72 The Dancing Mouse 



of the common mouse, and only those who have failed to find 

 any structural basis for the facts of behavior in the organs 

 of the ear have attempted to account for the dancer's whirl- 

 ing and deafness by assuming that the cerebellum is unusual 

 in structure. We are, therefore, forced to conclude that our 

 knowledge of the nervous system of the dancing mouse does 

 not at present enable us to explain the behavior of the animal. 



It seems highly probable to me, in the light of my observa- 

 tion of the dancer and my study of the entire literature con- 

 cerning the animal, that no adequate explanation of its ac- 

 tivities can be given in terms of the structure of the peripheral 

 or the central nervous system, or of both, but that the struc- 

 ture of the entire organism will have to be taken into account. 

 The dancer's physiological characteristics, in fact, suggest 

 multitudinous structural peculiarities. I have confined my 

 study to its behavior, not because the problems of structure 

 seemed less interesting or less important, but simply because 

 I found it necessary thus to limit the field of research in order 

 to accomplish what I wished within a limited period. 



That there are structural bases for the forms of behavior 

 which this book describes is as certain as it could be were 

 they definitely known; that they, or at least some of them, 

 are discoverable by means of our present-day histological 

 methods is almost as certain. It is, therefore, obvious that 

 this is an excellent field for further research. It is not an 

 agreeable task to report inconclusive and contradictory 

 results, and I have devoted this chapter to a brief account 

 of the work that has been done by others on the structure of 

 the ear of the dancer rather for the sake of presenting a com- 

 plete account of the animal as it is known to-day than because 

 of the value of the facts which could be stated. 



