It is a commonplace that the general practitioner is not
always equipped to deal properly with certain diseases, and among these are numbered particularly diseases of the nerves, or so-called psychological complaints. In A Challenge to Neurasthenia (Williams and Norgate, is.), Miss D. M. Armitage tells of the work of one such practitioner who had overcome this disability in the case of the complaint mentioned, and pleads for an extended use of the methods he employed, which drew to him neurasthenic patients from all parts of the world. Obviously, however, there can be only a few such men in any generation, and the most that can be hoped for is that neurasthenic complaints will come to be treated more sympathetically, and recognized as requiring special treat- ment, which they can receive from the appropriate specialist. That this may be so shortly is suggested by the more en- couraging attitude displayed recently at the British Medical Association to the "psycho-analyst," with whose methods those of Dr. Barnes had affinities. It is a sign that the attitude of which Miss Armitage complains is at last giving way. The booklet she has written will explain why it is right that it should disappear completely.
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