THE

NATURE AND DIAGNOSIS

NEURASTHENIA

(.NERVOUS EXHAUSTION).

GEORGE M. BEARD, M. D.,""" ** *****

NEWYORK.

[REPRINTED FROM THE NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL, MARCH, 1879.]

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THE

NATURE AND DIAGNOSIS

OF

NEURASTHENIA

(.NERVOUS EXHAUSTION).

GEORGE M. BEARD, M.D.,NEWYORK.

[REPRINTED FROM TEE NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL, MARCH., 1879.]

NEWYORK:D. APPLETON & COMPANY,

54 9 & 55 1 BROADWAY.1879.

THE NATURE AND DIAGNOSIS OF NEURAS-THENIA (NERYOUS EXHAUSTION).*

Nervous exhaustion (neurasthenia) is in this country morecommon than any other form of nervous disease. With thevarious neuroses to which it is allied, and to which it leads,it constitutes a family of functional disorders that are of com-paratively recent development, and that abound especially inthe northern and eastern part of the United States, although,during the last five years, they have been studied more or lessin England and on the Continent.

But, in spite of its frequency and importance, neurasthenia,although long recognized, in a vague way, among the peopleand the profession under such terms as “general debility,”“ nervous prostration,” “nervous debility,” “ nervous asthenia,”“ spinal weakness,” and, more accurately, by some of its spe-cial symptoms and accompaniments, as “spinal irritation,”“ nervous dyspepsia,” cerebral and spinal anaemia and hyper-aemia, irritable ovary, irritable uterus, uterine asthenopia, andsexual exhaustion, yet until quite recently no attempt has

*Read before the New York Neurological Society, January 5, 1879.

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been made to formally introduce it into science, by describingin detail all its symptoms, and showing their relation to eachother and to the morbid nervous condition of which they areall the results and expressions. My first paper on this subject,based on the study of thirty cases, was prepared in 1868, wasread before the New York Medical Journal Association, andwas published in the “ Boston Medical and Surgical Journal”April 29, 1869, and subsequently appeared in the first editionof Beard and Rockwell’s “Electricity.”

At first the subject excited absolutely no interest in theprofession, although at that very time the practical treatmentof the disease and of allied diseases by electricity was becom-ing quite popular. Indeed the use of the general and centralmethods of applying electricity, and the study of neurasthenia,for which these general and central methods are specially in-dicated, were worked up side by side. During the last fiveyears, however, this topic has been discussed, incidentally ifnot elaborately, by a number of writers in different countries,among whom may be mentioned Hugh Campbell, of London,who issued a monograph on nervous exhaustion based almostentirely on the essay above referred to, amounting in fact toa diluted republication and adding very little to our knowl-edge of the disease ; Dr. Jewell, of Chicago, who has referredto the subject very intelligently in lectures and review arti-cles; Dr, Mitchell, of Philadelphia, in his work on “Fat andBlood ”; by other writers of this city in various articles in themedical journals; by Dr. Goodell, of Philadelphia, in his re-cent address on Neurasthenia before the American Gynaeco-logical Society; and, most systematically and successfully ofall, by Professor Erb, of Heidelberg, who, though suppliedwith comparatively a limited amount of clinical material, hasentered upon the study of the whole subject with the scien-tific spirit and with the all-sidedness and thoroughness char-acteristic of the Germans.*

* Under the heading “ Nervous Asthenia ”—a term suggested by Dr.Pordyce Barker—Dr. FJint, in the first edition of his work on Practice,makes a few remarks on this subject.

“The term neurasthenia was devised by me independently, at the time

5

April 4, I read before the New York Academy ofMedicine a paper “On Certain Symptoms of Nervous Ex-haustion,” designed to be supplementary to the original paperon neurasthenia, prepared ten years ago, describing a numberof new symptoms or those but partially noticed heretofore,and yet further differentiating the disease. This paper, whichwas based on a study of several hundred cases of neurastheniain its different forms and phases, was subsequently publishedin the “ Virginia Medical Monthly” for June, 1878,

So far as I know none of the recent standard works onnervous diseases in any language have any chapter on neuras-thenia, with the single exception of Erb, who, both in thenomenclature and general description, follows my first paper.

The terms cerebrasthenia and myelasthenia were also de-vised independently, and were first used in a paper on this sub-ject in the “Journal of Nervous Diseases.” Dr. Jewell statesthat the term cerebrasthenia has been employed by RobertWhytt, of England. The literature of special symptoms andphases, as spinal irritation and oxaluria, is quite extensive, butdoes not embrace the theory of neurasthenia as accountingfor those symptoms.

In the volume of Ziemssen’s “Cyclopaedia” that treats ofdiseases of the spinal cord, which was prepared by ProfessorErb, of Heidelberg, one of the very ablest of the Germanneurologists and electro-therapeutists, and one of the mostcareful, analytic, and philosophical of recent medical writers,is found the chapter on spinal exhaustion or neurasthenia spi-nalis, as he terms it, wherein he not only confirms the descrip-tion and analysis and nomenclature of neurasthenia which Igave several years ago, but adds some judicious and valuableobservations of his own. " Erb, after giving a correct analysis

when ray first article on the subject was prepared, without any knowledgethat the word had ever before been used.

“Dr. Jewell, of Chicago, in a series of lectures on Neurasthenia nowbeing published in the “Journal of Nervous Disease,” refers to the fol-lowing terms that have been employed by writers—nervosime (Bouchut) ;

etat nerveux (Sandras and Bourgiguon); nervopathie proteiforme (Oevise);nervo-spasmie (Brachet); nervo-erethesmus(Henle); neurwmie (Laycock),

6

of many of the more prominent symptoms of this disease, de-tails a typical case, and observes that he has seen over twodozen similar cases. This observation is of value as showingthat this malady is not confined to the United States, whereit was first systematically described, and where it is certainlyfar more common than in ail the world besides, and that thesymptoms, behavior and clinical history are the same in bothcountries. At the time when my first article on this subjectwas prepared (1868), I used the general term neurasthenia tocover all forms and types of nervous exhaustion, the symp-toms coming from the brain and from the spinal cord beingdescribed together and indiscriminately. This imperfectionProfessor Erb has repeated, and, to that extent, the value of hisessay is impaired, since, in strictness, the disease neurastheniashould appear both in the volume on the brain and on thespinal cord, in the former as cerebrasthenia, or exhaustion ofthe brain, in the latter as myelasthenia , or exhaustion of thespinal cord. It is this latter form, or myelasthenia ,

that Erbattempts to describe in his volume under the term neurasthe-nia spinalis / but of necessity many of the symptoms con-nected with the brain are included in his description.

