The term General Paresis, proposed in this Journal by Dr. Ernst Salomon, in place of general paralysis, appears to have been well received. It possesses the advantage of being distinct, and not likely to lead to contusion, and is therefore adopted here.

“There is no such thing as chance,” cries the would-be philosopher. How, then, should there be such a word representing, as it surely does, a distinct idea? Our confident friend will hardly deny that equivalent to chance there is in every language not merely one but many words, each conveying the same definite thought from one mind to another, from boy to boy, from girl to girl, from woman to woman, from man to man. Does Tom speak unintelligibly to his fellows when, seeing Jack throw a stone and hit a bird, he shouts out, “Ah! by chance. Jack is no marksman”? When Jane threads her needle more cleverly than her more expert sister Mary, is she reproved for obscurity if she confesses to her superior readiness that time having been by chance? When Miss Emma writes to her dearest friend how she begins to suspect it can hardly be by chance that Mr. Edward meets her so very often in her walks, does her dearest friend fail perfectly to understand her meaning? When B. says that C. and his partner were winners at whist last night by the mere chance of good cards, is there any one so dull as to misapprehend the observation? When the traveller views Stonehenge, he pronounces it at once a work of design. When he gazes on Staffa or on the Giant's Causeway, in spite of the perpetual intrusion of the idea of these being works of art, he satisfies himself at every moment, by a slight reflection, of their being the effects of chance; and so, likewise, of the Grotto of Pausilippo, and many other natural appearances over the world.

Passing on from the consideration of influences which, before an individual's birth, and during the act of his generation, seem to have much to do with the determination of his destiny, it remains only to indicate the circumstances which may affect his nature during embryonic life. And although the effects which may then be produced are not truly hereditary, but in strict language connate, it is generally quite impossible to discriminate between them and such as are really inherited. There is no need to quote here any of the multitude of examples on record, testifying to the influence of the mother upon the embryo during gestation. It might be amusing, but it would scarce be profitable, to relate how that when Persina, Queen of Ethiopia, as Heliodorus tells, saw a very beautiful image of Andromeda, she brought forth a child, which was not only not an Ethiopian, but which was very like the image; how that children were born during the French Revolution who, as they grew up, were subject to unnatural terrors, and easily became insane, as Esquirol witnesses; and how that Hippocrates saved a woman who had a black child of a white husband, and who was thereupon accused of adultery, by attributing the result to the portrait of an Ethiopian on which the woman had gazed. Suffice it to say, that the direct influence of the mother's state of mind upon the embryo, has been popularly accepted at all times. Good use was made of the fact by the Jewish patriarch, who certainly never lacked advancement from want of worldly cunning, when he peeled the rods and “set them up before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs, when the flocks came to drink,” so that the flocks “brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted,” “and the man increased exceedingly.”

Gentlemen,—Rarely has a survey of my labours in science, and as a teacher, afforded me so much gratification as on the present occasion. It has been my good fortune to bring about for the first time the introduction into the course of our medical studies, in this place, of a clinical course on Psychiatrie, thus claiming for this branch of medicine its true position as a proper and profitable subject of study, and as one demanding alike systematic and clinical instruction. And, in the first place, it behoves me to express my thanks to all those magistrates who have furthered, in the most intelligent and effective manner, my endeavours to establish this new clinical course. It is about a year since I first mooted the question of the institution of this clinique, and I had the gratification of seeing my ideas rightly understood, and favorably received. Moreover, in the course of the previous winter, the offer was made to me by the government, to undertake the professional direction of the lunatic asylum, an offer which I readily accepted, with a view to this plan for clinical instruction in mental maladies. Hence the speedy establishment of the course. For twenty years, indeed, I have publicly claimed for Psychiatrie its recognition as a regular portion of medical education. Whilst in many other places prevailing difficulties and scruples have defeated the project, we have here speedily found the means to commence this admittedly judicious and useful work, and thereby to secure a new and valuable addition to the educational advantages of our University.

Correspondenz-Blatt der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, &c.—The numbers of this monthly periodical from April to October, 1863, are now before us, and among their contents are several articles of interest.