august 1899] THE BRAINS OF MAMMALS 14; 



THE BRAINS OF MAMMALS. 



Handbuch der Anatomie und vergleichenden Anatomie der Centralnerven- 

 Systems der Saugethiere : I. Makroscopischer Theil. By Drs. E. Flatau 

 and S. Jacobsohn. Svo, pp. xvi. +578, with 7 plates and 126 figs. 

 Berlin: S. Karger, 1899. Price 22 marks. 



Perhaps we can bestow no greater praise on this elaborate and bulky 

 treatise (which, by the way, only forms a first instalment of the complete work) 

 than the expression of the wish that it may be found possible to republish it 

 on a reduced scale in English. We say in an abbreviated form on purpose, 

 because in these high -pressure times there is scarcely any one save the 

 specialist who can afford time to wade through the mass of detail brought 

 together by the learned author ; and it is important that students of mammals, 

 other than brain-specialists, should make themselves acquainted with the lead- 

 ing facts of the present line of investigation. Although, so far as we are 

 aware, there is no work in English specially devoted to the central nervous 

 system of mammals, we are glad to see the authors of the volume before us 

 confessing their indebtedness to British investigators like Cunningham, Bed- 

 dard, and Garrod. 



The plan adopted by the authors is to take leading representatives of the 

 various mammalian orders in regular sequence and to describe in detail the 

 brain-characters in each, more space being naturally devoted to the complicated 

 brain of the Chimpanzee than is assigned to its simpler representative in the 

 Duckbill or Echidna. One method of illustration that especially commends 

 itself to us is the delineation of the position of the chief cerebral sulci on the 

 outer surface of the skull of the animal to which the brain in question pertains. 

 By this means an excellent idea is gained not only of the relative proportion of 

 the brain to the skull, but also as to the relative complexity of brain-convolu- 

 tion in different animals. At the close of the work are given the general 

 results of the authors' investigations ; and some very interesting facts are 

 recorded as to the relation of the volume of the brain to that of the skull, the 

 absolute brain-weight, and the relation of the latter to the corporeal weight. 

 Needless to say that these investigations tend in no wise to a revival of the 

 cerebral classification of Mammals attempted by Owen. 



In only one respect have we to find fault with the authors, and this relates 

 to the names employed for some of the animals treated of. It is a well-known 

 complaint on the part of systematists that anatomical and physiological writers 

 are generally remiss in regard to nomenclature, but it is seldom that we 

 encounter such a gross anachronism as the retention of the name Simla troglo- 

 dytes for the Chimpanzee. Several minor errors in nomenclature also occur. 

 And here it is desirable to warn the advocates of radical changes in mammalian 

 nomenclature that such are scarcely ever adopted by non-systematists (who 

 probably never see them), so that instead of promoting uniformity, which is 

 the only justifiable plea for their introduction, such changes in names only lead 

 to worse confusion than ever. The volume closes with a comprehensive list of 

 literature, in regard to which it may be remarked that it is a pity some person 

 with a better knowledge of English than is apparently possessed by the authors 

 was not asked to read the proof-sheets. 



The work, when complete, will doubtless long remain the standard authority 

 on the interesting but difficult subject of which it treats. 



