Literary Notices. xv 



Jnhresbericht f. Nenrolojrie nnd Ps)cliiiitri(i.' 



This is the fourth issue of this indispensable serial, containing the 

 literature for the year 1900. The volume comprises 1135 pages of 

 closely printed matter and some 6000 titles are given in the literature 

 lists, a large proportion of which are accompanied by brief abstracts. 

 The general plan of the work is as in previous issues, and is carried 

 out with the same thoroughness. 



The Flat Fislies.^ 



This memoir, in connection with a general account of the anatomy 

 of Pleuronectes, gives a discussion of the nervous system which is of 

 importance to comparative neurologists. The description of the brain 

 is brief and confined mainly to externals. The peripheral nerves and 

 sense organs are, however, very fully and critically treated. The 

 peripheral nerves are described from the point of view of the doctrine 

 of nerve components and the 50 pages devoted to them would form 

 one of the best introductions to this doctrine available. The nerves 

 were reconstructed from serial sections and thus the exact composition 

 of each can be stated from direct microscopic study. In this way an- 

 other type is added to the rapidly growing list of vertebrates whose 

 peripheral nerve components are accurately known. 



Pleuronectes conforms to the teleostean scheme as already exem- 

 plified by Gadus, Menidia and Ameiurus with remarkable fidelity. It 

 is interesting to note that it also possesses a vestigeal nervus ophthal- 

 micus profundus, whose relations are almost exactly the same as those 

 described by the reviewer in 1899 for Menidia. Thus there are three 

 types (including Trigla of Stannius' descriptions) among the teleosts 

 now known to possess a vestige of this nerve. 



Of still more general biological importance is the discussion of the 

 asymmetry of the flat fishes. The authors first dispose of the idea that 

 the left eye passes through the substance of the head to the right side 

 and also of "the mischievous assumption that the left eye has travelled 

 over the top of the head to the right side. T\iq fact is that the left eye 

 is not on the right side at all. Its presence there is purely illusory. What 



1 Jahresbericht iiber die Leistungen unci Fortschrltte auf dem Gebiete der 

 Neurologic und Psychiatrie. Edited by Prof. E. MENDELand Dr. L. Jacobsohn, 

 with the cooperation of Dr. E. Flatau and a board of 58 collaborators. Ber- 

 lin, S. Karger, 1901. 



' Cole, F. J and Johnstone, James. Pleuronectes (The Plaice). Liver- 

 pool Marine Biology Committee Memoirs, No. 8. 260 pp., Ii plates. London 

 "Williams & Norgate, Dec, 1901. Price 7 s. 



