Bawden, Movements of the Netirone. 257 



the New York State Hospitals, to be published in the Archives of Neu- 

 rology and Psychopathology, Vol. II, Nos. 3-4, 1900. It is entitled 

 ' ' On the Evidence of the Golgi Methods for the Theory of Neurone 

 Retraction." The general conclusions support the position taken in 

 the present article. They are as follows : 



^ *' I. The same material, when treated by different methods, yields 

 different results. The nature of the differences in case of each kind of 

 material is as follows : 



" All material treated according to the slow method of Golgi, 

 shows, as a rule, an almost absolute freedom from varicosities ; vari- 

 cose cells occasionally occur, but with relative frequency which is per- 

 haps not greater than a fraction of one per cent of the total number of 

 pyramid cells impregnated. Exceptionally, a large proportion of vari- 

 cosities occurs. 



" The mixed method and the rapid method may be considered to- 

 gether; these two methods yield practically similar results as regards 

 the varicosities and the gemmules. The gemmules are almost invari- 

 ably present and generally regular, provided the dendrites have taken 

 impregnation. The varicosities occur in variable proportions, although 

 their frequency regularly is greater, and almost always very much 

 greater, than is the case in the slow method. In some sections, almost 

 every dendrite is varicose, in others, hardly any. 



" In the Cox method, a fair amount of varicoseness is generally 

 present at any stage of fixation. Gemmules are almost universally 

 present and regular. 



" II. The above results are independent of the nature of the ma- 

 terial, whether normal or toxic. Normal material, as well as toxic, is, 

 as a rule, free from varicosities when treated by the slow method. Nor- 

 mal material, as well as toxic, exhibits a variable amount of varicosity, 

 when treated by any of the other three methods which we have used. 

 AVe find that it varies within exactly the same limits as the abnormal, 

 that every degree of varicoseness can be illustrated with equal free- 

 dom from either, and, finally, that it is impossible for an unprejudiced 

 observer to differentiate or distinguish between the two kinds of 

 material. 



" III. The same material does not yield constantly identical re- 

 sults, when treated by one and the same method. Pieces from the 

 same artimal, when immersed in the same fiuids of the slow, mixed, 

 rapid, or Cox method, may illustrate the extreme of varicoseness pro- 

 duced by that method. 



" The above conclusions seem to demonstrate that the varicosities 

 are to be regarded as artifacts of the Golgi method," 



