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This manual of psychiatry has gone through a rather lengthy evolution. The author, who has been a very active investigator in psychiatry and psychopathology in general from the time he entered the New York State Hospital Service, gave out in 1905 a translation of the French Manuel de Psychiatrie by J. Rogues de Fursac. Those who knew Rosanoff and his work could discern even in the first edition many of his own contributions; and as the editions continued, in 1908, 1911, 1916, etc., and the volume grew, as it were, by accretion, the original work of Fursac served as a mere skeleton for the new discoveries in psychiatry and psychopathology.
The present volume, forming the seventh edition of this work, is a thorough compilation of the various branches of psychopathology that enter into the study and practice of psychiatry. It is, as the author claims, the result of a scanning of the literature of the psychiatric and contiguous fields and 'represents an attempt to give a comprehensive bird's-eye view of the entire field of psychiatry and mental hygiene'.
Looking through this book, one feels that the author has faithfully fulfilled this task. Both the student and the experienced psychiatrist will find in this manual a comprehensive aperçu and a careful review of the whole field of psychiatry. The book is unique in many ways. The practising psychiatrist who has not been able to keep abreast of the vast psychopathological discoveries of the last generation will find here a comprehensive and lucid account of such topics as the large-scale studies of mental disorders in twins, the new discoveries in cerebral physiology resulting from extirpation of various lobes, the investigation of temperament and neuroses through the application of the method of Pavloff's conditioned reflexes, the studies of criminology of the last decade, and the recent studies of suicides. The author freely quotes the original authorities on subjects and problems that he, himself, could not fully i