twenty years he has lived in marital relations with a mistress by whom he has had a daughter, now in her eighteenth year.

"In January, 1868, without appreciable cause, he became melancholy, careless, apathetic, and lethargic. His mind was occupied to a great extent with the state of his health, and he began to attach great importance to a congenital deformity of the sternum with which he was affected. His intellectual vigor was lessened, his sight became weak, his general strength was reduced, his gait staggering, his speech slow, and his sexual desires absolutely abolished. Doubtless you will think, as I did, that this was a case of general paralysis of the depressing type; but here is the difficulty. The patient has two brothers, and, at the news of his mental failure, they came to his assistance. The one is rich, and proposed the marriage of the mistress and the consequent legitimization of the daughter; the other is poor, and insisted on the immediate interdiction of the patient. I was consulted before the arrival of the two brothers, and, taking all things into consideration, I decided to take no part in the matter, and consequently I have done nothing to change the civil state of the patient. If he,' I said to myself, had wished to marry, and acknowledge his child, would he not have done so while in the plenitude of his mental power? Should he do so to-day, how will I know that he is performing a free act?""

The two brothers were of diverse opinions, and desired M. Legrand du Saulle to act as the arbiter. He refused, however, to do so, and asked the opinion of the society on the question. After a full interchange of opinion, the view appeared to prevail that the matter was not one for a physician to decide.-Annales Médico-Psychologiques.

Medico-Legal Question relative to the Distinction between Suicide and Homicide. By Dr. ALFRED RIEMBAULT.-On the 6th of June, before noon, D—, having resolved to kill himself, went to an unoccupied garret in a secluded place, where there was no risk of being interrupted. He there wounded himself with his knife. Thinking this instrument insufficient, he replaced it in his pocket, and struck himself on the head with the sharp edge of a hatchet. Notwithstanding the frightful wound he gave himself, he was still unsuccessful in his attempt, so he resolved to adopt another plan, and that was hanging. A cord was necessary, and, the garret not containing one, he tied his handkerchief over his head and face, so as to conceal the wound and the blood, and, putting on his hat, descended the eight steps of the staircase, to go in search of a rope. As he went down, and as he returned, a few drops of blood fell on the steps. Going into a court

yard which formed part of a neighboring building, he went to a well, expecting, doubtless, to find a rope there. He was disappointed, however, and, leaving a few stains of blood near the well, he went to a place in the vicinity, where the lodgers were accustomed to deposit odds and ends, and found a cord that suited his purpose. Here he lost a little more blood. Returning to the garret, he obtained a ladder, and, fastening his rope to a beam by one end, made a noose in the other, staining the face of the ladder with blood from his head as he worked. Then, in order to do away with all chance of escape, he put the ladder against the wall in such a way that the other side was turned toward him. This explained the presence of blood on both sides. All his preparations having been made, he took off his hat, carefully folded his coat, mounted the ladder again, stretched out his body till his head reached the swinging noose, and, fastening this around his neck, struck himself a violent blow on the head with the hammer-part of the hatchet. A violent concussion of the brain was the result; he fell from the ladder, and remained hanging by the cord. The hatchet dropped from his hand, and his face, clothes, shoes, etc., were sprinkled with blood.

It is seen from this narration of M. Riembault that he is of the opinion that there was no murder, but that D— committed suicide, notwithstanding the extraordinary circumstances which surrounded the case. What confirmed him in this view was the fact that the victim was a member of a family which had reckoned fifteen or sixteen lunatics among them, several of whom had committed suicide.

Dwas, moreover, under treatment for some cerebral trouble, was subject to melancholy, and complained that his affairs were in bad condition, when the contrary was the case. The whole conduct of D was of that desperate character which is so frequently witnessed in those affected with suicidal monomania.-Annales d'Hygiène and Annales MédicoPsychologiques.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

An Inaugural Address, Introductory to the Course on Institutes of Medicine in the Jefferson Medical College, delivered October 12, 1868. By J. Aitken Meigs, M. D., Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence, etc. Philadelphia. 1868. 8vo, pp. 32.

A Treatise on Physiology and Hygiene. For Schools, Families, and Colleges. By J. C. Dalton, M. D., Professor of Physiology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. With Illustrations. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1868. 12mo, pp. 399.

NOTE. The editor regrets being obliged to state that he did not discover, till too late for rectification, that the article in this number of the PSYCHOLOGICAL JOURNAL On Benedict de Spinoza is in great part not original. It contains uncredited verbatim passages from Mr. Froude's paper published in the Westminster Review for July, 1855, and probably plagiarisms from other authors.

ART. I.-The Physiology and Pathology of the Cerebellum. By WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M. D., Professor of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System, and of Clinical Medicine, in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, etc.

(Read before the New York County Medical Society, January 4, 1869.)

THE anatomical relations of the cerebellum are so distinct as regards size, position, and structure, that physiologists, ever since the development of their science, have sought with great assiduity to discover its functions. First one view and then another has been brought forward and urged by argument and by appeals to pathology and experiment, but each has in its turn lost ground with time, until now it is certain that no one theory obtains undivided acceptance, if it even commands a majority in its favor. It is, at first

sight, difficult to account for this skepticism. The organ in question is one which can readily be submitted in living animals to observation and experimental research; it is in great part devoid of sensibility, it may be pricked and torn and electrized and cauterized with impunity, and in some animals may even be altogether removed, and life still remain for a long time. It might, therefore, be fairly supposed that these circumstances would have led to some definite results. So far, however, from this being the case, they have tended to increase the obscurity of the subject, for it is very certain that the functions of an organ, which can be mutilated or entirely ablated without the production of notable and uniform consequences, cannot be very pronounced in their character, even though indispensable to the permanent well-being of the animal.

Before the time of Willis the functions of the cerebellum were confounded with those of the cerebrum. This author is declared by Vulpian to be the founder of cerebellar physiology, but his works contain little more than fanciful hypotheses unsustained by facts. He regarded the cerebellum as presiding over the involuntary motions, as being the organ of music, and as a generator, by its cortical substance, of the animal spirits.

Foville,' basing his ideas on the anatomical arrangement and the relations of the cerebellum to the spinal cord, regards it as the centre of common sensation. This view is likewise entertained by Pinel, Grandchamp, and Dugès. Experimental physiology and pathology do not, however, support the hypothesis, for

1

Traité Complet de l'Anatomie, de la Physiologie, et de la Pathologie du Système Nerveux. Paris, 1844.