THE STRUCTURE OF THE MEDULLA. OBLONGATA. 503 



elsewhere." "We have not space left to discuss the special reports on 

 Mammals and Birds by Mr. J. A. Allen, on the Eeptiles and Fishes 

 by Mr. Alexander Agassiz, who appears to be following worthily in 

 his father's footsteps ; on the Insecta, Crustacea, and Annulata by Mr. 

 P. E. TJhler, on the Mollusks by Mr. J. Gr. Anthony, and on the 

 Brachiopoda by Mr. IST. S. Shayler. Suffice it to say, that great 

 activity seems to be manifested by all these gentlemen. And though 

 we belieye their eminent leader Professor Agassiz himself is now 

 recruiting his health (and at the same time adding to the riches of 

 his collection) in the wilds of South America, we have no fear that 

 his temporary absence will seriously affect the labours of this ener- 

 getic corps. Unless we are much mistaken, the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology of Cambridge, is destined hereafter to play no 

 mean part in the Annals of Science. 



XLI. — The Structure of the Medulla Oblot^gata. 



The Grey Substa^s-ce of the Medulla Oblongata and Tra- 

 pezium. By John Dean, M.D. (Smithsonian Contributions to 

 Knowledge.) "Washington, 1864. 



In the * Elementa Physiologiae' of the learned Haller, a few paragraphs 

 suffice for the description of the Medulla oblongata. At the present 

 day, an account of the same organ, comprehensive enough to include 

 the recent microscopic researches of Stilling, Schroeder van der 

 Kolk, Lockhart Clarke, Koelliker, and others, would fill at least a?t 

 many chapters, Nor can the increase be considered as a mere 

 increase of words, or even as a mere increase of pedantic knowledge 

 lacking wisdom. Every page of a faithful description of the minute 

 anatomy of the nervous centres represents a large amount of very 

 hard work, and every page is full of facts which give a promise of being 

 some day rich in meaning. There is hardly any field in Biology in 

 which labour is more praiseworthy or more fruitful. We may gladly 

 welcome, therefore, any fresh careful study like that embodied in the 

 memoir now before us. 



In it Dr. Dean, of Boston, U.S., well known for his contributions 

 to the minute anatomy of the spinal cord, attempts to give a descrip- 

 tive account of the grey substance of the medulla oblongata in man 

 and mammalia, and of the organ in mammalia known as the tra- 



