EDITORIAL. 



THE PROBLEMS OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY. 



It is natural for workers in every department of science 

 to feel that their own chosen field of investigation is that 

 which opens the most direct avenue to the Arcana of nature. 

 It is well, therefore, to reflect at times upon the necessary 

 limitations of each sphere, as well as the connections be- 

 tween allied departments. The brief review here following 

 is intended to illustrate a few recent tendencies rather than 

 to summarize the results in all directions. Such reviews 

 will be offered from time to time in the hope of affording a 

 perspective of the field represented by this periodical. The 

 nervous system, in a sense, occupies a unique position among 

 the organs of the body, in that it is at once the medium of 

 communication between all organs and the "governor" 

 which adjusts the function of each several organ to every 

 other function. Just what part the nervous system plays in 

 creating the organs cannot be decided at present, but the 

 phenomena of metamorphosis and of trophic action indicate 

 that the initiative in many cases proceeds from the nervous 

 system. The broad generalization of modern biology that 

 the function precedes, and, in a sense, creates its organ, 

 when applied to the problem of animal morphology leads to 

 the belief that in tracing the evolution of the nervous system 

 we are to a very considerable extent determining the pro- 

 gressive revelation of that which difterentiates the animal 

 from the inanimate residuum. 