Erb makes the further mistake, but one in which he is sus-tained by a large body of writers on the nervous system, oftreating of spinal irritation as a separate and special diseaseinstead of one of the many symptoms of myelasthenia, orspinal exhaustion, which it really is; and he further over-looks the existence of cerebral irritation, which is just as realthough not quite so frequent as spinal irritation; and he evi-dently fails to recognize the fact that the general irritation ortenderness of the various bones of the whole body, to whichhe gives the name hypersesthesia, is in scientific analysis a con-dition to be accounted for just as much as spinal irritation.It is due, however, to Professor Erb to say that he evidentlysuspects the justness of his analysis, and in one place clearlyintimates that he has doubts whether spinal irritation shouldbe considered as a distinct disease; and he confesses that it isimpossible to draw the lines between spinal exhaustion andspinal irritation. The truth is that in his mind, as in theminds of the profession at large, neurologists and general

7

practitioners alike, there has been a fearful and wondrous con-fusion of ideas on this whole subject; these functional nerv-ous symptoms have, in short, always slipped from our graspwhenever we have attempted to seize them and bring theminto science; and in discouragement and disgust, and in aspirit of skepticism which is the highest form of credulity,physicians, imitating the unscientific example of the laity,have denied the existence of such symptoms, just as they for-merly denied the existence of diphtheria and hay fever.

The purpose of the present essay is to study in detail thedifferential diagnosis of neurasthenia, and of the functionalnervous diseases allied to it and to which it leads.

The importance of making a differential diagnosis betweenmaladies of the type here referred to and organic or structuraldisease of the brain and spinal cord is incalculable ; mistakesof the most solemn character are constantly being made, bothin the literature of the subject and in the practice of physi-cians, from an imperfect understanding of the difference be-tween functional and organic disease of the nervous system."Very many of the symptoms of functional and organic diseaseare the same, or apparently the same, and there is an easy lia-bility to confound them, especially when, as is often the case,the patient or the doctor is disturbed in his judgment by se-vere apprehensions. A number of times I have been con-sulted by medical men in regard to themselves, for symptomswhich for a long time had kept them in a state of alarm, ifnot despair, lest they might be tbe precursors of incurable dis-ease of the brain or spinal cord; and after an interview Ihave had the pleasure of assuring them, in most positive lan-guage, that it was not only improbable but wellnigh impossi-ble for them to get up, if they should try, any organic orstructural disease of the nervous system ; that they might con-tinue in their chosen profession as long as they should live—

which might be and probably would be many years—providedonly they could carry out certain practicable hygienic andmedical suggestions. How students of medicine are apt toimagine themselves into heart disease when attending lectureson that subject, everybody knows; it is not so well known

8

that in recent times, since so much attention has been givento diseases of the nervous system, medical students and physi-cians have likewise the habit of manufacturing the grave dis-orders of the brain and spinal cord. For all this our neuro-logical literature is partly to be blamed, inasmuch as none ofthe European works on nervous diseases anywhere make clearthe differential diagnosis between functional and organic dis-ease ; on the contrary, the German writers, even the best ofthem, in their writings on such organic diseases as locomotorataxy, progressive muscular atrophy, etc., include many ofthe signs of neurasthenia, evidently not suspecting that func-tional and organic affections may have at the outset the samesymptoms, and for a time may run along together side byside perfectly parallel, and to an ordinary observer absolutelyidentical. In connection with this subject the German writ-ers have also made the mistake of assuming and of teachingthat the causes of functional disease—such, for example, assexual excess—are also likewise the causes of organic lesionssuch as are found in ataxy and muscular atrophy. These er-rors have been copied by authors in other countries and lan-guages, and physicians and medical students, on reading theseworks and listening to such teaching from their professors,begin most naturally to ask themselves whether they aregoing the road that leads to nervous destruction; and, on alittle reflection, there is but slight difficulty in recalling andconjuring up almost any number of symptoms which, accord-ing to the books, ought to make them permanent and hopelessinvalids, if not send them to a speedy grave. The more intel-ligent a physician is, the more thoroughly he keeps up withthe literature of his profession, and the more liable is he tofall into this annoying and alarming mistake.* One of the

*On this subject Erb does not speak so positively. He says; “I amunable to state whether there are incurable cases, and whether the diseasemay last a great many years. I also am in doubt whether the disease canpass into any tangible chronic form of spinal disease (myelitis, sclerosis,gray degeneration.

..

. Most patients are hypochondriacal in their feel-ings; and, if the physician is the sufferer, he is apt to let his mind dwellon this anticipation, and to be made wretched by the thought.” That thedisease may last many years there is no doubt; that it does not often leadto organic spinal disease is equally clear.

9

best physicians I know—a man of large experience and ofgeneral culture and accomplishments—consulted me a num-ber of years ago in a state of intense depression and alarm, onaccount of a rayelasthenia which, in his anxiety, he mistookfor hopeless spinal disease. 1 had the great pleasure of com-forting him with the assurance that he had not one proof ofstructural disorder, and that by a course of treatment which Iindicated to him he could substantially recover. The predic-tion wr as verified. Since that time I have several times seenthis gentleman, or have heard from him, and know that he iscomparatively wr ell and engaged in the practice of his profes-sion. Quite recently an experienced medical gentleman froma distant city came to me with a personal history of neuras-thenia, by wdhch he had been kept in chronic fear lest itmight be necessary for him to abandon his calling. He de-clared that he would rather die than become a hopelesslyparalyzed invalid ; and yet he had notone evidence of organicnerve trouble, although his condition demanded attention andtreatment. Hot long ago a patient consulted me for cerebras-thenia and myelasthenia combined, with many of the typicalsymptoms of both conditions. About the same time she alsoconsulted another physician, who made the diagnosis of rushof blood to the head, and predicted apoplexy. There was nodoubt that the patient did have an unbalanced circulation,and at times was afflicted, as such cases often are, with tem-porary congestions of the brain and spine ; but these conges-tions were not th 6 disease, any more than the black vomit isyellow fever; and there was no likelihood that they wouldlead to apoplexy, although there was just ground for fear thather condition unrelieved might in time lead to nervous inva-lidism.*

Distinguished from Organic or Structural Nervous Dis-ease, the points in the differential diagnosis of nenrasthe-

* Erb remarks on this point: “Abundant experience has shown rne

that these cases are not rare, and are of great practical consequence. Forthey cause much anxiety, not only to the patient, but also to the physician,owing to the sti-iking resemblance they possess to the first stage of severedisease of the cord.”

