The work is divided into six parts. In the first part, an account is given of the varying results obtained by Nissl's method of staining, concerning the minute anatomy of the nervous cell and its lesions. The numerous modifications of this method were tried, and Ladame places most reliance on the method of Van Gehuchten, which he has altered in certain details; so that, for instance, instead of washing in water after fixation he carries his specimens into 60 per cent. alcohol saturated with chloride of sodium; whence, after leaving them in this bath for a while, they are placed in 70 per cent. alcohol, also saturated with chloride of sodium. He uses, moreover, essence of cedar in preference to chloroform as the vehicle of paraffin for embedding, in spite of certain drawbacks. Toluidine blue is used instead of methylene blue for staining the sections, and gives a neat, intense coloration, agreeable to the eye; moreover it is more stable than methylene blue.