Meyer, Data of Modern Neurology. 269 



solute necessity, nor ' white matter ' for groups of cell-bodies, 

 to make a description intelligible in terms of neurones. 



This state of things is to be attributed to the almost ex- 

 clusively histological study of the normal cortex and the scar- 

 city of systematic experimental work on the various layers and 

 and cells. Apart from v. Gudden, v. Monakow^ and Moeli^ 

 there are no investigators known to me who paid due attention 

 to this point. The only illustrations of the matter in question 

 are to be found in v, Monakow's studies, e. g. in his Gehirn- 

 Pathologie, p. 264 and 265.^ 



The known entities of physiological importance are : 

 (i). Th.Q cerebral affeirnt neurones. In our plan of the 

 brain we find the majority of the cells of the nuclei of Goll and 

 Burdach send their axones into the fillet of the opposite side. 

 The fillet, at least the cerebral or median fillet (the midbrain 

 fillet comes largely from the auditory segment and from the 

 scattered cells of the cord which help to form Gowers' tract — 

 Monakow and Mott), has been traced with certainty up to the 

 ventral nucleus of the thalamus, where it ends.^ Fresh neu- 

 rones have their cell-bodies there, but that they send their pro- 

 cesses to the motor and parietal areas of the cortex is only in- 

 directly known through the extirpation experiments of v. Mon- 

 akow, A minute description of the cell-body of the fillet-neu- 

 rone does not belong here, because it has no pathological im- 

 portance yet. Only two points need be mentioned, viz. : that the 

 cell-body varies much in outHne and size and that its stainable 

 substance consists of small to medium sized granules, not al- 

 ways plain. I have not infrequently found cells with loss of 



1 Du role des diverses couches des cellules ganglioaaires du girus sigmoi- 

 deus du chat. Arch, des Sciences phys. Geneve, Vol. XX, 1883. 



^ Ueber Degeneration der Hirnrinde nach Zerstorung der Faserung der 

 Capsula interna. Berlin, phys. Ges., i. Febr., 18S3. 



■^ See further : Carlo Cani, Sulle fine alterazioni della corteccia cerebrale 

 consecutive alle lesioni della midolla spinale. Riv. di Fren., 1896, XXII, fasc i. 



* Flechsig and Hosel claim that at least a great part of the fillet runs to the 

 cortex without interruption in the thalamus. But so far nobody has corroborated 

 them with a conclusive method. 



