Functional Diseases of Women —Cases illustrative of a new method
of treating them through the agency of the nervous system, by means of cold and heat, with an appendix containing cases illustrative of a new method of treating epilepsy, paralysis, and diabetes. By John Chapman, M.D. (Trubner.)—We cannot profess to give any scientific judgment on medical works, but judging of Dr. Chapman's method of treating nervous diseases (as all laymen must do), merely by a record of the cases, we should incline to attach great value to his discovery. He has had the superintendence of certain cases of epilepsy and diabetes both in St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospital, and the emi- nent physicians of those institutions have evidently interested themselves in his method. What estimate they have formed of its efficacy it is, probably, premature to say, but it seems scarcely open to doubt that confirmed epilepsy, paralysis, and diabetes have all been materially alleviated in very obstinate cases where other remedies had been tried in vain. The curious part of Dr. Chapman's alleged discovery is, that by the application of heat to the iipinal chord he lowers the action of the heart, and by the application of :ice he raises it. We have seen one very remarkable record of the treatment of a case of apparently hopeless paralysis by a medical man who had no personal acquaintance with Dr. Chapman, but who was bent on trying his method, and of its complete success. There can be little doubt that there is something in the method both for feminine diseases and those we have named,—how much time alone can show.
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