Journal of Psychiatric Research

for libraries, government establishments and research institution. ?3 10s. for individuals.) It is a pleasure to welcome a journal which quite evidently will play a major part in the development of psychiatric research in this and other countries. The eight papers in its first number (October 1961) deal with a variety of subjects, but are all alike in using rigorous statistical design and proper research method. The Editor-inChief is Seymour Kety, Professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins University and the Associate Editors are Joel Elkes, National Institute of Mental Health and David Hamburg of Stanford University. The Editorial Board includes not only Professors Denis Hill and Sir Aubrey Lewis, but also Sir Russell Brain, Professors G. W. Harris and Lancelot Hogben and Dr. Marie Jahoda. The layout of the Journal is excellent, the print being admirable both in the body of the articles and in the references. The tables and diagrams in particular are uniformly and clearly produced. It may be worth quoting the summary of the first paper which comes from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester. It reads: "A hypothesis for the biochemical basis of memory is developed. It is postulated that memory traces in the nervous system are produced by the formation of altered RNA molecules. Data are presented which indicate that 8-azaguanine-2-C14 is incorporated into rat brain RNA, and that intracisternally injected 8-azaguanine, while it does not depress a rat's ability to perform and recall a previously well-learned maze, does decrease a rat's ability to learn a new maze".