284 M. de Blainville's Rejwrt on Dr. Foville's 



tricle from its commencement at the pituitary gland, following 

 it to trie right and left into the lateral ventricles, and through 

 the aquaductus Sylvii, or iter a tertio ad quartum ventriculum, 

 into the fourth ventricle, and finally through the whole length 

 of the spinal marrow. 



Examining next the ganglia without external apparatus; 

 namely, the olfactory lobes, the hemispheres, the tubercula 

 quadrigemina, the pineal gland, and the cerebellum, — he consi- 

 ders that each of these parts communicates more or less inti- 

 mately with the central part to which it is attached through its 

 peduncle or origin, consisting of ascending and descendmg fas- 

 ciculi of fibres. He likewise considers that each lateral portion 

 communicates with its fellow by a transverse commissure of 

 medullary matter, that for the hemispheres being the corpus 

 callosum, and that for the cerebellum being the pons Varolii. 



He considers that the nerves which are called cerebral nerves 

 communicate with the cephalic portion of the medulla, in the 

 same manner as the spinal nerves do with the spinal portion, 

 by means of two orders of fibrillae, the one anterior, the other 

 posterior ; so that according to his view there are in the head 

 only so many pairs of nerves as there are vertebrae, that is to 

 say, that there are four. 



Dr. Rolando, before the last of the authors whom we have 

 cited, and as he himself asserts, before the first of them, had 

 exposed the structure of the brain in a manner which it will 

 be proper shortly to describe. His views, which it is not easy 

 to understand, appear to us in many points to resemble those 

 of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim. According to Rolando, the he- 

 mispheres are composed of numerous fibres, which proceeding 

 from their crura ascend and diverge as they traverse a part of 

 the cineritious matter composing the corpora striata. These 

 fibres partly disperse themselves into the medullary matter 

 composing the corpus callosum, the fornix, and the septum 

 lucidum ; whence on all sides medullary matter is spread in an 

 extremely thinly extended form over that part of the corpora 

 striata which projects into the ventricles ; whilst another por- 

 tion of the fibres turning backwards forms the two posterior 

 pillars of the fornix, the cornua Ammonis, and the tails or 

 narrow posterior extremities of the corpora striata. Whence 

 it appears to him, that there are in fact no corpora striata or 

 thalami optici, properly so called, but that these prominences 

 are formed by the interlacing and passage, — 1st, of the superior 

 fibres of the crura cerebri ; 2ndly, of those which appear to come 

 I'rom the hemispheres, and to be in relation with the corpora 

 quadrigemina; and lastly, in the third place, of those which pass 

 transversely, ascending and spreading themselves in the form 



of 



