PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 103 



from advance sheets of " Contributions to the Morphology and Sys- 

 tematic Eelations of the Saprolegniei," by N. Pringsheim.* 



The results of my investigations on the Saprolegniei may be con- 

 densed as follows : — 



1. In all the Saprolegniei the male organs of generation develop 

 from the well-known antheridia, that are formed near or grow toward 

 the oogonia. 



2. Those in which antheridia or their equivalents are wanting, 

 are not, as has been supposed, distinct species, with modified organs, 

 but parthenogenetic forms, whose sporangia ripen and bud without 

 fertilization. 



3. In the Saprolegniei there is but one kind of sporangia ; those 

 which develop parthenogenetically, and those which are fertilized are 

 identical, and show no difference originally. The unfertilized zoospores 

 grow sooner and more readily than those which are fertilized. 



4. Several peculiarities in the formation of zoospores, which have 

 been considered sufficient specific distinctions, are not important as 

 such, but are merely evidences of a greater or less tendency to di- 

 morphism, representing various stages of development in the zoospores. 



5. Also various sexual forms of growth may apjDcar in the same 

 species, which are not reliable as specific distinctions. 



The Histology of the Brain in the Insane. — Very many physi- 

 cians who have given attention to this subject are of opinion that the 

 structure of the brain is not materially, if at all, altered in disease. 

 Now, however, a different view is expressed in a paper read before the 

 Chicago Society of Physicians and Surgeons, and reported in the 

 'Medical Examiner' (a Chicago paper) for June 15. The paper in 

 question was prepared by Dr. Walter Kempster, of the Northern 

 Asylum for the Insane, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, formerly of the New 

 York State Lunatic Asylum, at Utica, and he had made microscopical 

 examinations in forty-nine cases. Numerous slides were exhibited of 

 sections, made mostly through the third left anterior cerebral con- 

 volution, illustrating the lesions of acute mania ; the large sclerous 

 patches in chronic mania ; the dementia of syphilitic paralysis ; one 

 section through the olivary body, and one through the pons Varolii — 

 each illustrative of acute mania. 



Numerous micro-photographs were likewise shown, illustrating the 

 lesions of cerebro-spinal meningitis ; of numerous colloid masses in 

 the medulla oblongata, and large degenerated masses with dense 

 fibrous investing membrane in the spinal cord, opposite second cervi- 

 cal vertebra — each illustrative of acute mania. Also, a section through 

 the olivary bodies, in a case of puerperal mania, showing fibres and 

 connective tissue in degenerated masses. 



After acknowledging the great abilities and researches of Lockhart 

 Clarke, Virchow, Meynert, Schultze, Deiters, and others, in the study 

 of the nervous system. Dr. Kempster remarks that, so far as he is 

 aware, none of them have directed especial attention to the abnor- 

 malities found in the brains of those who die while insane. 



* ' Jahrbuch fiir wissenschaftlicher Botanik,' ix, Bd. 2tr. Heft. 



