AUTHOR S ABSTRACT OF THIS PAPER ISSUED 

 BY THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, JULY 21 



QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL CHANGES IN THE 

 HUMAN BRAIN DURING GROWTH 



C. G. MACARTHUE, and E. A. DOISY 



The Biochemical Laboratory of the University of Illinois, and Stanford Medical 



School 



THREE CHARTS 



It seemed desirable to develop a more complete growth series 

 of quantitative determinations of the important constituents 

 in the human brain than has heretofore been published (Koch- 

 Mann, '07- '08). During fetal life and infancy these changes are 

 most interesting, but least studied. The chemical differentiation 

 during growth in young pigs (Koch, '13) and young rats (W. and 

 M. L. Koch, '13) has received attention, but early human life 

 has been curiously neglected. 



METHOD OF ANALYSIS 



The method of analysis is essentially the same as that used by 

 others in quantitative brain work.^ The outline on page 446 gives 

 the main points. 



LIMITATIONS AND ERRORS 



It needs to be kept in mind that disease caused the death of the 

 people whose brains were analyzed. Though the brain in no 

 case showed appreciable lesions, yet it is always possible that 

 chemical alterations might have taken place before death. 



Only one brain (except in the case of the three-month fetal 

 brains) was analyzed for each of the ages given. Of course there 

 is no guarantee that each was an average brain. Moreover, we 

 have, because of the few analyses, no means of finding out the 



^ For detail of method and formulae for calculation of results see Koch, W., 

 J. Am. Chem. Soc, 31, 1329, ff. 1909; Koch, M. L., and Voegtlin, C, Hyg. Lab. 

 Bull. No. 103, p. 67. 1916. 



445 



