ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CERTAIN NERVE CELL CHANGES, PROBABLY TOXIC, IN RELATION TO CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS

This is an account of observations on a condition of the cortical ganglion cells believed by the writer to be caused probably by the action of severe toxic or retained metabolic substances, the observations having been made in the course of routine study of state hospital autopsy material. It has been reported by Mott as occurring in dementia præcox, and by Dunlap as occurring in control cases. Comparison of histological findings in certain cases of acute mania- cal near delirious states thought to be manic depressive psychoses with similar findings in uremic and severely toxic conditions of more or less chronicity, aside from its purely histological interest, also affords an example of one way in which coöperation between the state hospital laboratory (the decline of which is alluded to in the body of this paper) and the state hospital clinical staff, can be valuable without being spectacular.