2g2 



NATURE 



[July 30, 1891 



matic woodcuts, gain a vivid impression of the unity 

 of organization and the divergence in minor points of 

 structure of the higher animals when compared one with 

 another. Perhaps, however, in that enlarged edition of this 

 book which will at no distant date appear, Prof. Parker will 

 treat the higher animals less unceremoniously ; this he 

 might do, and yet retain that conciseness and regard for 

 the essential which form an admirable characteristic of 

 his method. 



Mosses and Ferns are treated as the parallel among 

 plants of Polygordius in the animal series ; and in a single 

 chapter Equisetum, Salvinia, Selaginella, Gymnosperms, 

 and Angiosperms are surveyed (and excellently illustrated 

 by finished woodcuts) in such a way as to give the 

 student an accurate and highly effective survey of the 

 great features of vegetable morphology and physiology. 



Such is the outline of these " Lessons." Their merit, 

 however, consists not merely in the general plan, but in 

 the fact that the author is an experienced teacher and 

 an accomplished investigator, who has developed to a 

 high degree the art of lucid statement— one who is tho- 

 roughly famihar with the latest researches in the wide 

 field of which he treats, and is able, whilst setting before 

 his reader the most important generalizations of his 

 science, to avoid redundancy, and to give a fresh and 

 original handling to the oft-told story of the structure 

 and functions of living things. 



E. Ray Lankester. 



CEREBRAL LOCALIZATION. 

 The Croonian Lectufes on Cerebral Localization. By 

 David Ferrier, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. With Illus- 

 trations. (London : Smith, Elder, and Go., 1890.) 

 TN these valuable lectures, Dr. Ferrier reviews the sub- 

 J- ject of cerebral localization, so far as the representa- 

 tion of movement and of special sense is concerned. After 

 referring categorically, in the first of the series, to the 

 historical experiments on the subject, arranged in order 

 of chronological sequence, he points out the fundamental 

 principles embodied in the term cerebral localization. 

 Leaving the discussion of motor representation, he devotes 

 the remaining five lectures to the consideration of the 

 cortical representation of the special senses, beginning 

 with that of sight. 



The representation of sight is, according to all obser- 

 vers, mainly restricted to a definite area of the cortex. 

 The differentiation of that area and its topographical 

 subdivision are points of the highest interest, and naturally 

 do not escape discussion. We are rather surprised, how- 

 ever, to find that Dr. Ferrier is not prepared to admit 

 that Munk and Schafer's experiments, besides those of 

 other observers, establish visual representation to be 

 situated in the occipital lobe, but is inclined to believe 

 that the angular gyrus is the centre for clear vision 

 mainly for the eye of the opposite side. Upon this we 

 would only remark that it does not appear to us that the 

 mass of evidence relating to crossed hemianopsia, whether 

 of experimental or clinical nature, can be put aside as 

 easily as Dr, Ferrier would seem to consider possible, 

 but those interested in the subject will find many of the 

 facts bearing on this question referred to in his treatment 

 x)f the points at issue. 



NO. 1135, VOL. 44] 



So, too, with the representation of audition, while all 

 (save Schafer's and Sanger Brown's) observations support 

 Dr. Ferrier's views of the seat of representation of hearing, 

 it would undoubtedly have been better that the rebutting 

 evidence brought against the exceptional facts referred to 

 should have consisted of a number of experiments, and 

 not of a single one, even although that seems to have 

 been a very conclusive observation. 



After disposing of the centre of audition, the tactile 

 centre receives attention, and is preceded by a discus- 

 sion of the paths along which afferent impressions 

 travel in the spinal cord to the higher centres. Of 

 course, this subject has been very actively investigated 

 by various observers for many years, but it has always 

 appeared to us that sufficient attention has never been 

 given to the simple consideration whether or not the 

 lower centres are engaged in the transmission of such 

 impulses. In the limited space at Dr. Ferrier's disposal 

 he has evidently not been able to give this matter full 

 discussion, and is therefore led to assume that Brown 

 Sdquard's dictum respecting the passage of afferent 

 (tactile, not painful) impulses up the opposite side of the 

 cord holds good. This question is now being reinvesti- 

 .gated, and the preliminary observations published by 

 Mott and others throw very grave doubt on the validity 

 of this assumption, which has so long been accepted as 

 final. 



As regards the representation of common tactile sensa- 

 tion in the cortex cerebri, Dr. Ferrier discovered that it 

 was probably represented in the hippocampal region, 

 and he reviews the results of his experiments, as well as 

 those of Schiifer and Horsley, which tended to show that 

 the gyrus fornicatus, as well as the hippocampus, were the 

 seat of tactile perception, and he concludes that possibly 

 the whole limbic lobe is concerned with this represen- 

 tation. 



As regards, however, the representation of sensation in 

 the excitable or motor part of the cortex, he will " have 

 none of it." Here, again, we are afraid that the con- 

 siderations of time and space, which always handicap 

 subjects treated in lecture form, account for the fact that 

 the critical examination of this question is not so com- 

 plete as perhaps it might have been made. 



On the whole, these lectures well maintain the author's 

 high reputation as a keen observer, and an indefatigable 

 student, gifted with singular clearness and distinctness of 

 expression, and they will well repay perusal by all who 

 wish to follow the progress of knowledge of cerebral 

 localization and its most important bearings. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Educaiioft and Heredity. By J. M. Guyau. (London : 



Walter Scott, 1891.) 

 This small and excellently-translated work is a posthu- 

 mous publication, written by a Frenchman who died four 

 years ago at the early age of thirty-three. He was a 

 fluent and prolific writer, the author of no less than 

 fourteen other publications, and is described in the intro- 

 duction as a philosopher and poet. It would seem from 

 this book that the latter temperament was his prevalent 

 characteristic. Its prevalent literary style and the origin- 

 ality both of metaphor and of handling will commend 

 itself, and so will the account of recent hypnotic in- 



