Juxy 14, 1899.] 
vosen Centralorgane,’ the greatly enlarged fifth 
edition of which has been for some time in our 
hands and has quite superseded the translation 
by Dr. Riggs, though the latter has already 
served a useful purpose in introducing our author 
to the American public. The transformation 
which this book, intended simply to give a 
summary of the best-established facts of neurol- 
ogy for busy people, has undergone in so short 
a time is a good index of the progress the sci- 
ence has been making. 
Professor Edinger quotes with approbation 
the suggestion of Burdach that, in addition to 
the gathering of building material, every period 
brings with it the obligation to attempt anew 
the rearing of a structure presenting the knowl- 
edge in definite form. This synthesis of our 
present knowledge Edinger endeavors to give. 
In some parts of the edifice, it is true, the 
efforts result chiefly in making more evident 
great gaps to be filled. This is for the active 
investigator a most important service in itself, 
especially when brought into relation with the 
received facts in sucha way as to afford a per- 
spective of the path which research may profit- 
ably follow. 
No one now-a-days could fail to appreciate 
that the light needed for the decipherment of 
the intricate structure of the human brain 
must come from the study of the simpler brains 
of lower vertebrates, and no one has had better 
opportunities than Professor Edinger to supply 
just this light. Not only have his own studies 
peculiarly fitted him for this work, which his 
experience as practical physician and teacher 
has tended to keep in touch with human inter- 
est, but the duty of preparing a yearly sum- 
mary for Schmidt’s Jéhrbucher has enforced the 
necessity of a minute knowledge of the work 
done in these lines by others the world over. 
More than any other leading European neurol- 
ogist he has familiarized himself with the work 
of his contemporaries in all lands. 
The book as it now stands contains, in addi- 
tion to the material of the original twelve lec- 
tures on the structure of the mammalian brain 
which now constitutes Part III., an introduction 
devoted to fundamental conceptions and physiol- 
ogy of brain and peripheral nerves, and Part II., 
a review of the embryology and comparative 
SCIENCE. 
m2 
vo 
anatomy of the vertebrate brain. It may be 
admitted that this method of treatment is at 
the expense of unity and entails some repeti- 
tion, yet the practical advantage to the student 
who may be chiefly interested in human anat- 
omy is manifest. 
The results of the author’s studies of the fore- 
brain and mid-brain of reptiles are here used to 
great advantage. It has been a matter of sur- 
prise to the present reviewer that the desi- 
rability of starting with the reptilian brain has 
not been more clearly recognized by teachers of 
the comparative anatomy of the brain, for in 
this group we have a degree of simplicity with- 
out the puzzling interference of the specialized 
structures found in the brain of fishes or the 
embryonic lack of differentiation seen in am- 
phibia. The present book makes this course 
possible and presents the strongest possible 
reasons for pursuing it. 
As might have been expected, the olfactory 
apparatus is clearly and fully treated, as are 
the cephalic parts of the brain in general. 
The discussion of the cerebellum, on the 
other hand, is somewhat less satisfactory than 
the other sections, and serves very vividly to 
enforce the need of thorough comparative work 
on this organ in spite of the wealth of isolated 
facts recently accumulated. ‘‘Of the, connec- 
tions and definite course of the fibers of the 
cerebellum there is, as yet, little known.”’ 
‘¢ Where the inferior cerebellar peduncle enters 
the cerebellum is the least understood portion 
of the whole nervous system.’’ ‘‘ Least known 
as to their real origin are several frontal tracts.”’ 
“The relation of the nuclei to the fiber system 
of the white substance is almost wholly un- 
known.’”’ In fact, it has to be admitted that 
we have but the vaguest idea of the relations 
of the afferent, efferent and special sensory 
fibers that have been traced into or to the cere- 
bellum. The present writer may remark that 
his suggestion, made several years ago on the 
basis of a study of types from nearly all groups 
of vertebrates, that connections are established, 
by way of certain ‘switch cells’ in the pes pe- 
dunculi, between descending motor tracts from 
the cerebrum and fibers to the cerebellum, has 
remained unchallenged, and offers a reasonable 
basis for interpreting some of the facts of phys- 
