248 THE LOW ER PRIMATES 



Recent experimental work upon cats (Pike), in which the inferior olive 

 on one side was destroyed, produced ahnost identical results with those 

 reported Idv Bcchterew. The paralysis of the eye muscles, the nystagmus and 

 the torsion of the body were all prominent symptoms as a result of discrete 

 olivary lesions. The most striking feature of the disorder, however, was the 

 torsion which took place in the trunk and neck. This torsion determined 

 such a position of the body that the head and face of the animal together 

 with its forehmbs were pointed one way, while the hind extremities pointed 

 in the opposite direction. Repetitions of this experiment produced similar 

 effects in all cases. These experiments were controlled in such a way as to 

 exclude the results of injury to neighboring structures. The conclusion that 

 the inferior olive is involved in the coordinative control of the eye, neck and 

 arm musculature seemed unavoidable. 



Clinico-pathological observation sheds little light upon this problem. 

 Cases in which lesions of the olive have been observed are usually masked by 

 encroachment ol the pathological process upon some important atlerent or 

 eflerent tracts in the oblongata. They have in no instance been discrete 

 enough to permit of valid deductions regarding the function of this structure 

 on the basis of pathological alteration in man. 



CONNECTIONS OF THE INFERIOR OLIVE 



These connections are of much signiiicance in this cjuestion. The out- 

 standing fibers related to the olivary body are those already mentioned 

 as constituting the olivo-cerebellar pathway. These fibers undoubtedly 

 establish the ultimate connection between the olive and various portions of 

 the cerebellar cortex including both the vermis and the lateral lobes. Another 

 important connection is the central tegmental tract which lies along the 

 ventrolateral aspect of the olive and may be traced upward in the tegmentum 

 of the pons into the midbrain in the region of the nucleus oculomotorius and 



