Structure of the Central Nervous System. 



LECTURE I. 



A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY AND METHODS OF INVESTIGATING THE 



CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



GENTLEMAN : The anatomy of the central nervous system, 

 with the main features of which these lectures are to make you 



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familiar, has engaged the serious attention of numerous investi- 

 gators since the renaissance of anatomical science. 



Vesalius, Eustachio, Aranzio, Yarolio, and Fallopia laid the 

 foundations upon which it was possible to build in a later age. 

 As early as the seventeenth century several good-sized mono- 

 graphs appeared, which, considering the methods of investigation 

 then pursued, may be regarded as exhaustive. Such are the 

 books of Th. Willis, of Raim, and of Vieussens. And yet at 

 this time Willis could describe such structures as the corpus 

 striatum, the anterior commissure, the pyramids, and the olivary 

 bodies as new. Important contributions to the anatomy of the 

 brain were made by F. D. Sylvius, J. J. Wepfer, and Van Leu- 

 wenhoeck. It was the latter, indeed, who first instituted micro- 

 scopic examination of the brain. Toward the end of the last 

 century v. Malacarne, in Italy ; S. Th. von Sommering, in Ger- 

 many ; and Vicq d'Azyr and Rolando, in France, materially 

 increased our knowledge of the brain. 



At the beginning of the present century hardly anything 

 of importance remained to be added to the description of the 

 coarser structure of the nervous system. Nevertheless, hardly 

 any advance had been made in what we to-day regard as the 

 most important part of our knowledge of brain anatomy; that 

 is, the minute connections of the different parts of the brain 

 and the course of nerve-tracts. Even comparative anatomy, the 

 study of which was taken up during the first part of this 



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