'^'•'- I- J Clarence Luther Herriek. 21 



In 1S<S9 he began work in earnest on the nervous system and 

 immediately there appeared a series of papers in rapid sucecssion, 

 some of great length and others mere jottings. The first long^ 

 paper was published with Professor W. (I. Tight in the Denison 

 University Bulletin in 1890 and was entitled "The Central Nerv- 

 ous System of Rodents." This paper contains nineteen double 

 plates and a vast amount of observation ; and was designed as a 

 preliminary survey of the field, the plates to form the basis of 

 further detailed observations and correlation. lUit he soon be- 

 came convinced that this correlation could best be attempted 

 after a thorough study of several types of lower brains and the 

 series was interrupted. At the time of his breakdown in 189-i 

 he was just ab>out to take up again by the degeneration methods ' 

 a more thorough study of the mammalian brain. Thus this rodent 

 paper stands now as an unfinished fragment. 



This, however, illustrates well his plan of work, a plan which 

 must be clearly understood in order to put a proper estimate 

 on his published researches. He found correlation impossible 

 and at once saw that only in primitive types could the key be 

 found, and that too> not in any one series, but only in the common 

 features of many lower types. Accordingly he undertook to ex- 

 amine in rapid succession as material offered a large number 

 of lower brains, taking voluminous notes and publishing the ob- 

 served data as fast as they were ready. All of this work was 

 fragmentary and much of it contained .but little correlation. But 

 the mass of facts gathered and recorded was enormous. He 

 realized that the incessant strain on his eyes could not always be 

 kept up, and planned to accumulate fact as rapidly as possible 

 until failing eyes should impair his efficiency in this field. Then 

 he hoped to review the whole field of vertebrate neurology syste- 

 matically, using his own observations as the skeleton on which 

 to build by study of literature and further research of his own on 

 critical points, until the whole should take shape as a unity. When 

 he settled in (Iranville the second time in 1893 he expected to 

 begin that work of correlation, and this is doubtless the special 

 significance of the announcement published at that time of a 



