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This large monograph in Danish by an Icelandic author is a doctorate thesis defended before the faculty of the University of Copenhagen. Chemical studies in connection with neuroses and psychoses have been much in vogue in Denmark. The most extensive recent investigation was that on "dysregulatio ammoniaci" in epilepsy by Bisgaard, Larsen, Nörving and others. Tómasson, supporting himself on the work of Jacques Loeb, Howell and others on the effect on cell activity of the electrolytic concentrations and relations of the surrounding fluids, raises the question whether patients with certain mental disorders associated with distinct vegetative symptoms may present alterations of the kat-ions of the blood, particularly the calcium and potassium ions. His studies in cases of manic-depressive psychosis led him to answer this in the affirmative. The next problem was to determine whether these changes in the electrolytes of the blood can be explained as results of alterations in