TIk- j^cnetic ori^in of Demt-ntia PiaecíJX "<» 



praecox examined, there were marked changes in the interstitial cells. 

 Whereas, in General Paralysis clumps of eosin stained cells could be seen 

 in sections of the testes with a low power magnification, in the great 

 majority of cases dementia praecox eosin stained clumps were not visible; 

 under a high magnification the nuclei are palé, oval or irregular instead 

 of round, and there is a deñciency of chromatin; the appearances suggest 

 a failure of these interstitial cells to maturate (vide C fig. 8). Fibroblasts 

 and dense fibrous tissue, clearly visible by the Hortega method of stai- 

 ning, tend to replace the Leydig cells. These changes are most marked 

 the atrophied tubules are seen and there is a certain degree of corres- 

 pondence. 



Pigmentary degeneration was found in the Leydig cells in 7 of the 2"] 

 cases; in one of long duration most marked. This pigmentary degene- 

 ration is not found in the normal testes of adults, but it is present in oíd 

 age, and in men suffering with psychoses dying in the involutive period 

 of life. Indeed the same atrophie changes found in the testes of cases of 

 where dementia praecox I have found in a number of cases in which de- 

 mentia has ocurred in post adolescent psychoses (Vide bibliography 12). 



Female gonads. 



Comparative histological investigation of ovarles obtained from a lar- 

 ge number of patients dying in Asylums and some few in hospitals, al- 

 together over lOO cases, showed that there is in Dementia Praecox, Con- 

 genital imbecility, and various psychoses, a definite tendency to failure 

 of development of the Graafian follicles. This is in marked contrast with 

 the condition of the ovarles usually present in cases of General Paralysis 

 dying before the involutional period has set in. Some maturation in the 

 psychoses however, does occur, and recent corpora lútea can sometimes 

 be found, but in general there seems to be total arrest of development of 

 the primitive follicles, often with a premature sclerotic involution ot the 

 gland. 



The relatively few primitive follicles seen in young women sutfering 

 with Dementia Praecox, the deficiency of nuclear chromatin in those that 

 remain, the failure of these follicles to proceed beyond the very first sta- 

 ges of maturation are facts which accord with the condition in the male 