10

iria from the organic disease which it simulates, and withwhich it is so often confounded, are as follows:

1. The symptoms of organic disease are usually fixed andstable,

while very many of those of neurasthenia and alliedstates arefleeting, transient

, metastatic , and recurrent. Verymany of the signs of neurasthenia and allied states appearin organic affections, and in both conditions they are pre-cisely the same, so that of themselves alone they would beno guide in the differential diagnosis; spinal tenderness, im-paired nutrition of the skin and hair, shooting and stabbingand boring neuralgias, cardiac palpitation, insomnia, or drow-siness, failure of memory, sexual exhaustion and emissions,mental depression, pain and heaviness in the head and back,disturbances of the nerves of special sense, hypeimstliesia andansesthesia, local or general, coldness of the extremities, twitell-ings of muscles—all these and other results of the functionalnervous disorders we are considering manifest themselves inspinal congestion, in ataxy, in muscular atrophy; but in func-tional troubles they come and go, and change about and alter-nate, appear and disappear, and reappear without any clearcause, and sometimes utterly vanish even without treatment;in the nervously exhausted these symptoms fly about fromone part or organ to another, as from the head to the stomachor back, from the upper to the lower part of the spine, fromthe front to the back of the head; one day it is the eyes thatare troubled ; another day the eyes are well and the stomachis complaining, as though it would never cease; but, in a fewhours perhaps, the digestion seems to be all right, and thehead is in suffering, and so through the whole system. Thewonderful precision that ophthalmology has attained enables usto study the neurasthenic symptoms of the eye, negatively atleast, in a most interesting way. To those cases of weaknessof the eyes with pain on reading or sewing, where all the testsfail to discover any objective cause, and which are not bene-fited by glasses, I have applied the term neurasthenic asthe-nopia. My friend Dr. Roosa lately called my attention tothe fact that in testing the visual power of patients it is some-times observed that there is a momentary capacity for perfectsight that appears and disappears. These vanishings of func-

11

tional power are also observed, according to Dr. Eoosa, whiletesting the hearing. After an organic malady once gets estab-lished, it reveals itself by a group of symptoms that, howevermuch they may vary in intensity, are mostly fixed and con-stant.

2. There are certain,though not well known or always

recognized , symptoms of neurasthenia and allied states whichdo not often, if at all

, appear in structural disorders.—Amongthis class of symptoms that are more or less peculiar to func-tional nervous disease are these: general or local itching(without apparent cutaneous disease), tenderness of the teethand gums, flushing and fidgetiness, markedly tremulous pulsewithout cardiac disease, new and special idiosyncrasies in re-gard to food and medicine, and which did not exist prior to theillness, ticklishness, morbid desire for stimulants and narcotics,morbid fear, as agoraphobia, astrophobia, and anthropophobia,or fear of society. If some of these symptoms do appear inreal, organic disease, it is yet rare that all, or indeed, any con-siderable number of them would appear together in any onecase: some symptoms, as sick headache, for example, are gen-erally inconsistent with grave structural disease of the nervecentres; when the brain or spinal cord becomes seriously in-jured, our sick headaches are apt to leave us. Likewise, thelack of desire for fluids which is seen in neurasthenia is not, asa rule, so noticeable a symptom in structural maladies.

3, In organic disease, reflex activity is generally dimin-ished', in functional disease reflex activity is generally in-creased.— This distinction is of great practical service, sincenot a few of the phenomena referred to in neurasthenia andallied states are either excited by reflex action, or tend to exciteby reflex action symptoms in various parts of the body. Thehuman body in health is a bundle of reflex actions ; everyorgan, when disturbed or irritated in any way, may set up adisturbance or irritation in some distant part or organ ; but,when the system is in a condition of neurasthenia, this reflexirritability is often exaggerated —indeed, is usually so ; and incase of hysteria the sensitiveness is sometimes so great thatthe slightest touch on any part of the body, or even the gen-tlest possible psychical irritation or excitement, may give rise

12

to violent convulsions. To a less degree than in pronouncedhysteria, this exaltation of reflex activity is observed in alltypes and phases of functional nervous disorder.

When any part or point of the body, external or in-ternal, on the periphery, or at the center, is irritated, someother part is liable to be in some way changed for the betteror worse; but there are par excellence three great centers ofreflex action—the brain, the stomach and digestive appara-tus, and the genital or reproductive system. When any oneof these three reflex centers is irritated by over-use or directabuse, the injury is likely to radiate or reverberate in any orin all directions ; we can not tell just where, any more thanwe can tell where lightning will strike. In this way, diseasemay be excited in parts quite distant from the seat of irrita-tion. This accounts, in part, for the immense number andvariety of symptoms and abnormal sensations from whichthe nervously exhausted suffer. Hence it is that it is so diffi-cult to tell from the symptoms, or the locality of the symp-toms, just where the disease or the source of the disease reallyis. If a man thinks and worries too much, it is not necessa-rily the head that will complain; there may be pain in thecalf of the leg, or in the eyes, or in the stomach or bowels, orin any part of the back; possibly the arms will ache, or thefingers ; or the genital organs will become cold. Yery oftencold feet and hands are the first signs of mental overwork.Indigestion, however complicated, or by whatsoever causesproduced, may affect every part of the body except the stomach,and in ways beyond computation. General aching of thebones, pains in the calf of the leg, creeping chills on the spine,actual pain in the back and back of the head, facial neural-gia, sick headache, roaring in the head, flushing of the faceand eyes, pain in the vertex, cardiac palpitation, diarrhoea;these are some of the results of indigestion in nervous con-stitutions ; and very frequently patients chase up one symp-tom after another until they get wearied, without either find-ing relief or suspecting the true seat of the disorder.

Disorders of the genital apparatus in either sex are con-tinually exciting disease in remote organs ; and it is observedthat as in women mild irritation—slight and limited disturbance

—produces severer reflex trouble than coarse and grave lesions.In females, superficial disorder of the cervix, for example,often induces more annoying pains and distresses in the headthan incurable cancers ; and in men, also, but a little pros-tatitis or urethral preputial irritation is constantly the sole anddemonstrable origin of hypochondriasis, dyspepsia, even of pa-ralysis and epilepsy.* In the neurasthenic one never can tellfrom the locality of the pain or other symptom where the dis-ease really is.

How, while in certain organic affections—as, for example,.spasmodic spinal paralysis —reflex activity of a certain kindmay be increased, yet, as a law, the reverse appears.

4. Neurasthenia and allied troubles are most likely to*ln regard to therelation of neurasthenia to the genital function, and

to disease of the male and female reproductive organs, two errors haveprevailed: that the genital organs have nothing to do with the causationof neurasthenia and allied affections, and that they are the exclusive•causes of such affections.

An eminent neurologist once remarked to me that, in all the cases ofspinal irritation and analogous disorders that he saw, the uterus was pri-marily at fault; on the other hand, an eminent gynaacologist, speaking ofthe same subject, observed that be saw cases of neurasthenia where therewas no proof of any dependence on uterine disease. The gynaecologist wasright, for, while many cases of neurasthenia do take their origin in uterineand ovarian maladies, there are also many that have nothing to do withthe reproductive system ; they are as likely to be the causes as the effectsof uterine disturbances. This was substantially the view taken by Dr.

