In the meteorological tables, if one might make a 
suggestion, it would be to the effect that Loomis’s 
coefficients for determining the differences of height 
with the barometer might have been superseded by 
the results of more modern investigations, such as 
those of Angot or Rykatchef. Applying what ap- 
peared to be more trustworthy values to the example 
quoted, a result was obtained which differed some fifty 
feet, or about three-quarters per cent., from that 
given. This discrepancy seemed too large, but some 
of it may be due to want of experience in the use of 
tables. It would be interesting to know what degree 
of accuracy has been reached in the determination of 
heights by means of the barometer, and what is the 
correct way of assigning an average temperature, 
moisture, &c., to the mass of the atmosphere between 
the two stations <A not inconsiderable error must be 
introduced by unknown variations of temperature, 
accompanied, as these may be, by possible inversions. 
THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
Das Cerebellum der Stiugetiere. Eine vergleichend 
anatomische Untersuchung. By Prof. Louis Bolk. 
Pp. 337; illustrated. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1906.) 
Price 15 marks. 
ROF. LOUIS BOLK has risen far above the 
opportunity that the title of this work would 
seem to offer, and has written a book of quite un- 
common interest. To this success several factors have 
contributed. In the first place, his own labours, and 
those of Profs. Charnock Bradley and Elliot Smith, 
to whom he makes due acknowledgment, have 
brought much new light and interest to the subject. 
Symptomatic of this triad advance is a new nomen- 
clature of a somewhat unfortunately triune character, 
varying from simple numerals to idyllic descriptive 
terms. 
In the second place, the author has stepped beyond 
the limits of rigidly specialised morphology, and has 
entered the arena of general science. His courage 
carries him beyond the assertion that morphology is 
of profound interest to the physiologist, into the state- 
ment that morphology is a high road, although a 
narrow one, to the elucidation of function. It is a 
bold theme, and has rarely been better emphasised ; 
but in this case its application is obviously weakened 
by the morphologist’s concentration on the value of 
mass. A knife, some spirit, and a plate, a pair of 
forceps, and a jar or two, together form but a pioneer 
outfit with which to delimit the frontiers of function, 
or even of structure, in the central nervous system. 
A microscope and the methods of the histologist would 
have added marvellously to the data upon which such 
a theme might have been sustained. This notwith- 
standing, the enthusiasm of its sustentation has 
greatly added both to the interest of this book and to 
the value of the work on which it is based. 
Many anatomists, for the convenience of descrip- 
tion, have divided the cerebellum into a median por- 
tion, the vermis, and two lateral hemispheres. Ac- 
cording to the author, the pursuit of convenience has 
NO. 1950, VOL. 75 | 
Supplement to Nature,” March 14, 1907 1X 
here overclouded important facts. The cerebellum is 
primarily divided into an anterior and a 
lobe, and it is only in the latter that there is any 
real distinction into mesial and lateral He 
has carefully examined the correspondence between the 
mode of growth of the cerebellum and this true lobul- 
ation, and concludes that the organ grows by expan- 
posterior 
lobules. 
sion from a definite series of centres, and that these 
centres are in a large measure independent, as is 
shown by their relative behaviour in different mam- 
cerebella. From this point Prof. Boll 
advances with the postulate that the functional 
capacity of each domain must have the same independ- 
ence. Further, since the function of the cerebellum 
as a whole is to play some part in the adequate per- 
formance of muscular movements, each of these 
centres must control some particular province of move- 
ment. From this it is but a short step to the alloca- 
tion of function. Symmetrical movements are con- 
trolled from mesial centres, asymmetrical movements 
from lateral centres. The more anterior the muscles 
involved, the more anterior the centre. It therefore 
follows that the anterior lobe is concerned with move- 
ments of the head, eyes, tongue, jaws, larynx—all 
parts in which symmetrical movement is the most 
common. In the posterior lobe the first centre is also 
a mesial one, and controls the neck. Then follow 
both mesial and lateral centres for the control of the 
limb movements, and so on. 
This method has at least induced the author to 
make most interesting comparisons between the cere- 
bella of different mammals. When the animal’s mode 
of progression is a symmetrical one, the lateral limb 
centres are small, the mesial large and complicated ; 
when asymmetrical the relation is reversed. Where, 
as in the giraffe, the neck assumes a new importance, 
there is a coincident expansion of an appropriate mass 
in the cerebellum. In ruminants—but this is not 
quite so certain—there is an appropriate enlargement 
of the jaw-centre in the anterior lobe. 
Now there is much probability in the idea that 
definite portions of the musculature are primarily 
connected with appropriate districts of the cerebellar 
cortex. Nerve-fibres ascending from the medullary 
nuclei doubtless enter the cerebellum as definitely 
marshalled as are their precursors in the spinal cord. 
It is extremely likely that outgoing fibres leave it no 
less well arranged. Most probable, too, is the idea 
that fibres from cephalic districts are distributed to 
anterior portions of the cerebellum. The crude forms 
of experiment, which have up to the present been 
made available, may even for some time prove no 
more than this. It is certainly, therefore, to the credit 
of Prof. Bolk to have arrived at similar ideas by 
means of his, unfortunately also crude, methods of 
observation. 
When the full meaning of the cerebellum is dis- 
cussed, there is, however, a demand for evidence of 
a somewhat different kind. We have acquired a taste 
for the kind of evidence that Prof. Sherrington has 
brought to bear upon the function of the spinal cord. 
This is the attitude of Prof. Bolk, and it is a wise 
one. The clongation of the giraffe’s neck is, as he 
malian 
