646 'Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



example of a fiber tract dissection of any merit. Prof. J. B. John- 

 ston/ University of Minnesota, published in November, 1908, an 

 excellent paper on brain dissection in which is mapped out an 

 elaborate course which he follows in teaching and in which anatomy 

 is taught with reference to the function. In this paper the following of 

 the tracts of known function is emphasized and dissection of some of 

 the large bundles in the cerebrum is described. Kecently Dr. Jamie- 

 son^ published two beautiful dissections, and made on appeal for this 

 kind of work as an adjunct to the section studies now so much used. 

 I learned from this publication that he had been dissecting brains 

 for the past four years. Professor Hoeve also has been successfully 

 doing fiber tract dissection. ""^ As to the reliability of the method, 

 Dr. Jamieson says that he has never been obliged to abandon a 

 tract as an artifact ; and this has also been my experience. So 

 reliable do I consider it that I have been using it as an adjunct 

 in research work, and in the following pages I shall endeavor to 

 convince the reader that not only may an adequate idea of well known 

 structures be acquired, but that by the use of this method new tracts 

 may be discovered which can finally be verified by the microscope, 

 and more easily thus verified on account of their having first been 

 dissected. Microscopic sections of such can be cut in the direction 

 of the fibers, and this does not entail the work of following a large 

 series of transverse or, as is more usually the case, oblique sections, 

 which in an adult human brain must be so large and numerous that 

 the danger of losing the continuity is always very great. I have 

 used the dissection method in class this year, and am convinced that 

 it makes the work of the teacher and that of the student much easier 

 and, as compared Avith the section studies, renders demonstration of 

 the essentials of brain anatomy perfectly simple. 



Methods, 



To prepare the brain for dissection, any of the hardening fluids in 



general use will give good results ; but I prefer a 10 per cent formalin 



solution injected through the carotid artery while the brain is in situ. 



Kinat. Record, Nov., 190S. 



\Jour. of Anat. and Phi/s.. April. 1009. 



K4^nat. Record, April. 1909. p. 247. 



