354 Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



Mettler, L. Harrison. A Treatise on Diseases of the Nervous System, 9S9 

 pages, Cleveland Press, Chicago, 1 905. 



" The Neurone Doctrine is now an accepted fact." 

 After an introduction of 88 pages devoted to classification, etiol- 

 ogy, symptomatology, etc., the writer describes first the neuronic dis- 

 eases, beginning with the neuroses, hysteria, vertigo, neurasthenia, 

 epilepsy, and all the other neuroses, the sympathetic included, and the 

 system diseases — locomotor ataxia, the systemic motor palsies (inclu;!- 

 ing myasthenia), and the mixed afferent and efferent types. 



The non-neuronic diseases (p 457-957) include the changes 

 starting from the glia, vessels and sheaths, i)ractically all the diseases 

 of the peripheral nerves and diffuse and focal diseases of the nervous 

 system. Alcoholism and some other toxic and infectious disorders 

 with prominent participation of the nervous system come last (j). 



959-971)- 



Notwithstanding this somewhat peculiar arrangement, Mettler 

 gives a very readable presentation of the chief facts, general and clin- 

 ical, in most respects superior to several of the books which are in the 

 hands of many students In view of the excellency of the matter it is 

 rather a pity that an essentially doctrinal issue should be at the top of 

 every page — the distinction of neuronic and non-neuronic diseases, in 

 the somewhat arbitrary sense in which Mettler makes his sub- 

 division. 



The illustrations are well chosen and very instructive. The book 

 deserves recommendation. Lapses are relatively rare, as on p. 486, 

 under Burdach's column: " astereognosis, loss of reflexes and every 

 physiological act that involves sensation, directly or rcllexly, arc di- 

 minished or abolished," when it is diseased. a. m. 

 Child, C. M. Studies on Regulation. The Relation of the Central Nervous 

 System and Regeneration in Leptoplana : Posterior Regeneration. /oiir\ 

 Ex. Zoology, 1, 493-512. 1904. 



The presence of about half of the cerebral ganglion has both 

 quantitative and qualitative influence on the reaction of pieces, and 

 the efficiency of the brain in this respect is not localized. This effi- 

 ciency is affected by the amount of nervous tissue present in the piece 

 and not by the presence of a particular part of the nervous system. 

 The influence of the nervous system upon posterior regeneration is 

 quantitative only, and is not " formative" but indirect through the in- 

 fluence of functional conditions. In regeneration, also, the influence 

 of the nervous system depends upon theamoinit present and not upon 

 the presence of a particular part : a condition which argues against 

 the idea of functional centers. c;. e. c. 



