Meyer, Neurologists and Neurological Laboratories. 5 



nized them sufficiently well as independent elements. Forel 

 follows the rule of adopting the term which has been used first; 

 he adheres to historical principals. This requirers a knowledge 

 of the definition of a term used by the various authors; as there 

 is no dictionary of synonyms of anatomical terms which would 

 give all the various uses and misuses, it is advisable that we 

 should say what definition of the term we assume, by quoting 

 the name of the author. Where new terms have to be created, 

 we had best avoid the so-called rational nomenclature, because 

 experience shows that the most irrational and confusing nomen- 

 clature has been created in this way. This is all the more true 

 now, where the brains of lower vertebrates are studied and we 

 have to adopt the oddest names. 



In 1 88 1, Forel was called to Zurich for the chair of psy- 

 chology, which is connected with the position as director of the 

 lunatic asylum of the Canton Zurich. In this position he lec- 

 tured for several years on anatomy of the brain, until he gave 

 this branch to Privatdocent v. Monakow. The enormous 

 work connected with the direction of the institution, the active 

 interest which Prof. Forel began to take in the anti-alcoholic 

 movement, and his continued work in the study of ants, did not 

 paralyze him. Through the hands of several pupils he pub- 

 lished important observations,^ in 1886 he wrote the most im- 

 portant contribution to neurology,- in which he shows again his 

 great talent for classification and assimilation. This paper even 

 more so than the papers on the tegmetum, defies every at- 

 tempt of making an abstract. It is itself an abstract of an im- 

 mense field work, a great numner of observations of various au- 

 thors and of Forel himself, brought under one new head : the 

 theory of the neuron, of the element of the nervous apparatus. 

 Had not Veja's work on the spinal gangHons misled Forel some- 

 what, he would have given us the complete plan of the nervous 



I. Br. Onufrowicz. Ursprung des N. acusticus. Arch. f. Psych. Bd. XVI, 

 Heft 3. Wl. Onufrowicz. Das microcephale Gehirn Hofmann. Arch. f. Psych. 

 Bd. XVII. 



2. Einige hirnanatomische Betrachtungen und Ergebnisse. von Prof. Au- 

 gust Forel in Zurich. Arch. f. Psych. XVIII. Heft i. 



