THE NORMAL HISTOLOGY OF INFANTS' BRAINS

Abstract

Intestinal intoxication of infants, or so-called toxicosis of infants, is a fairly well recognized clinical entity. Its etiology, however, is still obscure. Recently, in the light of the modern conception of the hypothalamus as the seat of centers regulating vegetative functions, an attempt was made by Goldzieher¹ to trace the extreme dehydration that characterizes this disease to pathologic alterations in the brain, particularly in parts of the diencephalon adjacent to the floor and walls of the third ventricle. He reported three cases of intestinal intoxication, in which he believed he found definite inflammatory lesions in the hypothalamic and paraventricular regions as well as in the midbrain. The lesions were described by him as diffuse and nodular infiltrations, "scattered all over the hypothalamus and the brain tissue around the tuber cinereum, being most conspicuous in the gray matter surrounding the third ventricle." The nodules varied in size in accordance with