Literary Notices. xiii 



tance and one which in the past neurology and psychiatry have sadly 

 lacked. It is of course merely that generalization and integration of 

 facts which gives to science its true stamp as science and the lack of 

 which has so often kept these departments so far behind their sister 

 sciences. But now all this is changed and no one can complain of 

 the lack of generalization in neurology. 



Foremost among the men in this rank Professor Wernicke places 

 Golgi and Cajal, v. Monakow, Dejerine. The recent generalizations 

 of Flechsig^ on the association centers, or " Cogitationscentren " of 

 the brain do not meet with equal favor. Flechsig draws a very at- 

 tractive picture. At the beginning of the nmth month we find the 

 foetus without cortical connections, practically in the condition of 

 Goltz' decorticated dog. We watch the centripetal fibers growing up 

 into the cortex to their respective sensation areas, beginning with the 

 fibers of general visceral and cutaneous sensation, in the two central 

 gyri, and followed about a month later by the olfactory fibers and still 

 later by those of the other special senses. Between the areas thus 

 connected there are large areas which receive no coronal fibers, but 

 from which associational fibers develop in great numbers. These as- 

 sociation centers are originally distinct and are only secondarily fused 

 with each other and with the other cortical areas to form an organic 

 whole. Their psychological importance, if Flechsig's views hold, is 

 vast, for upon them are dependent all of the higher processes ot in- 

 tellect and emotion. 



All this Professor Wernicke sweeps away at one stroke. Grant- 

 ing all of Flechsig's anatomical findings in the foetus and the child, it 

 by no means follows that the same isolation of areas supplied by cor- 

 onal fibers prevails in the adult. Indeed, he says, Flechsig's results 

 have absolutely nothing to do with the localization of mental faculties. 

 While it is probably true that the theoretical parts of Flechsig's work 

 are characterized by certain excesses, yet we must believe that his dis- 

 coveries have a higher significance than Professor Wernicke is willing 

 to admit. But whatever their significance to psychology and psychia 

 try, there can be no doubt that Flechsig's embryological method as an 

 instrument of anatomical research has few rivals in the field today and 

 we predict for it a still wider application in the solution of problems 

 in comparative morphology. 



> Those who may not be acquainted with Flechsig's original papers we 

 would refer to the excellent digest of his researches given by Lewellyn F- 

 Barker in the /ournai of Ntrv. and Ment. Disease, XXIV, 6, p. 329. 



