246 



ROBERT S. ELLIS 



TABLE 3 



Number of Purkinje cells per EUA in subnormal infants. Designations as in 



table 1 



The sections do not show that cells have degenerated and 

 dropped out, and yet in every case the number of cells is dis- 

 tinctly below normal. The cause of the deficiency must then 

 have acted antenatum. Whether this is to be charged to 

 agenesis or to early destruction is, however^ not easily deter- 

 mined. The writer's opinion, based on the evidence at hand, 

 is that the cell deficiency is due primarily to agenesis. Beyond 

 this it is not possible to determine from the present study the 

 etiology of the conditions observed. 



In some cases, however, mental and motor deficiency appears 

 to be due to causes which operate postnatum. This is shown in 

 case no. 15214. The cell counts as compared with the normal 

 are shown in table 4. 



These values in table 4, the reader will note, are almost normal. 

 Yet the case is a distinctly subnormal one.N The clinical history 

 shows that the ancestry is free from feeble-mindedness as far as 

 known; also it shows that the child was normal until nine months 

 of age. At the time he began to have spasms and to show 

 evidences of subnormality, due perhaps to the delayed effects 

 of congenital lues. The cerebellum is of normal weight, but the 



