PREFACE 13 



are so similar to the human brain in all respects, save the 

 smaller relative size of the cerebral cortex, that they can readily 

 be used for such studies. Before dissection the brain should be 

 carefully removed from the skull and hardened by immersion for 

 a few days in a solution of formalin (to be obtained at any drug 

 store and diluted with water in the proportion of one part 

 formalin to nine parts water). Several neurological laboratory 

 guides have been published, and one of these should be followed 

 in the dissection. 1 



This work is designed as an introduction in a literal sense. 

 Several very excellent manuals and atlases of neurology are 

 available, and to these the reader is referred for the illustrations 

 and more detailed descriptions necessary to complete the rather 

 schematic outline here presented. The larger medical text- 

 books of anatomy and physiology are, however, often very diffi- 

 cult for the beginner, chiefly on account of the lack of correlation 

 of the structures described and their functions. This little 

 book has been prepared in the hope that it will help the student 

 to learn to organize his knowledge in definite functional pat- 

 terns earlier in his work than is often the case, and to appreciate 

 the significance of the nervous system as a working mechanism 

 from the beginning of his study. 



The structure and functions of the nervous system are of 

 interest to students in several different fields medicine, psy- 

 chology, sociology, education, general zoology, comparative 

 anatomy, and physiology, among others. The view-points and 

 special requirements of these various groups are, of course, 

 different; nevertheless the fundamental principles of nervous 

 structure and function are the same, no matter in what 

 field the principles are applied, and the aim here has been to 



1 BuRKHOLDER, J. F. 1912. The Anatomy of the Brain, Second Edition, 

 Chicago, G. P. Engelhard & Co. (Dissection of the brain of the sheep.) 



FISKE, E. W. 1913. An Elementary Study of the Brain Based on the 

 Dissection of the Brain of the Sheep, New York, The Macmillan Company. 



HARDESTY, 1. 1902. Neurological Technique, The University of Chicago 

 Press. (Dissection of the human brain by means of transverse gross 

 sections, methods of microscopic preparation, and lists of neurological 

 terms.) 



HERRICK, C. JUDSON, and CROSBY, ELIZABETH. 1915. A Laboratory 

 Outline in Neurology, privately printed by the authors at the University of 

 Chicago. (Dissection of the dogfish, sheep, and human brains, and direc- 

 tions for study of prepared microscopic sections of the human brain.) 



