Chinese Medical Journal

Seca hoy

CURRENT CHINESE MEDICAL LITERATURE 95

process. After the injection the needle was carried vertically downwards to about 2-3 cm. If there was no blood upon withdrawal of the syringe, 30-50 ce of the solution © was injected. : :

The cases treated were 1 patient with glossopharyngeal pain who was completely cured after two injection blocks; 1 patient with acute pharyngitis cured by one injection of novocain plus 300,000 units of oil penicillin intramuscularly, and 1 patient with perjodonitis who was cured in two days after one injection and 300,000 units of penicillin. There were 3 cases of peritonsillar abscess, among which novocain alone was used in 1 and novocain with penicillin was used in 2. All these 3 patients were unable to open their mouth before treatment but recovered fifteen minutes afterwards. In 3 cases of chronic stomatitis, the effect upon the ulcers was not marked but the pain was greatly lessened. In the remaining 4 cases, the method was employed as a pretonsillectomy anesthesia. In 2 of these there was absolutely no pain, and in the third there was only slight pain on one side. No effect was found in the fourth due to nervousness on the part of the patient and the probability that he was inadequately prepared mentally before operation. ,

According to the author’s observations the above procedure is indicated in acute pharyngitis and as a preoperative anesthesia in tonsillectomy.

J. H. Liu

Some Psychiatric Concepts in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Hsii Yu-Hsin. Chinese J. Neurol. & Psychiat. 1(3):167-174, 1955.

The author gives a brief review of the psychological and etiological concepts of mental diseases, clinical psychiatry and mental hygiene in the Ch’in and Han dynasties (221 B.C.-219 A.D.).

Of particular interest is the fact that Chinese physicians of this period realized the basic materialistic principle that mind reflects objective reality—the unity of the subjective with the objective—and that modifications in the conditions of life of the individual affected his physical and mental health.

Delirium, mania, depressive psychoses, epilepsy, hysteria and other neuroses as described in the early literature are explained. Psychotherapy and mental hygiene which had been stressed upon are also dealt with. Y. K. Feng

A Study of the Carotid Reflex in 50 Psychiatric Patients. Feng Ying-K’un. Chinese J. Neurol. & Psychiat. 1(3):175-190, 1955.

The author gave a brief review of the present knowledge of the carotid sinus reflex. He pointed out that the reflex had been dealt with as an isolated phenomenon of a lower physiological order and its further study on the basis of Pavlovian principles would shed more light on the subject.

The carotid sinus reflex and oculocardiac reflex of 54 cooperative mental patients of various categories were studied by the author with the simultaneous use of an Offner’s C-type encephalograph and a Keller’s 302-model polygraph. This method was considered more objective and more convenient in the simultaneous registration of changes in the heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and cortical activity.

A positive carotid sinus response with syncope, convulsions, high-voltage and slow brain waves, slow, deep and irregular breathing, with or without changes in the heart rate or blood pressure was demonstrated in 7 of the 54 patients. The carotid sinus hypersensitivity was found to be unrelated to the age of the patient, the type of psychiatric condition, certain organic changes of the central nervous system (with the exception of neurosyphilis) and previous electric shock treatment, insulin shock therapy, and prefrontal lobotomy. There were indications that the type of the patient’s nervous system (temperament) had something to de with the occurrence of a- positive response.