CLINICAL AND ANATOMICAL ANALYSIS OF 25 CASES OF MENTAL DISEASE ARISING IN THE FIFTH DECADE, WITH REMARKS ON THE MELANCHOLIA QUESTION AND FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF CORTICAL PIGMENTS

Abstract

1. We have reviewed a group of 25 cases of mental disease (Danvers State Hospital material), so selected as to offer a fair sample of mental diseases arising in the fifth decade of life. 2. Our principle of selection excluded all cases which were obviously not characteristic of the fifth decade (paresis, alcoholic mental disease, and the like); the group of non-characteristic cases thus excluded was extremely large (approaching So per cent of all cases arising in the decade) and the preventable diseases alone amounted to over 60 per cent. 3. We remained with a group of 25 cases (10 males and 15 females) which present certain common aspects. These cases may be negatively defined as not due to syphilis, alcohol, cerebral arteriosclerosis, brain atrophy, or other factors yielding coarse brain disorder; as not possessing pronounced schizophrenic features; as not uniform in course or outcome; as not likely to show either elation or expansive delusions. They may be positively defined as almost, if not quite, co...