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The first edition of this work was published in 1915 and the appearance of the fourth edition in 1923 is a guarantee of its popularity. This is well merited, for the book gives a very complete account of diseases of the nervous system, approaching their study from many points of view.
In any case of nervous disease we are told to look for hundreds of signs and symptoms, each procedure usually taking a few seconds to a few minutes, and there seems to be an element of incongruity, almost amounting to humour, when we find that this chapter concludes with five pages on psycho-analysis, a method of examination which may take years.
Nevertheless, these five pages are extraordinarily good. The principles and 'Technic' are accurately described in a way which we would not have thought possible to be expressed so briefly. Of course this description of psycho-analysis does not purport to be instruction in the method. Indeed it strikes the present reviewer rather as a description which might be useful for patients who want to know something about what they are undertaking, should they ultimately decide on a course of psycho-analytical treatment.
The neurological part is excellent, but a detailed examination of it is not required for this Journal. We therefore pass to Part III. Part III is the account of disorders of the 'Psychical or Symbolic Systems' and it is in fact a text-book on Mental Diseases. Their study is approached from the interpretative or Freudian point of view and we can unstintingly acclaim this section as the best manual on Mental Disorders extant. Having said this, we feel free to offer a few criticisms.
The authors describe the neuroses and psychoses on Freudian lines, but not to the exclusion of views expressed by other authorities. Indeed they appear to have forgotten Freud in their chapter on the Manic-Depressive psychosis and his views on the psycho-pathology of Melancholia are relegated to the account of Senile Melancholia.
In the discussion of th