Anodontia is a physical anomaly which may present itself in varying degrees, and although cases of partial anodontia occur with comparative frequency, the condition of complete anodontia is rare.

No problem in neurology has been approached from so many different angles as has the pathogenesis of the epileptic fit; yet it is far from being solved. Histological examination of the brains of epileptics, electric stimulalation of the human brain during operation, chemical analysis of the body fluids both in general and of the arterial and venous blood of the cerebral vessels in particular, measurements of the intracranial blood-flow, investigations into metabolic changes before, during, and after fits, electro-encephalographic studies, have produced an enormous wealth of data, which it has not, however, been possible to weld into a single theory. The most recent monograph on epilepsy—Kinnier Wilson's article on the subject in Bumke's Handbuch der Neurologie—speaks only of various “determinants” of the fit: the vascular, the humoral, etc.

Attention was drawn to the important work of Putnam and Merritt by an annotation in the Lancet last year. The results of their studies were published in two papers entitled “A New Series of Anti-convulsant Drugs Tested by Experiments on Animals” and “Sodium Diphenyl Hydantoinate in the Treatment of Convulsive Disorders”.

This investigation attempts to determine what effect a sub-convulsive dose of triazol had on the individual patient as compared with a convulsive dose, and in addition to study and compare the reactions of a group of deteriorated schizophrenic patients with those of a heterogeneous group composed of mental disorders not schizophrenic. There were 12 patients in each group. The first group of schizophrenic patients was made up of individuals who showed marked emotional deterioration, with either a poverty of affective response or a definitely inappropriate affect. All these patients had had their mental disorder for many years. The average duration of the psychosis in the schizophrenic group was 9 years, and the average age of the group was 31 years. The heterogeneous group was composed of three patients classified as manic-depressive in the depressed phase, two depressed patients in a stuporous condition, three psychoneurotic patients with chronic anxiety states, and four with chronic obsessive states. The average age of the heterogeneous group was 33 years.

Although the subject of this contribution is somewhat narrow, it is hoped that points raised will have some bearing on matters wider than pure therapeutics.

The present communication is a preliminary report on 12 certifiedcases suffering from insanity with epilepsy treated with solantoin, a preparation of sodium diphenyl hydantoinate. This paper also discusses the site of action of the drug, and the possible relationship between its excretion and toxic effects.

Since Meduna in 1934 introduced the treatment of schizophrenic states by induced epileptiform convulsions, a volume of literature has appeared on the use of cardiazol as convulsant. But although cardiazol proved immensely superior to the original camphor, it is not without some serious disadvantages. These led naturally to the search for further improvement in the convulsant agent, and it is with one of the successors to cardiazol, introduced by Walk and Mayer-Gross (1938), and known as azoman or triazol 156, that this record is concerned.