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This study represents a rather unique approach to the problems of genetic neurology based to a large degree upon the work of G. E. Coghill as presented in his book, ANATOMY AND THE PROBLEM OF BEHAVIOR. The author points out that “Psychoanalysis and psychosomatic medicine—as is the case with psychiatry itself—are still not based
upon a corresponding genetic neurology. In the meanwhile clinical neurology based upon ‘reflexology’ continues to fail in the solution of such essentially growth disorders as multiple sclerosis, to name but one of a vast group of unsolved problems.” Certainly no one can argue this point although in this preliminary study it is difficult to say that the author has solved these problems by his own studies. The book, as the Foreword points out, is certainly bound to be controversial and thought-provoking and should certainly be widely read as it is definitely a stimulus to further investigation.
There is no doubt but that we must agree with the author that “The development of a growth concept of nervous integration, directed specifically against diseases or environmental influences interfering with normal conception, pregnancy, birth, and growth in general, is designed to spur us to search rationally for those deficiencies of growth and those hazards of environment which still plague the physiology and psychology of man in subtle though not undiscernable ways.”
The author begins his work with an historical survey of Coghill's studies and then launches into a discussion of the growth concept of nervous integration. This is an exceedingly interesting chapter and lays the foundation for the relationship between growth and nutrition. The next chapter on the law for the growth of the central nervous system is complicated and is not bed-time reading but when worked through yields a relationship between somatic and nervous growth. The author now adds an intriguing chapter on insulin hypoglycemia in schizophrenia followed by one on renal hypertension an