When Dr. Courville died in 1968, he had completed the manuscript of this monograph, which his colleagues have seen through the press and which Mrs. Courville has published in handsome format and binding. Although Dr. Courville made contributions to many areas of neuropathology, his name is especially associated with studies on laminar necrosis produced by anoxia and on possible participation of anoxia in diseases of etiology at present uncertain.
The book is a detailed summary and synthesis of investigations extending over nearly 40 years. Most of the book deals with aspects of birth anoxia, including mechanisms of damage at birth, various forms of atrophy, laminar necrosis, nodular cortical sclerosis, and cyst formation. The remainder of the text considers the more controversial relations of anoxia to demyelinations and diffuse sclerosis. Dr. Courville concluded "the basic reasons for the physiological philosophies and the theories suggested should be critically evaluated and disproved if