516 THE POSTERIOR PITUITARY AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



thyroid was greatly enlarged, but under treatment with thy- 

 roid substance it diminished much in size." We have seen 

 how dependent the organism is upon the integrity of the 

 suprarenal system when infectious diseases develop. 



We can fully agree with Harlow Brooks 21 when he says: 

 "It is quite natural to expect pronounced abnormalities in the 

 various portions of the nervous system in a disease which ex- 

 hibits so many neurological symptoms"; and his statement that 

 "examinations of the nerve-tissues have shown quite extensive 

 and general changes" further sustains our deductions. Evi- 

 dence of this kind, garnered from all sides long before the 

 feature it serves to support is thought of, appears to us of the 

 strongest kind. We again prefer to use the author's own 

 words, therefore, rather than our own, when he reviews the 

 pathology of the disease, and which seems to us to portray 

 in parvo the main landmarks of neurological pathology. We 

 have only omitted those of the author's own estimates that 

 do not bear directly upon our subject and what text was not 

 purely descriptive: 



"Peripheral Nerves. The trunks of the peripheral nerves 

 are, for the most part, enlarged; this is directly due to an 

 increase in the connective tissue of the endoneurium and peri- 

 neurium. Often the sheaths of the nerve-trunks also show 

 considerable thickening. This general connective-tissue hyper- 

 plasia frequently so encroaches on the nerve-fibers as to destroy 

 them, and degenerated nerve-fibers are quite commonly found 

 some of which may show complete axis-cylinder destruction 

 (Arnold, Comini). These conditions may persist throughout 

 the entire nerve-trunk, extending even into the nerve-roots. 

 (Arnold, Duchesneau.) 



"Ganglia. In the posterior-root ganglia, also, we find the 

 connective-tissue elements greatly increased, so that even 

 macroscopically the ganglia are often considerably enlarged. 

 Microscopically the ganglionic cells are sometimes pressed upon 

 and atrophied (Marie, Marinesco). Arnold reports that he 

 found vacuoles in the nerve-cells. In Cases I and II of the 

 author's, the alterations in the ganglion-cells were slight. 



21 Harlow Brooks: Archives of Neurology and Psychopathology, vol. I, No. 4, 

 8, p. 592. 



