AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT OF THIS PAPER ISSUED 
BY THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, JULY 19 
REMARKS ON VON MONAKOW’S “DIE LOKALISATION | 
IM GROSSHIRN””! 
REPKE 
Department of Physiology, Columbia University 
Every now and again a work appears which lays the axe at 
the root of some of our ancient and honorable scientific assump- 
tions which have survived so long and for years have been so 
often and so vehemently repeated that they have acquired a 
certain sacredness and become a part of the dogmatic and un- 
critical part of our teaching. Verily, the axe hath other uses 
than those to which it is put by politicians or administrators, 
and it would seem a pity that a notable work in which certain 
long-cherished assumptions are put to the test of modern knowl- 
edge should escape being brought to public notice. My object 
is not to give a formal review of the book, but to discourse in- 
formally upon some of its unusual features, and particularly 
those which have to do with the fundamental conceptions of 
the function of the central nervous system. 
One point in which von Monakow departs from the traditional 
views is his attitude toward the segmental theory of the nervous 
system and its necessary attendant hypothesis of shock. With- 
out pausing just here. to give a detailed discussion of his views, 
we may say that he rejects the segmental theory and limits 
the effects of shock in so far as they are incompatible with the 
theory of cerebral localization. It will conduce to the clear- 
ness of the discussion to give first a brief account of the older 
view of the segmental theory of the central nervous system and 
1 Die Lokalisation im Grosshirn und der Abbau der Funktion durch kortikale 
Herde, von Dr. med. C. von Monakow, Professor der Neurologie und Direktor 
des hirnanatomischen Institutes sowie der Nerven-Poliklinik aus der Universitat 
in Ziirich. Mit 268 Abbildungen im Text und 2 Tafeln. Wiesbaden. Verlag 
von J. F. Bergmann, 1914. 
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