lxxxviii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



close of the discussion of the third case the following conclusions are 

 presented : 



In general paralysis of syphilitic origin the vessels of the cerebral 

 cortex are first affected. This alteration may be limited to the minute 

 vessels of the cortex and pia, but it may also descend far down to the 

 vascular trunks until the larger arteries and veins of the brain are 

 affected. General paralysis, at least that which is syphilitic, is then a 

 diffuse vascular encephalitis. But every case of diffuse vascular 

 encephalitis is not general paralysis. The latter occurs only 

 when the nervous elements begin to suffer from the bad con- 

 dition of their nutritive apparatus. They may resist for a very 

 long time. During this phase there may be observed only vague and 

 variable symptoms, such as neurasthenia, hypochondria, etc., which 

 will vary with the predispositions of the patient. At a give moment 

 the nervous tissues yield and the purely vascular encephalitis becomes 

 mixed. The neuroglia elements become hypertrophied and sclerous ; 

 the nerve-tubes disintegrate first at the superficies of the convolutions, 

 the cells are altered and the lesion of the cortex becomes incurable. 

 Hereditary factors no doubt have a large part to play in determining 

 how long the nervous elements can resist before they succumb to the 

 disease. 



The Occipital Cortex in Anophthalmia. 1 



The author finds that in cases of Anophthalmia and atrophy of 

 the optic bulb, (i) some layers in the cortex of the sulci calcarini are 

 absent altogether ; (2) those remaining are more or less reduced ; (3) 

 the missing layer is the fourth ( clear banded layer with scattered neu- 

 roblasts) ; (4) the fifth layer ( normally granular, consisting of numer- 

 ous crowded small cells, mixed in part with larger neuroblasts) is re- 

 duced, the larger cells being absent, the smaller atrophied, but not 

 diminished in number. 



Pathologic Lesions in Insanity.' 2 



The pathological anatomy of insanity in its simple, acute and the 

 so-called partial forms, is yet largely a matter of conjecture. In a 



1 Leonowa, O. v. Ueber das Verhalten der Neuroblasten des Occipital- 

 lappens bei Anophthalmia und Bulbusatrophie, und seine Beziehungen zum 

 Sehact. Archiv f. Anat. u. Phys. Anat. Ab., 5-6, 1893. 



2 Editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association. XXII, 10, 

 March 19, 1894. 



