INSANITY KILLED BY SURGERY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

INSANITY KILLED BY SURGERY.

The medical theory that insanity m many cases during its earlier stages can be cured by surgical operation is not entirely new to the profession, but il has not yet recoived sufficient attention to furnish conclusive proof either for or against. The Lancet recently con tamed a valuable contribution to the data already published on the subject, m the shape of, an account by Dr Bernard" Hoi lander, the celebrated mental expert, qf a case.which came under his direct notice, when trephining completely remedied a morbid condition of the brain, resulting from a fall. The patient, it appears, had for seven years after the injury suffered from mental uneasiness, incapacity, and -'general disturbance. Trephining showed an excess of cerebrospinal fluid, which had prevented the. brain from pulsating, and whep Jet. off. the skull beiii!? again closed, a*' period, of three, weeks found "the patient' restored to perfect health, a condition still .maintained after the lapse of a year' arid a half. The chief ihiportance and advance, of the fresh knowledge on the subject circulated through' Dr Hollander lies m the evidence' he gives that, the affection of a specific' part of the brain produces a special form of insanity, and that this is curable only by restoring to normal health the precise portion of the brain involved. Both m Paris and London remarkable cures are reported on this line of treatment.