■Goodell, in his paper on neurasthenia, at the late meeting of the AmericanGynaecological Society, and it was not. so far as I can learn, disputed byany of the authorities in gynaecology who listened to it. There is in facta manifest disposition among gynaecologists to revive, in a certain measure,the constitutional treatment of some of the cases that come under their-care, and so far this is right. Without dispute, also, there are somecases of neurasthenia, as of hysteria and insanity, that depend entirely ongenital irritation, and would never have existed but for such irritation,and entirely recover with the removal of the irritation; there are othersthat depend in part on irritation from this source; there are others thatarise entirely independently of all irritation of that kind. There is no•doubt that irritation, congestion, and imprisonment of the ovaries, anduterine displacements, often excite neurasthenic symptoms. To attempt,however, to explain all forms and phases of neurasthenia by reference tothe reproductive system in man or woman, is to study neuro-pathology inn partial, fractional, one-sided, fragmentary, imperfect manner.

occur in those in whom the nervous diathesis predominates..—Among the chief signs of the nervous diathesis are finesoft skin, tine hair, delicately-cut features, and tapering ex-tremities. Those who exhibit these characteristics are thevictims of functional as distinguished from organic diseasesof the nervous system. With exceptions both ways, this gen-eral law will be a good guide in establishing a diagnosis.

As a rule, the structural diseases are found in the com-paratively strong—in those who are not especially sensitive,,or nervous, or delicate ; and when paralysis or other gravesymptom appears in one in whom the nervous diathesis strong-ly predominates, it is far safer to make a diagnosis of a func-tional and temporary disease, and to predict in time entire orapproximate relief.

Distinguished from Hypochondriasis or Pathophobia.—From hypochondriasis or pathophobia neurasthenia is dis-tinguished, first of all, by the fact that hypochondriasis mayoccur in those who are in all other respects except apprehen-sion of disease perfectly well. A man affected with simplehypochondriasis, if he be but diverted by change of scene andenvironment, may almost instantly exhibit complete vigor ofbrain and muscle ; as soon as his thoughts are taken fromhimself and turned upon outward duties, he is at once equal toall his tasks. With the neurasthenic patient this is never thecase ; mental diversion may assist the cure, but can not accom-plish it suddenly, or usually without assistance.

Neurasthenia may be complicated with hypochondriasis,as it may be complicated with hysteria ; but, in the majorityof cases, neurasthenic patients are not specially hypochondri-acal, although often so regarded by their friends; their symp-toms are as real as those of yellow fever or the poisoning ofmalaria.

It may be added to the above that both hysteria and hy-pochondriasis are diseases hundreds ‘and thousands of yearsold, and are evidently decreasing, while neurasthenia is amodern disease, and is as evidently increasing.

Distinguished from Cerebral and Spinal Anmnias andHypermnias. —ln regard to the relation of neurasthenia tospinal and cerebral anaemia and hypersemia, it may be said

15

that circulatory disturbances of various kinds aud in varieddegrees must of necessity arise as results of exhaustion of thenerve centers ; and it must also be allowed that when thebrain or spine is engorged with blood, or greatly deficientin blood, then certain symptoms are likely to follow from suchlocal plethora or anaemia, just as dyspepsia when once ex-cited becomes the center, directly or reflexly, of numerousmorbid phenomena ; but the anaemia, the hypersemia, thespinal or cerebral irritation, like the dyspepsia and insomnia,when broadly and philosophically studied, are branches of atree, the trunk of which is impoverishment of nerve force ;

and, in all these neurasthenic states, over-exertion or mentalexcitement is liable at any time to bring on engorgementsof blood in the spine or brain ; there may be rushes of bloodto the head or spinal cord, which when they occur become-the centers of symptoms of their own ; but to call these rushesof blood, these flushings of the face, the disease is to mistakeeffects for causes.

The results of treatment demonstrate this in a most in-teresting way, both positively and negatively ; thus you shallcure a spinal irritation * without curing or even permanentlyrelieving the patient, for the neurasthenia remains, and is

* On this point Erb remarks as follows :“ It can not be denied thatthis complaint has a close resemblance in many respects to spinal irrita-tion .... and the opinion might perhaps be defended that this diseaseis essentially, for the male sex, that which corresponds with spinal irrita-tion in females.”

He does not, however, regard the diseases as identical, and says: “Itwould he very desirable to lay out a better division and classification ofthese spinal neuroses, by means of accurate classical and symptomaticstudy, in order to promote the pathology of such an obscure subject.”

“ The distinction from spinal irritation will often he less easy to make.. It must be admitted that there are cases of ambiguous signification

which stand, as it were, half way between the two forms of disease, andpossess somewhat of each.”

In science the next best thing to knowing is to know that we do notknow. This is Erb's position in respect to the relation of the symptomspinal irritation to neurasthenia. He does not solve thp problem ; buthe clearly appreciates, as very few writers have done, the need of a solu-tion ; and he sees precisely where the confusion lies, and just what posi-tion science should attack.

16

liable to break out any time in the same form, or in any oneof a number of forms,, such as cerebral irritation, or insomnia,or nervous dyspepsia. The symptom of spinal irritation isindeed one of the easiest symptoms to cure ; a few days orweeks at most may he sufficient to drive away all the tender-ness, while the condition on which it depends, and of whichit is really a part, may require months of treatment, or insome cases may be absolutely incurable. On the other hand,all influences that tend to build up the constitution—a changeto country air or travel—will often cure all these symptomswithout any special treatment of the symptoms of anaemiaand hyperaeraia. That there may be such states as cerebralanaemia, cerebral hyperaemia, cerebral congestion, spinal anae-mia, spinal hyperaemia, and spinal congestion is undeniable ;

and these terms are in some cases properly used. Such cir-culatory disturbances of the nerve centers, when they exist asthe chief, if not only, factor in the morbid process, and thecure of these disturbances is a cure of the patient, may prop-erly be called diseases ; but in neurasthenia these circulatoryirregularities in the braia and spinal cord are but incidentsand results ; their removal leaves the sufferer still a sufferer.

The whole set of modern science is indeed now in favorof the view that I presented ten years ago, that innervationprecedes circulation : that the waves of blood into the nervecenters or out of the nerve centers move in obedience to thenerve force, as the sea rises and falls under the law of gravity.

Most strikingly this view is brought out in Yulpian’s re-searches in the physiology of sleep, according to which itseems to be made quite clear that our anaemia theory and ourhyperaemia theory, that, by alternation or in unison, haveheld the world so long, must give way to the nutrition the-ory ; it is possible that we may be all wrong, as it is certainthat we do not yet understand the full mystery of cell nutri-tion, but just now it is the growing if not the dominant phi-losophy in all neurological circles.*

* Erb’s idea of the nature of the disease is similar: thus, after men-tioning the anaemic and hypersemic theories, and admitting them to beunsatisfactory, he says: “It seems most natural to recur to fine disturb-ances of nutrition in the cord, such as we are still obliged to assume in somany diseases of the nervous system.”

