ON THE CURABILITY OF CERTAIN FORMS OF INSANITY, EPILEPSY, CATALEPSY, AND HYSTERIA IN FEMALES. BY BAKER BROWN, F.R.C.S. (EXAM.) SENIOR SURGEON TO THE LONDON SURGICAL HOME; LATE SURGEON-ACCOUCHEUR TO, AND LECTURER ON MIDWIFERY AND DISEASES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT, ST. MARY’S HOSPITAL; LATE CONSULTING SURGEON TO THE WESTBOURNE DISPENSARY AND PADDINGTON LYING-IN CHARITY; PRESIDENT OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; FELLOW OF THE OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; MEMBER OF THE HARVEIAN SOCIETY; CORRESPONDING FELLOW OF THE OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF BERLIN; HON. FELLOW OF THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF SURGEONS, NORTHERN GERMANY; MEMBER OF THE BROOKLYN MEDICAL AND SURGICAL SOCIETY; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF MEDICAL SCIENCE OF PESTH; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF MEDICAL SCIENCE OF BRUSSELS; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE PHYSIO-MEDICAL AND STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF MILAN; HON. CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NORWAY, ETC. [Illustration] LONDON: ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY, W. 1866. COX AND WYMAN, ORIENTAL, CLASSICAL, AND GENERAL PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, W.C. TO DR. E. BROWN-SÉQUARD. F.R.S., &c. DEAR DR. BROWN-SÉQUARD, I am deeply indebted for your kind permission to dedicate this work to you. I feel assured that its introduction to the Profession under the auspices of the greatest physiologist of the day will secure for it greater consideration, and lead to a closer examination of its contents, than would otherwise have been the case. With the greatest respect, believe me to be, Most faithfully yours, I. BAKER BROWN. 17, CONNAUGHT SQUARE, HYDE PARK, W. _March, 1866._ PREFACE. In offering this little book to my professional brethren, I do not for one moment wish it to be understood that I claim any originality in the surgical treatment herein described. Having read with great interest the Lectures on the “Physiology and Pathology of the Central Nervous System,” delivered by Dr. Brown-Séquard before the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in 1858, and published in _The Lancet_, I was struck with a fact much insisted upon by the learned physiologist, namely, the great mischief which might be caused in the system generally, and in the nervous centres especially, by peripheral excitement.