CRITICAL DIGEST. 



REVIEW OF RECENT TEXT-BOOKS OF ANATOMY AND 

 PATHOLOGY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



FIRST ARTICLE. 



Neuropathology enjoys a great advantage over other branches of 

 pathology; the text-books of anatomy, histology, physiology and path- 

 ological anatomy are notoriously so deficient as a basis for clinical 

 neurology and the special treatises with few exceptions so little adapted 

 for diagnostic studies that almost every writer is allowed to give his 

 own normal neurology in the way of an introduction to his anatomical 

 and clinical pathology. Other branches of medicine have been pre- 

 maturely weaned. How little is said of the normal heart and mechan- 

 ism of circulation, of the normal respiratory apparatus etc., in the 

 corresponding treatises of pathology — and how little does the ordinary 

 text-book of physiology know of the doubts and difficulties of the 

 practitioner ! It would be stupid to ask physiologists and anatomists 

 to limit themselves in their text-books to what the clinicians need or 

 even to lay special stress on the methods of the clinicians; the latter 

 must attend to that themselves. Anatomy, physiology and psychology 

 must exist and be cultivated as independent sciences; but the clinician 

 should be able to select from them the essential material from his 

 utilitarian, practical standpoint. 



One of the strongest negative illustrations of this point within the 

 field of neurology is a volume on the normal spinal cord by Ramon 

 y Cajal in the wonderful series of Babes etc.. Atlas der pathologischen 

 Anatomie des Nervensy stems. The famous Spanish histologist seems not 

 to have the slightest inkling of what the student of pathological anat- 

 omy needs most to know concerning the normal spinal cord. How 

 much more satisfactory would it have been if an experienced pathol- 

 ogist had given normal pictures of points difficult in the practical 

 work — comparisons of various parts and tissue-elements of the cord, 

 of individual variations, the conditions of different ages etc. — made 

 with methods applicable in pathological research. Instead of this we 

 get cord-sections of the embryo chicken and mouse and one desper- 



