Psychotherapy

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Ptolemy

normal treatment, encouraging him in normal
mental and physical endeavors.

Dr. William A. White of St. Elizabeth's
Hospital, Washington, believes that psycho-
therapy may yet enlighten the dark areas of
medicine—namely, epilepsy and cancer.

The nervous breakdown, the American
business man's disease, has been aided by
psychotherapy. Research by Pavlov and
Gantt have helped to prove the breakdown
is a state in which emotional factors prevent
one from carrying on normal living.

A survey was made in 1936 under the
auspices of the Committee on Mental Hy-
giene and Psychiatric Nursing to determine
the need for specialized psychotherapeutic
nursing in American hospitals.

A new form of functional nervous disorder
attacking only airplane pilots and called aero-
neurosis was reported in 1937 and was being
studied by the TJ. S. Medical Corps. In World
War II the expression 'shell shock' of World
War I was no longer heard, psychologists hav-
ing affirmed the findings of 1914-18 that the
types of neuroses and psychoses found in men
in uniform do not essentially differ from those
met in civilian life.

In 1936 insulin was used in Europe for the
first time in treating the mental disease,
schizophrenia, and a little later metrazol also
was used. The use of electroshock, introduced
in 1939, has practically replaced metrazol and
is being frequently used with insulin. 'Shock'
therapy continues to be used extensively.

PtaK, a deity in Egyptian mythology, the
artificer of the universe, the creator of the
cosmic egg, out of which came the sun, the
moon, and the earth.

Ptarmigan, a grouse of the genus Lago-
pus, distinguished mainly by having the feet
feathered to the toes, and by its northerly
habitat, all the species living in the subarctic
zone, or else upon high mountain tops.

Pterichthys, or Winged Fish, is one of
the curious fossil fishes. It belongs to a group
which is entirely extinct, and is characterized
by the presence of an armor of tuberculated
bony plates which covered the head and the
anterior part of the body.

Pteridospermeae, a class of Palaeozoic
plants, embracing those Palaeozoic plants
with the habits and much of the internal
structure of ferns, which were propagated by
seeds, not by spores.

Pteris, a genus of ferns which includes a
large number of species widely distributed
over the tropic and temperate regions of the
world.

Pterodactyls, flyine reptiles which inhab-
ited the earth during the Mesozoic epoch. In
size some were very small; others had a
stretch of \vings nearly equalling twenty ft.
Their remains are found in the Jurassic and
Cretaceous rocks both of Europe and N.
America.

Pteropoda, a group of molluscs grouped
as opistho-branch gasteropods, which have
been profoundly modified in order to fit
them for the pelagic life. They are found in
the open water, and though the number of
species is small, the number of individuals is
incalculable.

Pterospermum, a genus of tropical Asia-
tic shrubs and trees belonging to the order
Sterculiacese.

Ptolemaic System, the order of the uni-
verse as expounded by Ptolemy. It rested on
the postulates that the earth is spherical, that
it occupies a fixed central position, and thai
the sphere of the heavens revolves round it
from e. to \v., earning all celestial objects
with it, once in twenty-four hours.

Ptolemy, more fully Claudius Ptole-
maeus, astronomer; observed at Alexandria
from 127 to 151 A.D. He embodied Greek as-
tronomy in his Almagest, and his system of
geography, containing a description and
maps of the known world, preserved un-
questioned authority down to the 15 th cen-
tury. A geometer of the first order, he ef-
fectively founded trigonometry, discovered
evection, and perfected the epicyclical theory
of planetary movement. See PTOLEMAIC SYS-
TEM.

Ptolemy, in Greek Ptolemaeus, the name
of a dynasty of kings of Egypt, the founder
of which was one of Alexander's generals.
Ptolemy i., surnamed Soter, or (the Saviour,'
reigned from 323 to 285 B.C. In the division
of the provinces after Alexander's death he
managed to secure for himself Egypt. In 285
Ptolemy abdicated in favor of his youngest
son, Ptolemy Philadelphus; he lived for two
more years. His name is memorable as that
of the founder—though some ascribe the
foundation to his son—of the museum and
library of Alexandria and the friend of Euclid
and other learned men.

Ptolemy u. (Philadelphus), son of the
above, who reigned from 285 to 247 B.C., Is
famous chiefly for his internal administration
and his patronage of learning; under him the
museum of Alexandria became the center of
literature and science. The Greek translation
of the Old Testament, known as the Septu-
agint, is said to have been made by Ms order,