17

Malarial poisoning frequently simulates neurasthenia, andalso induces a special type of the disease which may he calledmalarial neurasthenia. Like malaria also, neurasthenia atfectsand modifies nearly every other disease that the patient con_

tracts, giving a nervous and asthenic character to the symp-toms, just as malaria makes other maladies periodic.

Distinguished from Anaemia.—lt used to be claimed —

and by.some it is claimed even now—that neurasthenia is butanother terra for anaemia, in other words that impoverishmentof blood and impoverishment of nerve force are identical.The basis of this confusion of ideas is probably the fact thatthe blood can be seen, felt, measured, and analyzed, whilenerve force can only be studied through its manifestations.

The two conditions have oftentimes certain symptoms incommon, just as functional and organic nerve diseases havecertain symptoms in common ; but, in the one case as in theother, there is aradical and inherent distinction—a distinctionthat modifies not only our abstract conception of the disease,but our prognosis, our hygiene, and our therapeutics. Justas a case of organic nerve disease treated as functional is sureto disappoint us, and perhaps injure more than help the suf-ferer, so a case of neurasthenia treated and managed as a caseof anaemia is likely to become—as so many of snch cases dobecome—the opprobrium of our art.

The chief points in the differential diagnosis of neurasthe-nia and anaemia are presented in the following table:

Neurasthenia.Chiefly found in nervous diathesis.

Impoverishment of nervous system;no necessary anaemia. Patient may beplethoric.

Found chiefly between the ages offifteen and sixty.

Not at all necessarily dependent onany important recognizable organic dis-ease.

Pulse may be full or normal, usuallyregular, but sometimes very rapid orvery slow.

Anaemia.Appears also in the tuberculous, or

rheumatic, or other diathesis.Impoverishment of the blood; in-

crease of water, and diminution of redcorpuscles.

Found in all periods of life, from ex-treme infancy to old age.

More frequently, though not neces-sarily, associated with some organicdisease, as tuberculosis, carcinoma, mor-bus Brightii, etc.

Pulse small, weak, and compressi-ble.

18

Neurasthenia.No cardiac murmurs.

No pallor—sometimes even a rubi-cund appearance.

Easily fatigued by exertion ; mentallabor in cerebrasthenia more exhaustingthan physical. Memory often tempora-rily weakened, and consecutive thoughtand sustained mental activity frequentlyimpossible, even when prolonged muscu-lar labor causes little or no fatigue.

Insomnia a very frequent complica-tion.

No necessary or constant disturb-ance of the circulation.

Habitual mental depression.Though common to both sexes, not

-so relatively frequent in females.Is benefited by remedies that direct-

ly affect the nervous system, such aselectricity, phosphorus, strychnine, zinc,and oil, while iron alone is of little ser-wice.

Usually recovers but gradually , andunder the influence of rest, nutritiousfood, and various sedatives and tonics.

Ancemia.Murmurs at the base of the heart

and over the large arteries, as the ca-rotid, subclavian, etc. “Venous hum”in the neck.

Very perceptible pallor of the face,especially of the lips.

Easily fatigued by exertion. Physi-cal labor always more exhausting thanmental.

Insomnia not so frequent a compli-cation, frequently an abnormal tendencyto sleep by day as well as by night.

Disturbance of the circulation, withhabitually cold extremities.

Mental depression not so frequent.Far more frequent in females.

Is benefited by remedies such asiron, that directly affect the blood.

May be rapidly removed by the re-moval of the organic cause.

Distinguished from Hysteria. —From hysteria, neurasthe-nia is distinguished in part by the absence of the convulsionsor paroxysms that are always regarded as peculiar to the hys-terical state.

Neurasthenia, like anaemia, may, it is true, lead to hysteriaas it may lead to insanity; but hysteria, when it appears, iswith all its group of symptoms, including the hysterical con-vulsions or paroxysms and the globus hystericus, or feeling asof a ball in the throat, quite a distinct condition. In hysteriathere are to some of the symptoms, besides the paroxysms, anacuteness, violence, activity, and severity that do not belongto simple neurasthenia.

Hysteria is found usually in those whose emotional naturesgreatly predominate. Hence, relatively to neurasthenia, it is

19

far more common in females than in males. Indeed, hysteriawas once supposed to be exclusively a disease of women ; henceits name. Neurasthenia, on the other hand, although morefrequent in women, is yet found in great abundance in bothsexes, and in both men and women of intellect, education, andwell-balanced mental organizations.

Hysteria of the mental or physical form may occur in thosewho are in perfect physical health, without any of the symp-toms of neurasthenia or of anaemia ; those of the strongest pos-sible constitutions are the victims of this type of hysteria, thesubjective psychological cause of which is an excess of emo-tion over intellect, acted upon by any influence that tends toproduce emotional excitation. This form of hysteria is foundin the stout Irish servant girls, among the Southern negroes,and among the undisciplined and weak-minded of all racesand classes and ages, and, unlike neurasthenia, was moreprevalent in the middle ages than in the nineteenth century.

Lastly, hysteria, whether of the mental or physical type,or of both types combined, may, and often does, completelyrecover suddenly, and may disappear under purely subjectiveor mental treatment. Neurasthenia never recovers suddenly,but usually requires much time, whatever treatment may beemployed; and, though like all other morbid states it can bepowerfully influenced by mental therapeutics, yet demandsusually positive and varied objective treatment.

The differences between neurasthenia and hysteria appearmore distinctive when tabulated side by side, as follows:

Neurasthenia.No convulsions or paroxysms.

No globus hystericus , no anaesthesiaof the epiglottis, ovarian tenderness lesscommon, and attacks of anaesthesia farless frequent and less permanent.

Symptoms more moderate, quiet,subdued, passive.

May occur in well-balanced, intel-lectual organizations.

Very common in males, thoughmore common in females.

Hysteria.Hysterical convulsions or parox-

ysms.Globus hystericus , anaesthesia of the

epiglottis, ovarian tenderness, and at-tacks of general or local anaesthesia.

Symptoms acute, intense, violent,positive.

Usually associated with great emo-tional activity and unbalanced mentalorganization.

Very rare in males.

20

Neurasthenia.Is always associated with physical

debility.

Neverrecovers suddenly, but alwaysgradually, and under the combined in-fluences of hygiene and objective treat-ment.

Hysteria.

In the mental or physical form oc-curs in those who are in perfect physi-cal health.

May recover suddenly, and underpurely emotional treatment.

Syphilis sometimes simulates neurasthenia; the irregu-larity of many of its phenomena, such as sudden loss ofpower of one limb or of several limbs—coming and going—-tingling and numbness in the extremities, cramp and twitch-ings of the muscles, especially at night, disturbances of thespecial senses, transient and curable impotence—all suggestneurasthenia, and of themselves alone are not sufficient toenable us to make out a diagnosis of syphilis. The syphiliticorigin of such symptoms is established by thesefour considera-tions :

1. The history of the case.2. Other symptoms of syphilis.3. The temperament of the patient. Other factors being

equal, the nervous diathesis would give a probability of neu-rasthenia, although nervous syphilis does appear in the ner-vous and sensitive.

