Epidemic Diseases of the Central Nervous System

Abstract

LIFE and its incidents are always changing, new fashions and phenomena come and go, and among these our diseases alter not only in name but also in nature. With the more rapid means of communication the rate of living, though not longevity, has increased, and, like most generations, the present complacently condoles with itself on the increased strain of modern life. Neurology has made enormous advances in recent years, and, as a result, many new diseases have become recognised, but apart from the influence of this addition to knowledge there appears to be an increasing susceptibility of the central nervous system to attacks of epidemic disease, such as acute poliomyelitis during this century, during the special conditions of the War cerebrospinal fever, and since the later years of the War a practically new disease, epidemic or lethargic encephalitis, known in the lay press as ‘sleepy sickness,’ which should be distinguished from the sleeping sickness of more tropical climates, due to infection with trypanosomcs.

Epidemic Diseases of the Central Nervous System.

By Dr. Arthur Salusbury MacNalty. Pp. xiii + 194. (London Faber and Gwyer, Ltd. (The Scientific Press), 1927.) 12s. 6d. net.