Literary Notices. xxi 



the wiser course in stating his own views clearly with the evidence for 

 and against. The work is thoroughly brought up to date and gives a 

 very good picture of the present state of the subject in most of the 

 sections. The mechanical features of the book leave much to be de- 

 sired. All neurologists are familiar with the many ingenious and clear 

 diagrams with which the author's works abound. Many of those in 

 these volumes were drawn after the figures which he is in the habit of 

 drawing on the blackboard for his students during his lectures. Too 

 often, it must be admitted, they still exhibit the crudities of the black- 

 board sketch. For many of the subjects, especially those concerned 

 with cytological details, a larger number of carefully finished drawings 

 would add greatly to the value of the work. c. j. h. 



Whitehead's Anatomy of the Brain.' 



The first impression one gets from this booklet is pleasing. There 

 is a field for a short and concise expos^ of the nervous system, and at 

 first sight the book seems to furnish the necessary number of drawings 

 for the illustration of the principal data. 



On careful reading and study of the drawings, the judgment can- 

 not be as favorable. We have the impression that httle is done in these 

 pages which could not with advantage be compressed into a much 

 better tabulated glossary of the illustrations with concise definitions of 

 the terms and reference to all the illustrations in which a certain part 

 appears. 



The method of description is mainly topographical. We can im- 

 agine the text to be the talk accompanying a concise demonstration, 

 but we miss the pointing of the fingers, the chance to see the whole 

 specimen, etc., which as a rule is taken in much more promptly than 

 the stream of words of a lecture and leads to an undercurrent of 

 broader attention in the student than the talk alone would arouse. In 

 a book, the " talk " is not at its best in topographical description, un- 

 less there be a well-tabulated guide to the study of illustrations, and the 

 text be a genetic description of the parts under study with the suppres- 

 sion of all unnecessary topographical description which the student will 

 grasp better from a set of illustrations or sections or models. For such 

 a genetic study it would, however, hardly do to omit the description of 

 cord and peripheral nerves. 



1 The Anatomy of the Brain. A Text-book for Medical Students. By 

 Richard H. Whitehead, M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the University of 

 North Carolina. Illustrated with Forty-one Engravings. 6^ x 9>^ inches. 

 Pages, v-96. Extra Vellum Cloth, $1.00, net. The F. A. Davis Co., Pub- 

 lishers, 1914-16 Cherry St., Philadelphia, Pa. 



