K-QL43? 

 W'fe 



INTRODUCTION. 



After so many admirable researches as have been made of late 

 about the mode of distribution of the N. octavus in the central 

 nervous system, after all that has been brought to our knowledge 

 from competent investigators, as to the influence exerted by this nerve 

 on the muscular system in animals and in man, it may be con- 

 sidered an almost preposterous enterprise to publish another treatise, 

 and moreover a monography, on the eighth cerebral nerve. 



We may not expect - - at least not if no new methods are 

 employed - - that we will find much to be added to what has 

 been taught us by EVVALD about the troubles of motion , observed 

 in pigeons whose labyrinths have been removed on one or on both 

 sides. Our knowledge of the function of the octavus-system has 

 been settled for a long time by this eminent experimental essay. 



Such is also the case with our anatomical notions. The investi- 

 gations of HELD, of VAN GEHUCHTEN, of VON MONAKOW, LEWAN- 

 DOWSKY and others form likewise in a certain sense a finished whole , 

 accordant in many leading features. 



These researches have shown the distribution of the Nervus 

 octavus in the central system to be much more complicated than 

 was surmised before. Still, though the whole appears thus com- 

 plicated, the differences of opinion on cardinal points have dimi- 

 nished. Our knowledge having reached this stage , I am perfectly 

 conscious of the impossibility that quite new views should be offered 

 by this monography, in which the anatomy and the physiology of 

 the nervus VIII are not studied by means of new methods. 



Yet I believe that in a few points I have succeeded in obtaining 

 definite results, going farther than those of my predecessors. 



This was made possible only , because the functional effects , conse- 

 quent on the isolated removal of the cochlea , or on the entire removal 



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M354.513 



