Miscellany

Dunbar, Flanders Emotions and Bodily Changes. [ Annals of Internal Medicine,  14: 839-853, 1940.]

Brief report on certain aspects of a simultaneous somatic and psychological study of 1,500 patients, over a period of ten years, in a general hospital. Routine study was made of all admissions for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and fracture. An important psychic component was revealed in 80 per cent of the cases suitable for examination. Certain correlations were observed between type of personality and the illness syndrome; clinical observations of their nature were supported independently by statistics covering educational record, occupation, income and former illness history. For example, patients with coronary occlusion and fracture both were characterized by conflict with authority; but the former sought a solution by rising to positions of authority through hard work and persistence, whereas the latter tried to avoid subjection to authority by an impulsive and adventurous behavior, involving frequent changes of job and failure to complete undertakings. Of the patients with fracture, 79 per cent had had one or more previous accidents and the majority two or more. Although their previous illness history, after correction for age and sex, was only about one-sixth that of patients in the other two groups, and better than the average for the general population. On the other hand, less than six per cent of the patients in the coronary occlusion group had two accidents, and none had more than two accidents. The fuller material is in process of publication. [Author's Abstract.]

Kahn, Eugen, and Gildea, Edwin F. How to Overcome the Smoking Habit. [In  Connecticut State Medical Journal,  5:  886-888, December, 1941.]

Smoking is one means of satisfying, at least in part, the cravings for food. The whole process of sucking, chewing, biting and eating is a fundamentally pleasurable one. Use and abuse of tobacco is one of the