Cor I AT, Chemistry of the Neri'oiis System. 



151 



of the method of Herzig and Meyer for the quantitative determina- 

 tion of lecithin by an estimation of the methyl groups, Halliburton's 

 method for the detection of cholin in the cerebro-spinal fluid and 

 blood, and Coriat's method for the detection and quantitative estima- 

 tion of cholin in nerve tissue. 



The first serious attempt at the quantitative analysis of the brain 

 in normal and diseased individuals, was that of Gutinkov, who esti- 

 mated water, fixed substances, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus, 

 both in the white and grey matter. His series comprised 15 human 

 foetal brains at about the third month, the brains of seven people who 

 died suddenly without any previous illness, and of various mental and 

 somatic diseases. These latter included three cases each of carcinoma 

 and syphilis, two each of pulmonary tuberculosis, neurasthenia and 

 senile dementia, four cases of acute alcohol poisoning, seven of chronic 

 alcoholism, and one case each of post-epileptic dementia, idiocy, post- 

 maniacal dementia, general paralysis, epilepsy, syphilitic pseudo-par- 

 alysis, mania and stuporous melancholia. A summary of his various 

 findings as compared with the averages for normal brains, is readily 

 seen from the following table. For the normal human brain, as the 

 average of seven analyses, the following figures are obtained, and it is 

 with these that the pathological material is compared. 



Water (gray matter) 84.62 



Water (white matter) 69.73 



Phosphorus (gray matter) 1.2128 (dry) 0.1877 (moist) 