4. The results of anti-syphilitic treatment. This is theconventional mode of making a diagnosis in suspected syphilis ;

but in the question under consideration it is not necessary toresort to it.

Syphilis may simulate not only neurasthenia but even ab-solute hysteria, I have known a syphilitic patient to go rap-idly through a series of hysterical phenomena—transient pa-ralyses, flying all about the body; one hour aphasia, anotherparalysis of the arm or leg, or aphonia, and so forth. Dr.Althaus, of London, reports similar experiences.

ISTeurasthenia sometimes simulates in a perfect and mostinteresting way the symptoms of a common cold—the chilli-ness, the positive coldness, the tremor, the heaviness and sore-ness of the back, bones, and limbs, and in some cases exces-sive secretion from the eyes and nostrils, all may exist to-

21

gether in a neurasthenic sufferer, and in some cases only time■can determine whether a cold has been taken or not.

Neurasthenia also may simulate rheumatism, and is fre-quently mistaken for it. Thus the stiffness of the neck whenthe upper portion of the spine is in an irritable condition, orof the loins and lumbar region when the lower part of thecord is irritated, at once suggests rheumatism.

Differential Diagnosis of Cerebrasthenia and Myelasthe-nia.—Both for the hygiene and the therapeutics of neurasthe-nia, it is necessary to be able to make a proper differentialdiagnosis between cerebrasthenia (exhaustion of the brain) andmyelasthenia (exhaustion of the cord). In my original paperno such distinction was attempted. The symptoms that suggestcerebrasthenia are obviously those that are directly or indirectlyconnected with the head, and they may be either physical orpsychical. Tenderness of the scalp, a feeling of fullness inthe ears and head, all disorders of the special senses, tender-ness of gums, deficient thirst, morbid desire for stimulants andnarcotics, gaping, yawning, rushes of blood to head, conges-tion of conjunctiva, the different forms of morbid fear, mentaldepression and impairment of memory and intellectual control,all indicate that the brain is chiefly affected. Certain symp-toms, however, as external tenderness of the scalp, general orlocal itching, clamminess of the extremities, muscse volitantes,pain and heaviness in the back of the head, may arise fromexhaustion of the upper part of the spine. The symptomsthat suggest myelasthenia or spinal exhaustion are local spasmsof muscles, local chills and flashes of heat, shooting pains inthe limbs, startings on falling to sleep, morbid sensations atthe bottoms of the feet, as of burning or tenderness, vaguepains in the feet, podalgia, sexual debility in its variousphases, pain in the back—any part of it from the nape of theneck to the tip of the coccyx with or without the accompani-ment of spinal irritation —creeping and crawling sensationsup and down the spine, incontinence of urine or paresis ofthe bladder, feeling of pressure in the chest with or withoutticklishness in that region, heaviness and stiffness of the mus-cles simulating rheumatism, sensitiveness to cold and changesin the weather, hypseresthesia of mucous membrane, dryness

22

of skin or morbid perspiration, dryness of the joints, anddilated pupils.

Some other symptoms, as nervous dyspepsia, constipation,flatulence, sick headache in all its forms, numbness and by-persesthesia, and insomnia, appear to be common to both states,since they manifest themselves when either cerebrasthenia ormyelasthenia is uppermost.

No other single fact so much aids us in making out thedifferential diagnosis as this, that in myelasthenia physical ex-ercise, especially walking and standing, but oftentimes anyform of muscular exertion requiring either the upper or thelower limbs, is fatiguing and disagreeable, and when kept upis liable to make the patient worse and interfere with thetreatment. In cerebrasthenia, on the other hand, severe, andviolent, and long kept up muscular exertion can be well borne,,and is frequently desired and sought for; indeed, with suchpatients this desire for physical effort and activity sometimesbecomes a morbid symptom, and demands restraint. Those-whose brains are diseased even to the border land of insanitycan, in some instances, do far more physically, with far lessfatigue than when in their usual health.

Whence I derive this practical rule for the differentialtreatment of cerebral and spinal exhaustion—namely, that incerebral exhaustion (cerebrasthenia) active muscular exercise inreasonable amount and variety may be allowed and enjoined /

in spinal exhaustion {myelasthenia) relative and in some casesabsolute rest is demanded or only passive exercisefor a shorteror longer time,

as maybe , according to the specialpeculiaritiesof the individual.

A neglect of this cardinal distinction, a want of knowl-edge of the differential symptoms of nervous exhaustionchiefly centered in the brain, and nervous exhaustion chieflycentered in the spine, is the constant source of errors in theadvice given to patients by physicians, and in the regimenthat patients prescribe for themselves.

Cerebrasthenia and myelasthenia are sometimes combined,,and not unfrequently alternate with each other. These factsyet further complicate both the diagnosis and treatment; atone stage of neurasthenia a patient may be able to take larger

23

amounts of muscular exercise; at another stage—separated, itmay be, by not more than a few days or weeks—all muscularactivity is irksome and injurious, and, if persisted in, may doharm. Hence it follows that patients must be watched andstudied by the physician so that the hygiene may, to a certainextent, be varied with the different phases of the disease.

To indiscriminatingly advise such patients to work furi-ously in the open air as is so often done, or to advise them togo to bed and keep in bed, as is also done—to the extent ofconfining them in a dark room —is likewise unscientific, andmay do mischief; indeed, as practiced years ago the dark-roomtreatment certainly did not a little evil ; it was an empiricalemployment of a really good therapeutic measure. Thereare cases of neurasthenia where confinement to bed is the verybest possible treatment; there are cases when it is the veryworst possible treatment.

In regard to the probable pathology of neurasthenia, myview, as expressed in my first paper on the subject, is thatthere is an impoverishment of the nerve force resulting frombad nutrition of the nerve tissue on the metamorphosis ofwhich the evolution of nerve force depends ; as in anaemiathere may be a deficiency in quantity or impairment of quali-ty of the blood, so in neurasthenia there is, without question,deficiency in quantity or impairment in quality of the nervetissues; hence the exhaustion, the positive pain, the unsteadi-ness, the fluctuating character of the morbid sensations andphenomena to which the term neurasthenia is applied.

Hr. Salisbury, of Cleveland, claims to be able to diagnosti-cate a seriously exhausted condition of the nervous system bythe changed appearance of the blood corpuscles, his theorybeing that the red corpuscles are carriers of substances thatfeed the nerves, and he asserts that when these corpuscles arenot properly laden with this food for the nerves, as in the caseof nerve exhaustion and insanity, the corpuscles exhibitchanges that the microscope can recognize ; hence an additionto our means of diagnosticating nerve impoverishment. Dr.Heintzmann, of Hew York, claims to be able to determine,by examination of the blood under the microscope, whetherthe constitution is good or bad, and even to tell whether the

24

subject is specially exhausted at the time of the examination—as, for example, after a sleepless night.

