534 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 692 



these being taken from MeMurricb, Gordinier 

 and Morris's " Anatomy " alone. In a few 

 cases, however, the choice is not so fortunate. 

 For example, in Fig. 51, taken from Bur- 

 baker, there are four anatomical misrepre- 

 sentations. Some of the illustrations labeled 

 " original " but little resemble anything found 

 in nature; others of these are strikingly 

 familiar. 



The period of transition from the use of the 

 old polyglot nomenclature into that of the 

 BNA is rapidly passing and Dr. Santee has 

 adopted the BNA quite extensively. It would 

 have been amply justifiable and highly com- 

 mendable had he used the BNA consistently 

 throughout his book, confining himself either 

 to the original Latin terms or to their English 

 equivalents as he preferred. The marked in- 

 consistency with which he uses the nomen- 

 clature often gives an impression of crudeness 

 which is unfortunate. In the headings of 

 the paragraphs, often one heading is in the 

 BNA, followed by one or two in the English 

 equivalents of the Latin for no obvious reason, 

 and then may follow a heading in neither the 

 BNA nor its equivalent. Occasionally there 

 is a split use of Latin and English, such as 

 " columna of the fornix," " anterior columna " 

 (of the spinal cord). The lay- term, "gray 

 matter," " white matter',' is frequently used 

 instead of the much more satisfactory BNA 

 term, gray substance; and the gross divisions 

 of the longitudinally running fibers of the 

 spinal cord are referred to as columns instead 

 of using the more expressive BNA term 

 funiculus, a bundle of bundles (fasciculi). 

 The posterior median sulcus of the spinal cord 

 is given the old misnomer of fissure when it 

 does not become a fissure, nor is it so called 

 in the'BNA, until the medulla oblongata is 

 reached. On the other hand, certain BNA 

 terms are used which are now quite com- 

 monly modified by anatomists; for example, 

 posterior and anterior instead of the lauch 

 preferable dorsal and ventral roots, etc. The 

 term, cerehral nerves, might be satisfactorily 

 modified by substituting with the word, 

 cranial or encephalic, since only four of the 

 twelve pairs, including the questionably 

 typical optic nerves, are attached to the 



cerebrum. Also, such terms as "rubrospinal 

 tract," " relay stations," and " excito-reflex 

 fibers " are crude as well as unsatisfactory, and 

 such an expression as " Ganglionar Gray 

 Matter of the Cerebellum" is a rather indefi- 

 nite way of designating the cerebellar nuclei 

 and smacks of tautology as well, since, strictly 

 speaking, all nervous gray substance is 

 ganglionic and all ganglia are gray substance. 



The descriptive anatomy, especially that 

 pertaining to the contours and macroscopic 

 features of the central nervous system, is ex- 

 cellently good and is gone into with con- 

 siderable detail. The finer microscopic and 

 the functional anatomy can not be zo gen- 

 erously accepted throughout. From the na- 

 ture of the subject, no author can deal with 

 the detailed functional significance of the 

 various structures of the nervous system, espe- 

 cially those of the encephalon, in a way ac- 

 ceptable to all readers. 



The description of the neuroglia is wholly 

 that given prior to the year 1895. 



For more than twenty years it has seemed 

 to be the ardent desire of practising physi- 

 cians to divide the prosencephalon into iso- 

 lated, definitely bounded, functional " centers." 

 Dr. Santee has apparently accepted without 

 question a large number of the conclusions 

 with which this literature is filled and states 

 them with a positiveness often more or less 

 unwarranted for the purposes of a text-book. 

 There are given boundary distinctions be- 

 tween questionably separate " emissive motor 

 centers " and "psychic motor centers," "recep- 

 tive common sensory centers " and " psychic 

 common sensory centers," and instead of the 

 more elastic term, area, we are given defi- 

 nitely the location in the cerebral cortex of 

 a speech center, a writing center, a center of 

 stereognosis, an intonation center, a naming 

 center, a center of abstract concept, etc. The 

 word psychic, qualifying the name of a 

 " center," makes it more admissible, for this 

 word may imply any multitude of phenomena 

 whose nature, extent and functional anatomy 

 are not understood. The more conservative 

 works think it wiser to confine definite state- 

 ments as to cerebral localization of function 

 to those areas of the cortex which, by direct 



