154 Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



the water while phosphorus was always slightly decreased, but this 

 decrease seemed to bear no relation to the extent of fiber degeneration 

 or cell chromatolysis. Noll, in an experimentally degenerated sciatic 

 nerve, found a decrease of phosphorus and of the alcoholic extract. 

 C0RL\T found choliu in the peripheral nerves, brain and cord of a 

 case of alcoholic polyneuritis, the amounts being parallel to the extent 

 of the Marchi reaction. The presence of the alkaloid here must be 

 looked upon as the result of autolytie processes in the lecithin. 



MoTT and Barrett, as the result ot analysis of two cords from 

 cases of hemiplegia, concluded, (i) that on the degenerated side of 

 the cord a breaking up of the phosphorized fat occurs, (2) the amount 

 of lecithin present is diminished, (3) fat is present in excess, (4) the 

 amount of extractives soluble in ether is increased, (5) the proteid 

 residue is diminished, (6) the phosphorus is diminished, (7) the ether 

 extract has a buttery apjjearance instead of being crystalline. Halli- 

 burton has shown that the cause of death from hyperpyrexia is a 

 physico-chemical one, being due to the coagulation of the cell-globu- 

 lin, and when this constituent of cell protoplasm is coagulated, the 

 protoplasm as such is destroyed. The temperature for this reaction is 

 47° C, but temperatures as low as 42° C will have the same effect if 

 continued sufficiently long. 



So far there have been published only two studies on the im- 

 portant question of the autolysis of brain tissue, those of Levene and 

 C0RLA.T. The former established the presence of an intracellular pro- 

 teolytic enzyme in fresh brain tissue, and which acted only in an acid 

 medium. Corla.t, working from the standpoint of the genesis of 

 cholin in the central nervous system, on account of its importance as 

 a toxic agent in producing the convulsive seizures of epilepsy and gen- 

 eral paralysis, concluded that there exists in the brain an enzyme capa- 

 ble of splitting lecithin into glycero-phosphoric acid, stearic acid and 

 cholin, the latter being detected and quantitated by nieans of its 

 platinum compound. This enzyme acted only in neutral and slightly 

 alkaline media, and like all enzymes it could be destroyed by heat. 



Hatai, in studying the effects of starvation on the brains of 

 white rats, found that the ab.solute weight in his starved groups was di- 

 minished, and there was an actual diminution of the water and an in- 

 crease in the relative amount of extractives, from which he infers that 

 the protein substance must have been mostly affected. It was there- 

 fore expected that changes in the cell bodies would be found, but no 

 marked alteration of the Nissl bodies could be demonstrated. The 

 same writer, as the result of injection and feeding experiments with 



