The 'Scientific' phrenologist - Bernard Hollander (1864-1934).

Bernard Hollander (1864-1934), a Viennese-born British physician, scientist, and author, was best known for his late 19th century and early 20th century revival of a 'Scientific Phrenology'. Hollander, motivated by the advances in cerebral localisation and neuroscience that appeared to justify Franz Joseph Gall's (1758-1828) initial interests in craniology, hoped to use this new framework to substantively improve the lot of his patients and his community. Ridiculed and derided by his colleagues while maintaining a measure of public prominence, Hollander discussed contemporary issues including notions of human nature, mental illness, education, development, women's rights, and sociobiology. The current work focuses on Hollander, his writings, and his reception by the contemporary medical and lay community.

Clinical features and impact of myasthenia gravis disease in Australian patients.

We performed a community-based survey of 165 Australian patients with a physician-confirmed diagnosis of myasthenia gravis (MG). MG is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction causing fatiguable muscle weakness. Patients with early onset MG (<40 years of age) were more frequently female (22 males, 60 females) whereas patients with late onset MG (>40 years of age) were more frequently male (50 males, 28 females; p < 0.001). Triggering and exacerbating factors included physical and emotional stress, infections, surgery or trauma, seasonal changes and medications. The co-occurrence of other immune-related diseases was reported by 54% of patients. The median MG quality of life (QOL) score was 92 (range: 24-186). The factor most strongly associated with poor QOL was depression. Only 40.6% of patients were working at the time of the survey and of these, almost half had required sick leave due to MG in the past 12 months. A further 39.4% had stopped work due to MG and 19.4% having to change occupation. Full-time or part-time care was required by 29% of patients and government financial support was received by 52.7%.