Both of these claims are yet on their trial before the pro-fession, and can not be regarded as parts of science, until theyhave been endorsed by a considerable number of experts ofadmitted authority, and also made verifiable by others whoshall make themselves experts; for this is the gantlet thatall claims must pass before they are permanently received in-to the fold of science.

If either or both of these claims, or some similar claim,shall stand the cruel test of time and expert skill, we shallhave a positive, so far as it may go, satisfactory addition toour means of studying functional disorders of the nervoussystem, and a very interesting ocular and physical proof ofthe general position that I have here taken.

If it be objected, as indeed it often has been—and bythose for whose judgment I have the highest respect—thatwhile the general philosophy and analysis of these nervesymptoms are sound and verifiable, yet that the term neuras-thenia is faulty in that it indicates only a state or manifesta-tion, instead of a precise pathological lesion, I can only reply,as I have done from the first, that nearly all our medical ter-minology expresses our ignorance more than our knowledge;that our best known diseases, as epilepsy, insanity, chorea,hysteria, hay fever, writer’s cramp, musician’s cramp, tele-grapher’s cramp, and nearly all our paralyses and neuralgias,receive their names from single and striking symptoms or sus-pected factors in their causation, which terras wr e must yet re-tain despite all our actual or prospective progress in neuro-pathology ; and there is no objection to the use of these terms,provided we understand their meaning; indeed their reten-tion is a matter of necessity till such time as the minutepathology of these phenomena shall be unveiled. Then theycan be and will be gradually abandoned.

Some of these cases under proper and persevering treat-ment seem to acquire a new constitution. Yery many ofthese cases of neurasthenia I have watched not only whileunder treatment but for months and years ; I see every week,indeed almost every day, cases that I treated all the way

25

from five to ten years and more ago, and can testify that theresults are often permanent; they may be sensitive, delicateperhaps, but they are well, in working order, and in no needof special medical aid. Erb says, in the work above quoted,that he has not seen his cases long enough to be able to pro-nounce an opinion in regard to the general prognosis ; afterhe has studied the subject and watched the patients a num-ber of years lie will, I have no doubt, be able to confirmsubstantially these observations, for although neurasthenia isfar more common in this country than in Germany, yet thedisease, when it exists, is in all respects precisely the same.Some cases never get absolutely well; they always have re-minders of their disorder: certain symptoms now and thenrecur, although not in sufficient force to demand special at-tention or to interfere with fair working capacity and greatlongevity.

I have lately dismissed very much benefited a case ofneurasthenia in a gentleman from New Orleans—a section,where, by the way, diseases of this kind, and, indeed, all theneuroses of this family, are far more rare than in the North.In this case the condition was clearly the effect of over-exertionand anxiety, in attendance on and nursing several of his youngchildren who were sick with yellow fever during the lateepidemic.

The patient was of a slight frame, of a nervo-bilious tem-perament, but usually well, and able to fulfill without inter-ruption his duties as a merchant.

His first prominent symptom was a temporary paralysis ofone arm; this came on shortly after the subsidence of the ex-citement, but lasted only a short time. About this time alsoconsiderable loss of flesh was noticed, and physical debility.

By advice of his family physician, Hr, Axson, he con-sulted me when he arrived at New York, about the third weekin November, and reported that he had been visiting in Mary-land, in the country, and had rallied so rapidly that he sup-posed he was nearly well, and, presuming too much on hisapparent improvement, he had walked up a steep hill atHarper’s Ferry, and thereby brought on a quick relapse withthe addition of new symptoms.

26

Dr, Axson, who had made a correct diagnosis of the case y

had expressed the hope that rest and travel would be sufficientto work a cure; hut this set-back not a little disheartened thepatient, and he came to me in a state of considerable depres-sion, and presenting the following symptoms :

1. Pain in the lower part of the back, extending over thehips. This was always worse on walking or standing.

2. Wakefulness; insufficient sleep and excess of dreams.3. Want of appetite, furred tongue.4. Attacks of paresis or powerlessness in the arms, never

amounting to actual paralysis.5. Muscular debility ; a walk of a quarter of a mile bring-

ing on pain in the back and a feeling of exhaustion, goingup stairs being the most exhausting of all forms of exercise.

6. Nervo-febrile attacks, particularly in the morning, onawaking, but in the day also; the symptoms being a feelingof heat with burning.

1. Slow and feeble pulse, between fifty and sixty.8. Uric acid and oxalates in great abundance; also sper-

matozoa and spermatic globules, with very acid reaction.(Examination made by Dr. Mittendorf.)

9. Vertigo, with feeling of heat in the head at times.10. Cervico-occipital neuralgia, and a dull heavy pain at

the back of the head and neck.FTone of these indicate any structural or organic disorder;

they were results of neurasthenia concentrated part of thetime in the spine and part of the time in the brain, as thesymptoms, history, and results of treatment proved.

This case might have been variously diagnosticated; itwould have been called oxaluria, or spinal congestion, or cere-bral hypersemia, or cerebral anaemia, or simple anaemia—forhe was somewhat anaemic—or dyspepsia, and there wouldhave been a degree of truth in any one or all of these diagno-ses; but not one nor all combined would have correctlydescribed the real condition at the foundation of all thesemyriad symptoms.

From a careful study of the case and from the effects oftreatment, I convinced myself that a part of the time therewas excess of blood in the brain ; but even on that point I am

27

open to further and more definite facts; nor would I regardthe physical demonstration of transient cerebral engorgementas giving us much aid in determining the nature of the dis-ease.

Erb reports in detail one case, which, he says, is a type ofmore than two dozen that he has seen. It is interesting tosee that in many respects the description will apply to thecases that are observed in this country, where the disease isfar more common than in Germany ; indeed, the descriptionreads as though it were taken from my own note-book, andrepresents a combination of cerebrasthenia and myelasthenia,,the latter being far more prominent. I have seen at leasttwo hundred similar cases ; they are found in both sexes ;

but this special type appears to be most common among males,and is not always though frequently associated with symptomsand history that point to the genital function.

The patient, a wholesale merchant aged thirty-five, belongs to a neuro-pathic family; his sisters were in the insane asylum; a brother has atendency to melancholy and nervous complaints; he himself has been along time nervous. Married at twenty-three ; he has three children, saysthat he indulged a good deal in the sexual act, perhaps too much, hutnever observed any ill results from it. He has often been to baths in theocean, with temporary benefit. He has a great deal of worlc ; at leasteight hours a day in his office, occasionally going into a close, damp ware-house. All the nervous symptoms have sloioly increased ; they have beenabout as follows for four weeks past: Great general sense offatigue—thisis very marked in the morning in bed ; inability to walk for a long time,or, if he does it, it is followed by great fatigue and actual tremor in thelegs.

