LITERARY NOTICES. 
Functional Changes in the Dendrites of Cortical Neurones.' 
This paper is largely a reprint of a work published in 1897 in the 
first volume of the Travaux de l'Institut Solvay, whose results the 
author now regards as fully confirmed and established. Some of these 
conclusions are as follows: 
The pyriform appendages (spines or thorns) of the dendrites of 
the cortical neurones constitute the terminal apparatus of the dendrites; 
they increase considerably the surfaces of the nerve cells and play an 
important rdle in the physiology of the brain, for in the case of severe 
disturbance the appendages disappear partially or wholly from the 
affected cells. 
Varicosities represent in the adult brain pathological modifications 
of the nerve cell. They appear abundantly only in course of grave 
disorders and are rare in the brain of the healthy animal. In the 
normal adult the dendrites of cortical neurones do not show varicosi- 
ties, but are thickly set with the pyriform appendages. 
In prolonged etherization, or electrical stimulation or fatigue of 
the cortex the pyriform appendages disappear, while varicosities are 
present, but these two phenomena are really independent of each 
other and the appendages may disappear without any trace of vari- 
cosities making its appearance. The author concludes from the disap- 
pearance of the appendages that these are motile, but is unable to 
determine the mechanism of their movement. The cortex is never 
uniformly involved in the reactions to fatigue, etherization, etc., but 
beside the affected areas are others apparently unaffected. The paper 
is followed by a list of 14 titles of papers by the same author on related 
subjects. Chyna. 
1 STEFANOWSKA, MICHELINE. Les Appendices des Terminaux Dendrites 
Cérébraux et leurs différents états physiologiques. Archives des Sciences 
Physiques et Naturelles, Quatriéme période, t. XI, May, rgor, 
