AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT OF THIS PAPER ISSOED 

 BY THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, JANUARY 6 



A PRELIMINARY QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE 

 PURKINJE CELLS IN NORMAL, SUBNORMAL, AND 

 SENESCENT HUMAN CEREBELLA, WITH SOME 

 NOTES ON FUNCTIONAL LOCALIZATION 



ROBERT S. ELLIS 



The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology and The Training School at 



Vineland, New Jersey 



TWO FIGURES AND ONE CHART 



INTRODUCTION! 



In the spring of 1916, while examining the cerebellum of a 

 general paralytic, the writer was first impressed by the fact, 

 familiar perhaps to most neuropathologists, that in this disease 

 there is often a disintegration and disappearance of a large 

 number of the Purkinje cells, leaving, however, the basket of fibers 

 which normally surrounds them. Over a j^ear later, while ex- 

 amining the cerebellum of a microcephalic idiot, the same scarcity 

 of Purkinje cells was observed, with the difference, however, 

 that the section did not show the same evidence of the cells 

 having become reduced in number by disintegration; the empty 

 pericellular baskets were not found as in the case of paresis; it 

 seemed, rather, that through some defect of development the 

 normal number had never been present. 



This difference presented an interesting problem and it seemed 

 worth while to make a more careful quantitative study of the 

 Purkinje cells in different types of cerebella. In order to get 



1 The writer is indebted to the staffs of the Vineland (N. J.) Training School 

 and of St. Vincent's Hospital (Philadelphia) and to several physicians in other 

 hospitals for assistance in securing the material used in this study. He is also 

 indebted to the staff of the Wistar Institute, especiallj'^ Drs. Greenman, Donald- 

 son, and Hatai, for their encouragement and assistance in numerous ways during 

 the course of the investigation: to all of these he wishes to express his 

 appreciation. 



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