Ixii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



of the merit of the improved nomenclature of Mills could, of course, 

 only be obtained through an acquaintance with the didactic results of 

 this first part of his book. 



A detailed criticism such as applied to v. Monakow's work, would 

 lead us too far. On page i we read : "Scattered along some of these 

 (peripheral) nerves are small gray masses of nervous matter called gang- 

 lia, some at least of which are also centers of energy ; so that the cen- 

 tral nervous system, while largely within the cranial and spinal cavi- 

 ties, is not strictly confined to them, but exists wherever nervous 

 centres are found, etc." What follows on the first half dozen pages 

 is hardly more than an enumeration of names of parts seen or not 

 seen in the few surface drawings; with many inconsistencies of nom- 

 enclature. 'The chief subdivisions of the fully developed brain (page 

 2) are the cerebrum or great brain, the cerebellum or little brain, the 

 pons, and the oblongata as shown in fig. 2. . In fig. 3 it will be ob- 

 served that the oblongata is divided into 2 portions, the postoblongata 

 and the preoblongata (Wilder), the latter situated mainly between the 

 pons and cavity of the brain known as the fourth ventricle. 

 Both portions of the oblongata are composed largely of gray deposits 

 or cell nests, while the pons is mainly constituted of nerve fibres or 

 tracts, facts important to remember in connection with many points 

 to be hereafter considered.' Then on page 4, under the heading 

 * Pons and Oblongata ' we find about all the names of the things seen 

 from the thalamus and chiasma backward — tuber cinereum, the 

 ' postgeniculum ' (the 'pregeniculum ' being omitted) etc. 



In the description of histology, obscure passages are rather fre- 

 quent. ' It has usually been taught that nerve cells and nerve fibers 

 are different structurally. Strictly speaking this is not true ; they are 

 parts of the same histological unit, as has been especially shown by recent 

 investigation ; but it is necessary for practical purposes to consider 

 separately many of the facts relating to them.' Does ' different 

 structurally' carry the meaning of ' not continuous' ? The contact 

 theory is expressed as follows : ' The cell and its processes are un- 

 doubtedly conductors of impulses ; but the connection of nerve-cells 

 with each other is physiological and not anatomical ; it is by means of 

 processes with processes or of processes with cells.' (p. 14). What 

 follows is fully in keeping with the latter part of the sentence quoted. 



Page 20 contains a discussion of which nerve cells are motor and 

 which sensory. The latter are those ' in which the process has a 

 shorter course and passes into a network or complex ramification o f 

 processes out of which the nerve fiber seems to arise.' On page 21 



