INTRODUCTION
Since Dr. Adolf Meyer1 described, in 1901, the symptom-complex "central neuritis," which he introduced as a short designation of the "parenchymatous systemic degeneration mainly in the central nervous system," a number of cases have been added to the literature by different authors, and there is no doubt that this condition can be recognized from its clinical symptoms and established anatomically. According to the descriptions of authors, this symptom-complex is found to occur in depressive psychoses at the time of involution, in alcoholic senile states and in alcoholic phthisical-cachectic states, and the clinical condition is characterized by diarrhea, emaciation, twitchings and rigidity of the extremities, some fever and some changes in the reflexes, and the mental condition is an anxious, perplexed agitation, delirium or stupor. Anatomic investigation revealed "changes somewhat similar to those found in the motor cells of the cord and the medulla, from which the nerve process