Kingsbury, Brain of Ncxtiinis. 141 



Nectiims is known to the literature of Neurology through 

 the publications of Spitzka, Wilder, Osborn, Herrick and Fish, 

 the attention it has received being largely confined to the inter- 

 esting question of the presence of a callosum in Amphibia. So 

 far as is known to the writer. Wilder ('84, i ) was the first to 

 publish figures of any detail of the brain oi Nectutnis} Because 

 of its simplicity it was employed by him in a lecture delivered 

 before the Alumni Association of the College of Physicians and 

 Surgeons, New York, February 4th, 1884, to illustrate the 

 relations of the cavities and segments of the brain. It was one 

 of the forms discussed by Osborn ('86) in his memorable papers 

 on the "Origin of the Corpus Callosum"; in his subsequent 

 article, "A Contribution to the internal Structure of the Am- 

 phibian Brain" ('88 ) the structure of the brain is discussed in 

 conjunction with that of Cryptobranchus. Herrick's contribu- 

 tions to the structure of the brain of Nectiinis occur in the valua- 

 ble papers by him in this journal, on the comparative 

 morphology of the central nervous system. The men- 

 tion by Fish ('95 ) of the relations of certain commissures 

 in Nectiinis is merely incidental and is in connection with the 

 question of the presence of a callosum in Amphibia. The 

 views of these neurologists will be frequently referred to in the 

 text. 



MATERIAL AND METHODS, 



The material employed in this investigation consisted 

 chiefly of numerous brains of adult Nectiiri from 20 to 38 cen- 

 timeters long. Cayuga Lake abounds in this form and fresh 

 examples were available whenever needed. In addition to the 

 adult, I have been enabled to examine a series of six larval 

 Nectiiri, reared from the &^^ by Dr. Whitman of Chicago 

 University. They were of the following ages and dimensions, 

 viz., — just hatched, 4 weeks, 6-8 weeks, 3^ months, 6^ 

 months, and 10 months, with 22.5, 30., 28., 46.5, and 49.5 



^Small and diagrammatic figures of the brain of Necturus had been previous- 

 ly published by Owen (Trans. Linnean Soc, XVIII, pi. 27, fig. 6, 1S39. ) 

 and by Wyman ('52) in 1852. 



