Meyer, Data of Modern Neurology. 279 



I refer, for a summary of the literature, to the memoirs of 

 Giambattista Valenza (cambiamenti microscopici della cellule 

 nervose nella loro attivita funzionale e sotto I'azione di agenti 

 stimolanti e destruttori. Napoli, 1896) and the excellent re- 

 views of the Rivista di Patologia, Revue neurologique and Neu- 

 rolog. Centralblatt, and especially to the studies of Nissl and 

 Lugaro. As a concise and easily accessible statement of most 

 of the data, the two general reviews by van Gehuchten and by 

 Marinesco, offered to the Congress of Moscow, deserve recom- 

 mendation. I give here a short account of the set of experi- 

 ments made by Goldscheider and Flatau, also reported at the 

 Moscow Congress and accessible in abstract in the Revue neu- 

 rologique, Vol. V, p. 525. 



1. The injection of ' malonnitrile ' (CN-CH^ -CN) pro- 

 duces violent phenomena of intoxication which disappear after 

 the administration of hyposulphite of sodium. In connection 

 with the intoxication one finds the Nissl bodies in the ventral 

 horn-cells in a process of deformation and disaggregation; they be- 

 come smaller and lose their regular and symmetrical disposition. 

 The non-stainable substance and the nucleus take an equally in- 

 tense stain. Under the influence of the hyposulphite of sodium 

 all these alterations disappear within three days. It is of in- 

 terest that the functional symptoms of intoxication disappear 

 very rapidly, more rapidly than the morphological alterations 

 of the cells. 



2. When an animal is overheated to a temperature of 

 109-112° F., the cells increase in volume, become homogene- 

 ous, opaque, and take a light blue color. The Nissl bodies 

 are destroyed ; the dendrites are pale blue, oedematus and vari- 

 cose. The changes begin to decrease at once after the experi- 

 ment, and disappear completely in two or three days. The 

 same alterations, but less marked, are observed with a tempera- 

 ture of 106-7°, if at least this elevation of temperature is kept 

 up for at least three hours. 



In this experiment too the function recovers before the 

 restitution of the anatomical changes. 



3. The toxin of tetanus produces very characteristic nu- 



