Editorial. 63 



Under these depressing circumstances only about twenty 

 of the remaining thirty-four members of the Commission were 

 able to attend the meeting, over which Professor Waldeyer 

 presided. The subdivision into special subsections was aban- 

 doned and a general discussion took plaee as to the feasibility 

 of establishing such institutes as the late Professor His had 

 suggested. In the public discussion the chief difficulty brought 

 forward against the realization of the scheme was financial — 

 the need for funds to establish and maintain the institutes ; but 

 in private conversation with the members there seemed to be 

 a general concensus of opinion that the scheme was too Uto- 

 pian ; that it was hardly likely that any considerable body of 

 men would be so self-denying as to present their material to an 

 institute for distribution and that the possibility of accomplish- 

 ing the other objects aimed at in the general scheme seemed to 

 be very slight. However, the members present agreed to strive 

 to make the existing institutions in which each of them was 

 working serve as far as possible the function of such a central in- 

 stitute as had been outlined in the general scheme. This pla- 

 tonic resolution was the only result of the general meeting of 

 the Commission. 



At the general meeting Professor Edinger remarked that 

 this exceptional meeting of neurologists afforded an excellent op- 

 portunity to discuss certain problems of general interest, and 

 he proposed that a special meeting be held to discuss the pri- 

 mary subdivision of the vertebrate cerebral hemisphere. At 

 the special meeting, which was presided over by Professor J. 

 N. Langlev, Professor Edinger explained that his chief reason 

 for calling the meeting was to discuss the possibility of devising 

 some primary subdivision of the lowlier vertebrate types of 

 cerebral hemisphere such as I had proposed for the Mammalia. 

 I was requested to explain to the meeting the nature of my 

 subdivision of the mammalian hemisphere and especially the 

 significance of the neopallium. In the discussion, which was 

 carried on chiefly by the chairman. Professors Retzius, Edin- 

 ger and the writer, it was agreed that it was not possible at 

 present to suggest any satisfactory mode of subdivision which 



