QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE PURKINJE CELLS 245 



shows the right hand stronger; the cell count for area 3 agrees with 

 this, but for area 4 is opposite to it. 



No. 15299. This is a low-grade case, unable to talk or work; also he 

 was knock-kneed. The cell counts for both hemispheres are very low, 

 and this is especially true in area 6, the leg area (?). A large part of 

 the anterior part of the lobus biventer in the right hemisphere was 

 completely atrophied. The grip test shows both hands about equally 

 weak and there is little difference between the cell counts for the two 

 hemispheres. 



No. 15310. The record shows that he was left handed and that a 

 Wassermann test was positive. This probably accounts for the extreme 

 loss of cells in the left hemisphere through degeneration. The grip 

 tests shows the right hand stronger and the cell count shows more cells 

 in the right hemisphere. 



No. 15320. The low cell counts here agree well with the low men- 

 tality and the general lack of motor power and coordination. The 

 tumor in area 6 of the right hemisphere probably accounts for the loss 

 of ability to walk well after the age of eighteen. Also it is important 

 to note that many of the remaining Purkinje cells were in the process 

 of degenerating. General motor deficiency was consequently inevitable. 



In view of the rather meagre clinical data available, it was not 

 expected that a very high degree of correlation w^ould be found 

 between the reported defects in motor coordination and the 

 numerical deficiency in Purkinje cells. Furthermore, a state- 

 ment of the relative number of cells, if taken alone, is not neces- 

 sarily a complete indication of functional efficiency; for the cells, 

 although present, may be so far degenerated that they are 

 without functional value. It is consequently interesting to find 

 that in the cases considered there is a considerable difference, 

 even in cell number, between the normal and the subnormal 

 and that the losses in cells agree very well with Bolk's locali- 

 zation theory. 



The question naturally arises as to whether this deficiency in 

 cells is due to agenesis or to some toxin or other agency present 

 during intra-uterine life, or to postnatal disease or injury, 

 acting on the cells already formed. 



To throw some fight on this problem, counts were made on 

 area 3, the arm area, of both hemispheres of six low grade in- 

 fants. These may safely be said to be of subnormal ancestry; 

 also they can hardly be said to have had the most favorable 

 nutritional conditions during fetal fife. How the number of 

 cefis in these cases compares with the normal is shown in table 3, 



