DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 25 1 



This explanation, of course, cannot be experimentally 

 proved j but that it has some foundation in fact may be 

 deduced by reference to the extensive derangement in the 

 other nerve regions, particularly in the branch of the fifth 

 pair supplying the lower jaw. 



Alterations in the ophthalmic branch are likewise few when 

 those of the maxillary are so— proving, apparently, that the 

 lesion is central. 



According to Professor.Benedikt (" Wiener Med, Presse," 

 No. 74)* the disease is a special acute exudative inflammation 

 of the brain, resulting in various forms of hyaloid degenera- 

 tion, which is particularly observed in the neighborhood of 

 the lenticular nucleus of the anterior lobe^often in this 

 alone. Siedamgrotzky states that he has, in his examina- 

 tions, been particularly careful to inquire into the correctness 

 of this ; and in some cases of " dumb madness " there was 

 certainly a marked inflammatory condition of a portion of 

 the brain about the fissure of S)'lvius. 



In the " Giornale di Anatomia," etc., edited by the 

 veterinary professors at the University of Pisa, Rivolta gives 

 the description of a careful examination he made of the 

 brains of seven dogs which had perished from furious rabies 

 transmitted to them by inoculation. The result goes to show 

 that the pathological alterations in that organ consist mainly 

 in more or less marked hypersemia of the pia mater in the 

 cerebral fissures, but especially at the base of the brain, and 

 this hypera^mia is never absent from the cerebral plexus 

 choroides ; that softening of the cerebral substance is not 

 frequent, though, on the contrary, the grey substance is con- 

 stantly higher colored ; and that perivascular infiltration of 

 a fatty nature cannot be recognized as characteristic of this 

 disease, as Rivolta has noticed it in other maladies. t 



In the " Centralblatt fiir die Medicin Wissenschaften," t 

 Kolesemkoff reports the results of the examination of ten mad 



* From the " Veterinary Journal," October, 1876. 

 t Ibid. I Ibid, 



