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The physiology of the pituitary gland still presents many unsolved problems. Jakob Lewin1 in 1906 summarized the situation as follows:For some (Roth, Widersheim, Corning, Strumpell) the hypophysis is merely a rudimentary organ which has no essential function. According to other authors (Schiff, Marinesco, Wolf, Gemelli) the function of the gland is essential to life. Regarding the character of the gland's function there is also divergent opinion. Wolf, for instance, believes that it is hemolytic, while Liegois insists that it is hematopoietic in action, and Oliver again insists that it regulates the blood pressure. The majority hold that the hypophysis is a ductless gland that has an influence over the nervous system, or has something to do with the red blood corpuscles, or finally that it neutralizes some substance harmful to the organism.Paulesco, from experiments on dogs, also reaches the

The first description of the diseased state which by courtesy and for convenience may be called "Morvan's disease," was made by Dr. Morvan, of Lannelis, in Brittany, and published in the Gazette hebdomidaire de Médicine et de Chirurgie in 1883, under the title of "Parésie Analgesique avec Panaris des Extremities Superieures." Since that date he has made numerous communications on the same subject in the same journal, with the reports of eighteen cases. In 1885 M. Broca (Ann. de Dermat. et de Syphilog.) published a case, and in 1887 M. Prouff (Gazette Hebdom.), another Breton physician, recorded one, followed by Hanoi in the same year. In 1888 d'Oger de Speville collated in a Paris thesis nine cases from various sources. In 1889 Heckel published a clinical observation (Berlin Klin. Wochenschrift). The same year (Sem. Méd.), Gombault reported the autopsy of Prouff's case before the Sociéte Medicale des Hôpitaux de

Supernumerary cervical ribs, as furnishing the cause of many obscure and some very serious nerve lesions affecting the arm, have not been sufficiently recognized in neurologic literature. It is almost startling that no textbook on nervous diseases makes the slightest detailed mention of cervical ribs in connection with brachial plexus disorders, excepting the English translation of Oppenheim. Even the great handbook of Levandowsky has only a slight reference to cervical ribs, and Chipault's "Surgery of the Nervous System" is devoid of any mention of the subject. Works on surgery and radiography have much more.The frequency of cervical ribs is much greater than is usually understood. Fischel in Prague, in four years, found cervical ribs in 1 per cent. of all the bodies examined. Their most common location is in conjunction with the seventh cervical vertebra, next in relation to the sixth and seventh, and then to the fifth and

Case 1.—William A. V., aged 30 years, an unmarried bookkeeper of German descent, presented himself in my service at the Policlinic April 17, 1890, complaining of numbness and weakness of both hands and of the left leg and foot. Physically he had always been in fair health but for years had drunk to great excess and had been subject to delirium tremens several times. He also used tobacco inordinately, smoking and chewing continually, and was greatly addicted to venery but gave no history or indication of venereal in fection. Two weeks previously he first noticed the numbness and weakness mentioned. Coming on gradually it reached during the first week the stage shortly to be described. When first seen the patient was tremulous, uncertain in speech, with dilated pupils and the general manifestations of a prolonged debauch. At this particular time the critical illness of an uncle was making additional demands

About forty years ago, when Fournier had the temerity to intimate that in the great majority of cases of locomotor ataxia syphilis was the cause, Ricord, his confrère and the most prominent syphilographer of the day, said that Fournier had taken on himself a very bad burden. A few years later, when Erb in Heidelburg assumed responsibility for a similar point of view, medical Germany was mobilized against him. So the matter stood for some years and was threshed out with acrimony on both sides.Later, Negeotte brought forth his epoch-making observation, that in locomotor ataxia there is invariably some evidence of inflammation in the meninges of the cord. Following the practice of Quincke, the routine examination of the spinal fluid determined the presence of cellular peculiarities invariably present in cases of locomotor ataxia as well as in those of general paresis. General paresis and locomotor ataxia from that time