The literature of familial pre-senile dementia is adequately reviewed by McMenemey (1963) and Pratt (1967) and that on familial forms of Alzheimer's disease by Tandy and Bain (1970). In non-familial cases of Alzheimer's disease it has been possible to correlate the clinical features with the histological diagnosis obtained from cerebral biopsy (Sim and Sussman, 1962; Sim et al., 1966), and the present paper is an attempt to see whether, by using similar diagnostic criteria as listed in Table I, including cerebral biopsy, a similar consistency could be demonstrated in the affected members of each family.

The study of eye disorders in maladjusted children plays an interesting and important role in the investigation of psychosomatic problems of child psychiatry. Eye diseases in maladjusted children are frequently caused or aggravated by psychogenic factors. They are also sometimes connected with neurological disorders.

Tridione is established as by far the most powerful drug in the control of petit mal. Many of its clinical aspects, therapeutic as well as toxic, are as yet not clear. In spite of this there is a remarkable absence of reports on the use of it in controlled clinical experiments.

Difficulty occurs at times in the diagnostic differentiation between the manifestations of organic cerebral disease and those of hysteria, particularly in patients who suffer from symptoms which are largely subjective in nature, and which are not accompanied by physical signs. An attempt is made in this paper to discuss behaviour reactions which are characteristic of organic cerebral disease, and which, if present, exclude the possibility of the disease being “hysterical” in nature.

I. General Remarks. — It has frequently appeared to me that a rapid and easy method of staining according to Nissl would be of great advantage. It has been my routine practice to cut a fresh section and to stain according to Bevan Lewis in every case of insanity in which an autopsy had been obtained, and from that to record a few microscopic notes. A fairly complete description of neuroglial changes could thus be recorded, but only in a minor degree the changes which had occurred in cell protoplasm, i. e. cytological changes and various degenerations. For this one has to stain according to the method of Nissl, a method which stands out supreme for this purpose. But even Nissl's method is by no means perfect, and there are many drawbacks and imperfections. Hardening in alcohol causes considerable shrinkage; in fact, the main part of the cell is occupied by the nucleus. Alcohol also largely dissolves out fat, and therefore fatty degeneration cannot be shown. Again, it is not every asylum laboratory that has equipment for Nissl's method, but every asylum has the means of making a Nissl preparation according to a way I am about to describe.