SURGERY AND INSANITY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 57, 30 November 1907, Page 10

SURGERY AND INSANITY.

At the invitation of the Incorporated British Phrenological Society, Dr. Bernard Hollander recently spokq upon the subject' of "Can insanity'be cured by surgical operation?" Dr. Hollander, it will bo remembered, caused some sensation by the publication in medical journals early this year of a successful euro of mental derangement by trephining. In the course of his lecturo he showed that fifty cases of injury of a particular locality of tho brain were followed by serious mental dopression and melancholia; one half' of tho patients woro subsequently operated upon, wbe they regained their nor- , mal mental condition: : Blows and falls on another region were followed by violent and homicidal mania; on another region by kleptomania, etc.; aiid when the-source of irritation was removed, the excited ""faculty /was restored to normal activity. Surgeon and lunacy oxperts should work together; therein lay tho guarantee for the success oi the operation. In conclusion Dr. Hollander described tho case of a boy, aged 16, who was a liar, thief, and bully, and even at that age a terror to his family, and who, on examination, was found to liavo an old injury on his head. A strip of bono was removed from Ins skull, and thereafter ho proved to ho restorod to perfect morality.