ng on the subject of reflex
nervous diseases or neuroses due to preputial adhesions, was one
prepared by Dr. M. F. Price, of Colton, California, and read at the
semi-annual meeting of the Southern California Medical Society, at its
Pasadena meeting in December, 1889. In the course of the paper he gives
a considerable number of examples, of which some extracts are herewith
given: One case was a boy aged seven, who for two years had had frequent
attacks of palpitation of the heart; when seen by Dr. Price the little
heart was laboring hard, beating at a furious rate (far beyond
counting), with a loud blowing or splashing sound, and the pulse at the
wrist a mere flutter. The breath was inspired in a series of jerks, the
face flushed and somewhat swollen. The chest-wall was visibly moved at
every thump of the heart. The doctor attended the child for a month
without the little patient making any appreciable improvement. Some time
during this period of observation the father happened to mention that
the boy sometimes complained of his penis hurting him at the time of an
erection. This led the doctor to examine the parts, when he found a long
prepuce, with a mucous membrane adherent to the glans, about a line
beyond the corona, the whole circumference of the organ. With the use of
cocaine and a blunt instrument the adhesions were removed, with an
immediate amelioration of all the reflex symptoms. The very next
paroxysm was lighter and less exhausting; the improvement was
continuous. The child soon went to school and had no further trouble;
but, in the doctor's opinion, the two years' hard struggle have not
been without its evil results on the constitution and organism of the
child.

The next case was born November 2, 1888; a large, healthy boy at birth.
By June of the following year the child was afflicted with what the
mother called "jerky spells;" up to this time the boy seemed listless,
did not care to sit up, and seemed from some cause to be in more or less
pain, with his eyes turned to the left. The parents dreaded that the
child, their only one, would turn out idiotic. The spasmodic spells
alluded to were of a tetanic nature, the body being thrown backward; his
head and eyes continued to be turned to the left, and nothing could
attract the child's attention. The boy cried night and day, but he was
in good flesh, had all the teeth he should have, bowels were regular,
and the appetite good. Whatever the doctor did in the me