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This volume contains the papers read at the 1955 meeting of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease. The larger portion is devoted to neurological changes occurring with the aging process, and deals with age pigments, cellular inclusions, calcium deposits, basal metabolism, oxygen consumption, falling out of neurons, and so forth. It is concluded that all of these varied considerably and none could specifically show the degree of aging, though all were generally progressively effected by the process.
Also from the organic point of view an interesting paper was given on animal experiments. When mice were given food rich in all essentials but insufficient for general body needs, their life span could be as much as doubled. It was recalled that over fifty years ago, it had been observed that tumors could not be transplanted into underfed rats. The underfed rats were also more slowly affected by chronic diseases. We cannot draw conclusions as regards humans from this, but it calls attention to the fact that much is unknown about aging and that possible discoveries may be imminent to prolong life aside from just controlling infections.
Another paper dealt with the changes noted in intelligence tests. Observations