Birth and Brain Damage.

Two weeks after completing the manuscript of this book, Cyril B. Courville died on March 22, 1968, leaving its publication to his wife, Margaret Courville. In nearly 40 years as a neuropathologist, the author returned again and again in numerous publications to the subject of cerebral injury at birth by trauma, anoxia, or altered circulation. This extensive monograph represents in major part a summary of his ideas concerning the pathogenesis of the lesions. References to the literature are many (there are over 450 separate articles listed in the bibliography) and nearly all deal with papers that are in agreement with the author's views on pathogenesis, either in children or the experimental animal. His final conclusion is that perinatal anoxia is the most important causative agent of brain injury of early childhood.

Few students of the problem will disagree with this view, even if they will not concede that anoxia is