Mason — Central Nervous System of Reptiles^ etc. 5 



able and purely reflex enercry displayed by the male frog dur- 

 ing the embrace of copulation.* The group of cells with 

 nuclei of medium size, described by me in the New York 

 Medical JoiLrnal^ of December last, is present in the "pars 

 media" of cords from both sexes in three species which I 

 have examined with especial reference to this point. 



The distribution of the inferior root fibres in the inferior 

 horns of grey matter, among and to the ganglion cells. 



AVynian,f whose memoir appeared at the time Ecker was 

 preparing hh Icones Physiological for publication, states, page 

 20 : "'Alter the most careful examination, I have not detected 

 any direct connection l)etween these caudate appendages and 

 nerve tubes;" while the latter anatomist prints an illustration 

 after Iviipfer ;{: which represents, in a cross section made 

 through the middle of the brachial enlargement, four large 

 nerve cells, with processes running downwards and outwards, 

 as far as the periphery, and two other large cells, from the 

 same group, with processes continuous with the superior 

 (posterior) roots ! 



Such an exaggerated illustration could never have been 

 made by photography. 



Eeissner, § ten years later, in a work than which there are 

 few more perfect memoirs, Avrites: "In regard to the inferior 

 roots, I must premise, that the spinal cord of anourous batra- 

 chians, which have been at my disposal, is very little suited 

 for observing the entrance and course of the fibres in the grey 

 substance. * * * * As before stated, a nerve cell may 

 lie near the point of entrance of a bundle, and send one of 

 its processes into the same. (Fig- M.) * * * * Xhe 

 remainder of the nerve root fibres which run upwards or out- 

 wards in the grey matter, unite either wholly or in part with 

 large nerve cells." 



Stieda, | after contending for the true cell structure of the 

 pi'otoplasmic mass which contains the nucleus, and the struc- 



*Goltz. — Beitrdge zur Lehre von den Fanctlonen der Nervencentren deg 

 Frosches. Berlin, 1869. 

 f Loc. cit. 



XDixs. de MeduUcB Spinalis Textura in Uanis. Dorpat, 1854, 

 § Loc. cit. pp. 19, 20. 

 II Loc. cit. p. 150, et seq. 



