinic for nervous diseases, will be completed approximately in time, and will open at the beginning of the next academic year. Bearing in mind both of these major events in the life of the oldest psychiatric clinic in Russia, it is supposed to commemorate these events by the establishment of a psychiatric and neurological museum, for which there is a special facility in the building currently under construction for nervous patients.

Chaired by Comrade Chairman N.A.Mislavskiy, with secretary B.I. Vorotynskiy; honorary members KA Arnshtein and IM Dogel were present; action. members: D. V. Polumordvinov, P. S. Skuridin. G. A. Klyachkin, V. V. Nikolaev; guests: Dr. Poroshin, Dr. Charushin. Dr. Mayevsky, prof. Savchenko and a few people of the public.