AUTHOR S ABSTRACT OK THIS PAPER ISSIIED 

 BY THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, MARCH 17 



THE EFFECT OF OVER-ACTIVITY ON THE MORPHO- 

 LOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE SYNAPSE 



KIYOYASU MARUI 



Sendai, Japan 



Ncurologial Laboratory of the Henry Phipps Psychiattic Clinic, Johns Hopkins 



Hospital, Baltimore, Md. 



FOUETEEN FIGURES 



INTRODUCTION 



Investigations on the histological manifestations of the nerve 

 cell in fatigue have long been familiar to us. Numerous authors 

 have brought contributions to this important and interesting 

 subject. If we take for granted, as Sjoeval declared, that the al- 

 teration of nerve cell in tetanus is to be regarded as the effect of 

 activity, the number of references becomes even more abundant. 

 It would suffice to point to those works of Hodge (14, 15, 16), 

 Vas (33), Mann (23), Lugaro (29), Sjoeval (32), Dolley (17, 18, 

 19), and many others. There is almost a complete agreement on 

 the point, that over-activity causes appreciable histological 

 alterations in the nerve cell. Kocher (19), who studied the same 

 subject in our laboratory, could not, strangely enough, find any 

 qualitative and quantitative changes in the histological characters 

 between the fatigued and resting nerve cells. Recently Saito 

 undertook an exploration in the same line in this clinic, but the 

 results are not published yet. 



Compared with the abundant researches on the neurocyto- 

 logical manifestations, there has been no attempt made to inves- 

 tigate the histological alteration of the synapse in fatigue, as far 

 as I know. Not only in regard to over-activity, but also in other 

 pathological conditions, the histopathological changes of the 

 synapse have been the topic of very few investigations. And no 

 wonder, for the structure of the synapse had not yet been con- 

 clusively demonstrated even in the normal condition, despite 



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