When moderate exertion of an unwonted sort is made there are severemuscular pains on the following day, as lately, after skating for fifteenminutes; no tottering or uncertainty in gait; vertigo; some sense offatigue in the arms, uncertainty in writing; no pain, no numbness, orformication in legs or arms. No headache; only frequent sense ofpres-sure on the vertex. Intelligence and memory good ; depressed, hypochon-driacal state of feeling. Occasionally disagreeable feeling in the back, butno real pain ; suffers much from cold feet, which formerly was never thecase ; great sensitiveness to cold ; after exposure feels slight shooting painsin the limbs; sleeps badly ; usually wakes about three o’clock, and remainsawake for two or three hours, with great prostration and restlessness oflimbs.

Vesical functions quite normal, sexual function distinctly altered in

28

the last few weeks; sexual excitability increased, ejaculation too early,

erection insufficient; after coitus a sense of exhaustion, with excitementand restlessness.

Tendency to shed tears ; unusual timidity and want of self-possession ;

noticeable confusion when he is conscious of being observed. Frequentpalpitation, and some shortness of breath when he ascends stairs.

Appetite and stools good.Objective symptoms. An apparently strong and well-nourished man ;

internal organs sound, motility quite normal to objective tests. Standswith closed eyes very well, no disturbance of sensibility. Cerebral nervesall normal. Slight anaemia.

After various medical and hygienic treatment he was sofar improved that Erb could report as follows :

He was considerably improved. The strength and endurance of thelegs are decidedly greater, and his temper is much more cheerful. Hewalks four or five hours every day, and seldom suffers from tremor, stillless from pain in the muscles. He has no cold feet, and his sensitivenessto cold is less. He sleeps much better, though not perfectly well; sexualfunctions the least improved of all. Head never troubles him. Tempermuch improved ; he has no disposition to weep. After another half yearthe greater part of the morbid symptoms had disappeared.

In the original, or rather in Dr. Lincoln’s translation, fromwhich this is taken, certain words and phrases are italicized ;

these italics are not retained in this copy, but I have preferredto emphasize those facts that, from the present point of view,seem to be of most importance, especially as relating to thephilosophy taught in this essay. In regard to the case it maybe observed :

1. This patient inherited the nervous diathesis, which isoften true of these cases.

2. Overwork, with confinement, was pretty clearly theJlrst great exciting cause. The same sexual excess in a personnot inheriting the nervous diathesis would probably have notproduced these symptoms. There are very few persons inthis world who do not at times indulge excessively in thesexual act.

3. All the symptoms, or nearly all, point to the spine asthe chief center of the exhaustion. It was a case of myelas-ihenia. Many symptoms that belong to these cases either didnot exist in this patient or were not observed.

29

4. Exertion of an “ unwonted sort ” was especially fatigu-ing*. This is an interesting fact in the history of these cases.Sometimes severe relapses are caused by undertaking unfa-miliar tasks.

5. Many of the symptoms of ataxy without ataxy, A fewyears ago all the German writers on neurology were accus-tomed to report these cases as ataxic cases cured ; and thewhole world has been thereby misled, and false hopes havebeen raised with subsequent disappointment.

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Prof. W. Kinqdon Clifford, M.A., The First Prwciples oftheReact Sciences explained to the Non-Mathematical.

Prof. T. H. Huxley, LL. D., F. R. S., Bodily Motion and Con*scions ness.

Dr. W. B. Carpenter, LL. D., F. R. S., The Physical Geogra-phy of the Sea.

Prof. Wm. Odling, F. R. S., The Old Chemistry viewed fromthe New Stand-point.

W. Lauder Lindsay, M. D., F. R. S E., Mind in the LowerAnimals.

Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R S, On Anls and Bees.Prof. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, B. A., B. Sc., Form'and Habit in

Flowering Plants.Mr. J. N. Lockver, F. R. S., Spectrum Analysis.Prof. Michael Foster, M. D., Protoplasm and the Cell Theory.H. Charlton Bastia.n, M. D., F. R. S., The Brain as an

Organ of Mind.Prof. A. C. Ramsay, LL. D.,F. R S., Earth Sculpture.; Hills ,

Valleys, Mountains y Plains , Rivers , Lakes; how they werep>roducedy and how they have been destroyed.

Prof. Rudolph Virchow (Berlin University), Morbid Physiolo-gical Action,

Prof, Claude Bernard, His ory of the Theories ofLife.Prof. 11, Saint-Claire Devillk, An Introduction to General

Chemistry.Prof, Wi rtz, Atoms and the Atomic Theory.Prof. Dk Quatrefvges, The Human Race.Prof. Lacaze-Duthiers. Zoology since Cuvier.Prof. Berthelot, Chemical Synthesis.Prof. C. A. Young, Ph. D. (of Dartmouth College), The Sun.Prof. Oodkn N. Rood (Columbia College, New York), Mod-

ern Chromaticsand itsRelations to Artand Industry.

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Dr. Eugene Lommel (University of Erlangen), The Nature ofLight.Prof. J.Rosenthal, General Physiology of Muscles and Nerves.Prof. Jambs D. Dana, M.A., LL,D., On Cephalization ; or,

Head-Charactersin the Gradation andProgress ofLife.Prof. S. W, Johnson, M. A., On the Nutrition ofPlants.Prof. Austin Flint, Jr., M. D., The Nervous System , and its

Relation to the Bodily Functions.Prof. Bernstein (University of Halle), The Five Senses of Man.Prof. Ferdinand Cohn (Breslau University), TiaUophytes

(A h/(B y Lichens , Fungi),Prof. Hermann (University of Zurich), On Respiration.Prof. Leuckart (University of Leipsic), Outlines of Animal

Organization,Prof. Likbreich (University of Berlin), Outlines of Toxicology.Prof. Kundt (Unhersity of Strasburg), On Sound.Prof. Rees (University of Erlangen), On Parasitic Plants.Prof, Strinthal (University of Berlin), Outlines of the Science

of Language.P. Bert (Professor of Physiology, Paris), Forms of Life and

other Cosmical Canditions.E. Alglavk (Professor of Constitutional and Administrative

Law at Douai, and of Political Economy at Lille), ThePrimitive Elements ofPolitical Constitutions.

P. Lorain (Professor of Medicine, Paris), Modern Epidemics.Prof. Schutzknbkrgkr (Director of the Chemical Laboratory

at the Sorbonne), On Fermentations.Mous. Fkeidel, The Funelums of Organi hemistry.Mons. Debray, Precious Metals.Prof. Corfield, M. A., M. D. (Oxon ), Air in its Relation to

Health.Prof. A. Giard, General Embryology,

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