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In this attractive, beautifully illustrated monograph dedicated to Professor Jean Lhermitte, and devoted to the inferior olives, the author has presented his own researches and ideas and has brought together in a most concise way the numerous contributions of the master investigators in this field.
The first part is concerned with the general morphology, the histology and the various connections of the olivary body, and the second part with functional phenomena. Here is found information on phylogenetic development through the vertebrate series and on ontogenetic growth through the embryonic and foetal stages of life. Data are presented on the results of experimental destruction of the olives and their various connections, and several theories that have been constructed regarding olivary functions are enumerated. Apparently the functions have not been determined satisfactorily as yet.
The third part deals with the pathology of focal and regional lesions. Pathological changes of an inflammatory nature, caused by tetanus, typhoid, varicela, encephalitis, paretic neurosyphilis, etc., are described and illustrative cases presented. One brief chapter is devoted to the clivary lesions in senile involution states, where sclerosis is prominent but senile plaques are not found. Another chapter reviews degenerative types of lesions affecting the tract systems, olivary atrophy and those found in myoclonic epilepsy.
The fourth and most extensive part, comprising about a third of the monograph, discusses the pathology of olivary hypertrophy and the significance of clinical phenomena. Studies on olivary hypertrophy have been fruitful in throwing some light on the function of these structures. The author first describes the histological characteristics of the different cellular elements in this condition as revealed by a number of staining techniques. The text is well illustrated by photomicrographs and drawings. This is followed by comments on pathogenesis and the neurobiology of th