Literacy Notices. xxi 



fibers, the one being coarse, the other fine. The finer fibers not only 

 enter the cephalic bigemina but also are distributed to the geniculata 

 externa. The greater part of the optic nerve fibers arise in the ganglion 

 cells of the retina and are distributed to the geniculata externa in the 

 form of terminal arborizations. Other fibers arise in the bigeminum 

 and send their fibrous end-arborizations to the retina. The course of 

 the fibers which arise in the geniculata and pulvinar and are supposed 

 to pass to the occipital lobe, the author has been unable to trace. It is 

 suggested that the conditions for nervous transferrence and coordina- 

 tion are aff'orded by the cells of Golgi's second order. The fact that 

 the eye-muscle nerves are intact is explained as a corollary of the law 

 that the nerves are developed in connection with the muscles (which 

 still remain in these cases) though the author's earlier studies seem to 

 show that the muscular system may be well developed in the absence of 

 the nervous system. 



As stated in earlier papers by the same author, the fourth layer of 

 the occipital region of the cortex is absent in anophthalmic cases and a 

 high significance for the act of vision is accordingly attributed to them. 

 These cells may have something to do with the accommodation reflexes. 



c. L. H. 



On the Alleged Atrophy of the Nasal Epithelium after Section of the 

 Olfactory Nerve. 



Dr. Julius Neuberger, in a paper in the Centralblatt fiir Physiologic, 

 Oct. 30, 1897, entitled " Ueber das Verhalten der Riechschleimhaut 

 nach Durchschneidung des Nervus olfactorius,"' presents an epitome 

 of the conflicting results of the work of previous investigators on this 

 subject, and in relation to these, the conclusions to which he has ar- 

 rived in his own researches. Eckhardt and Ecker simultaneously dis- 

 tinguished for the first time the true olfactory, from the ordinary epithe- 

 lium cells in the mucous membrane of the nose, and simply assumed 

 the connection of the olfactory fibers with the former type of cells. 

 Later Max Schultze figured diagrammatically the probable connection 

 of such a fiber with such a cell, though it could not be demonstrated 

 by actual observation. In spite of the fact that KoUiker (in 1856) 

 pronounced it an " histological impossibility," this view gradually won 

 recognition until it has become the commonly accepted opinion. New 

 methods of research (vital methylene blue and Golgi), applied by 

 Ehrlich, Ramon y Cajal, Grassi and Castrouovo, van Gehuchten, and 



1 Aus dem anatomisch-biologischen Institute der Universitat Berlin. Direct- 

 or : Prof. O. Hertwig. 



