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This is the second edition, very much enlarged and more ambitious, of the little unpretentious book of twelve years ago, the main thesis of which was that insanity is a disorder of conduct. Dr. Mercier is a well-known writer and he has written much since the first edition of this work, particularly a special book in which he elaborates his thesis of insanity as a disorder of conduct at great length.
All of Dr. Mercier's writings are distinctly worth while; he states his ideas simply, in most excellent English, and entertainingly, and when he lapses into the facetious he is perhaps at his best. He does this in the little note at the end of the book, wherein he delivers himself of his opinion regarding the reviewer who is invariably distressed by the lack of an index, and shows that he means what he says by omitting it himself. His particular reasons are that a book that is developed in an orderly and logical manner needs no index. While this may be academically a correct proposition, the present book is a rather poor example to bring forth of one that does not need an index. It seems too bad to record that in the twelve years elapsing since the first edition, Dr. Mercier's concepts, while they have been elaborated in number and have been more systematically arranged, divided, and subdivided, have not shown that fluidity which is essential for growth of the developmental kind, so that at this day his book is so far removed from the trends which are manifesting themselves on the advancing front of psychiatry, that one unfamiliar with his writings wander rather helplessly, and would be very grateful for all the additional help that an index might supply. There is nothing in the arrangement of the book that helps one find, for example, what the author may have to say about the Korsakow's psychosis concept, or the concept of presbyophrenia, and in looking