JUST READY 



AN ATLAS OF NERVE CELLS 



BY 



M. ALLEN STARR, M.D., Ph.D., 



Professor of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System, College of Physicians and Surgeons 



Medical Department of Columbia College ; Consulting Neurologist to the Presbyterian 



and Orthopedic Hospitals, and to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary 



\VITH THE CO-OPERATION OF 



0. S. STRONG, Ph.D., and EDWARD LEABUNG, M.D. 

 Extra 4 to. Cloth. $10.00, net. 



UNIFORM \VITH DR. WILSON'S "ATLAS OF THE FERTILIZATION OF THE OVUM " 



52 PLATES. 8 FIGURES. 



It is the object of this atlas to present to students and teachers of histology a series of 

 photographs showing the appearance of the cells which form the central nervous system, 

 as seen under the microscope. These photographs have been made possible by the use 

 of the method of staining invented by Professor Camillo Golgi of Turin. This method 

 has revealed many facts hitherto unknown, and has given a conception of the structure and 

 connections of the nerve cells both novel and important. 



In the most recent text-books of neurology and in the atlas of Golgi these facts have 

 been shown by drawings and diagrams. But all such drawings are necessarily imperfect 

 and involve a personal element of interpretation. It has seemed to me, therefore, that a 

 series of photographs presenting the actual appearance of neurons under the microscope 

 would be not only of interest but also of service to students. The Golgi method lends 

 itself very readily to the photographic process, for the cell, with its dendrites and neuraxon, 

 is stained black upon a light yellowish ground, and thus is capable of giving a sharp pict- 

 ure. In the preparation of this Atlas I have had the co-operation of Dr. O. S. Strong, who 

 has cut and stained the specimens, and of Dr. Edward Learning, whose skill in photogra- 

 phy has made this work possible. Dr. Strong has been able to produce remarkably suc- 

 cessful sections of the various parts of the nervous system, both brain and spinal cord, and 

 has made some valuable modifications of Golgi's methods. He has contributed a section 

 upon the technique, containing many original and important suggestions. In the art of 

 photographing microscopic specimens Dr. Learning has been particularly successful. It 

 can be readily imagined that the difficulties of obtaining a clear picture focussed in one 

 plane upon the photographic plate are at times almost insuperable, the microscopist 

 ordinarily bringing various planes into his vision by the aid of the fine adjusting screw of 

 the instrument. By care in the selection of specimens, by ingenious contrivances to 

 ensure a perfect focussing, and by the use of various methods adapted to each emergency, 

 Dr. Learning has succeeded where others have failed. He has contributed a section of 

 much value upon the photographic technique. The photographs have been reproduced 

 in a painstaking manner by Mr. Edward Bierstadt, whose process of autotyping has been 

 selected after a careful comparison with other methods of reproduction ; and it can be 

 justly said that they show every detail of the original photographs. 



In presenting this Atlas I have not attempted to write an exhaustive account of nervous 

 histology, but rather to present a brief review of the essential facts so far as they can be 

 seen by the aid of the Golgi stain, and to show how these facts aid in the knowledge of 

 nervous action. I may be permitted, however, to point out that this atlas is based mainly 

 upon preparations from the human nervous system ; that it not only includes the spina'l 

 cord, cerebellum, and brain cortex, which have'been studied by Golgi, Cajal, Van Gehuch- 

 ten, Retzius, and Lenhossek, but also presents original studies of the corpora quadrigemina, 

 optic thalamus, and lenticular and caudate nuclei, and is thus quite complete in its scope. 

 It is my intention at some future time to issue another volume which will include the 

 peripheral nerves and their terminations and the organs of sense. 



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