Literary Notices. 8 1 



the sounds were perceived through the ears or through the bones of 

 the head, as stopping the ears with vaseline did not seem to affect the 

 perception. . j. carleton bell. 



Edinger and Wallenberg's Bericht.' 



We heartily welcome the appearance of this Bericht printed as a 

 Sepnrit of convenient form. Six hundred and twenty-eight titles are 

 noticed in two hundred and seventy-two small pages. About one-tenth 

 of the work is devoted to vertebrates below the mammals. The 

 greater part of the whole work is now done by Wallenberg. 



J. B. J. 

 Substitution of Function after Nerve Anastomosis. 



Some interesting side lights on the plasticity of the associational 

 paths within the human cerebral cortex are thrown by a recent sur- 

 gical case* in which, after traumatic destruction of the facialis root 

 and resultant paralysis, the central end of the spinal accessory nerve 

 was sutured on to the peripheral facialis and a successful union effected. 

 There resulted total permanent paralysis of the trapezius and s.terno- 

 mastoid muscles and almost perfect restoration of facial symmetry both 

 at rest and (less perfectly) in the facial movements. 



The account of the case is illustrated by numerous photographs 

 taken before the operation for anastomosis and at various stages during 

 the restoration of the function. The case brings into unusually sharp 

 prominence the problem involved in the resultant alterations in the 

 central associational paths and suggests a plasticity of cortical paths 

 tpiite at variance with some of the current theories. c. j. H. 



The Cerebral Commissures Again.' 



Professor G. Elliot Smith takes as his text a remarkable aberrant 

 commissure found only in the forebrain of Sphenodon and the true 

 lizards and subjects the commissures of the hippocampal region of 

 amniote vertebrates to a critical comparative examination. This 

 aberrant commissure he finds to be "a bundle of fibers derived from 



1 Bericht ul)er die Leistungen auf dem Gebiete der Anatomic des Central- 

 nervensystems in den Jahren 1901 und 1902. Von Prof. Dr. L. Edinger und 

 Dr. A. Wallenberg. Leipzig, Vertag von S. Hirzel, 1903. 



'^ Gushing, Harvey. The Surgical Treatment of Facial Paralysis by Nerve 

 Anastomosis. Annals of Surgery, XXXVII, 5, May, 1903. 



■' Smith, G. Elliot. On the Morphology of the Cerebral Commissures in 

 the Vertebrata, with special Reference to an Aberrant Commissure found in the 

 Forebrain of Certain Reptiles. Trans. Linn. Soc. London, 2 Ser., VIII, 12, 

 July, 1903. 



