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In the class Mammalia only, there are situated 

 on the anterior and lateral aspect of the medulla 

 oblongata, two masses of nervous matter, termed 

 the Corpora olivaria. Now these bodies are 

 much smaller in animals than in man. In the 

 latter, according to Valentine, they are about 

 five by three Parisian lines. In the chimpanzee 

 they are only two lines in length. Now these 

 small nervous masses are intimately connected 

 with the function of speech; but they have also 

 another use, because they exist in animals which 

 do not talk, and they are connected in man 

 with other portions of the medulla which preside 

 over other functions. In examining the medulla 

 of the cow, Yari der Kolk was astonished to 

 find two of these bodies on each side. In two 

 apes, the Cercopithecus cynomolyifs and Cyno- 

 cephalus papio, he found them single, but smaller 

 than in man, and commencing higher up, but, 

 like tliuse in man, they extend to the inferior 

 roots of the hypoglossus nerve, and are con- 

 nected with it. In the cat, dog, rabbit, Cavia 

 aguti, horse, ass, and cow, they are double, 

 the upper one being in connection with the 

 facial nerve, the lower one with the hypoglossal 

 nerve. In structure both these olivary bodies in 

 brutes are the same as in man, with the excep- 

 tion of forming fewer convolutions, and having 

 only a feeble trace of a hilus. Yan der Kolk 

 found that the superior olivary bodies differ 

 considerably in animals. They are more highly 

 developed in beasts of prey than in the rodentia, 



