Shell Shock and its Lessons. By G. Elliot Smith and
T. H. Pear. (Longman and Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—It is common knowledge that many soldiers have suffered mentally as well as physically under the terrible strain of trench warfare and bombardment with high explosives. The authors discuss typical cases, and the methods which are being adopted with success to restore the balance of these disordered minds. They take the opportunity also to protest very strongly against the average layman's habit of regarding such patients as if they were lepers, who must be shut up. They urge that the early treatment of mental disorder yields good results and would relieve the congestion in our asylums. Good work on these lines has, we believe, been done in Scotland, as well as in the foreign countries commended by the authors.
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