iv Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



increases. Cells destitute of them are rare. The granules may be 

 very small and exeedingly numerous or larger than normal and fewer, 

 sometimes elongated. If the excitation is continued for 8 hours, the 

 result does not differ quantitatively from the last case, but some gran- 

 ules appear dark brown. At the margin of the cell were groups of 

 large granules colored dark yellow. 



These experiments are certainly suggestive, but the methods em- 

 ployed seem too unreliable to yield conclusive results. In particular, 

 those used to secure both rest and fatigue seem open to the objection 

 that they depart too far from normal physiological processes and may 

 induce structural changes of many other kinds than the simple effects 

 desired. c. j. h. 



Halleck'g Education of the Central Nervous System.^ 



Mr. Halleck argues that education involves structural changes in 

 the nervous system and that a knowledge of these changes will con- 

 duce to better educational methods. From the title we should expect 

 a book treating primarily of the nervous system and its developmental 

 hygiene, and such it nominally is. Really, however, the book is 

 written from the pedagogical and psychological standpoint through- 

 out. The author evidently has not that first-hand knowledge of the 

 nervous system which would enable him to speak with authority in 

 this department ; yet he has made good use of his text-books and the 

 references to the neural processes involved in mental life add force and 

 illustration. They can hardly be said to do more. 



In a work devoted to the Education of the Central Nervous Sys- 

 tem in which no knowledge of brain structure or function is presup- 

 posed we should have expected a more full treatment of these topics 

 than can be compassed in 27 pages. Yet one thoroughly conversant 

 with the recent periodical literature would have made up even so brief 

 an account quite differently. There is no suggestion of the modern 

 ideas of nervous connection and transmission based upon the so-called 

 neuron theory nor of the details of the fiber connections of the cortex 

 about which so much positive information has been gained within the 

 last few years. Nor is the little that is given always exact. For ex- 

 ample, the following on page 29 could never have been written by 

 one familiar with the recent controversies between Professors Munk 

 and Goltz, — " When stimuli cause the rest of the nervous system to 



' The Education of the Central Nervous System. By Reuben Post Hal- 

 leck, M. A. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1896. 



