88 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 864 



sure of membranous folds at the coronal and 

 lambdoidal sutures. 



Having now explicitly corrected my own 

 more important errors" I venture to point 

 out a few eases in which a similar course 

 might well have been followed by others. 



1. In both German and English editions of 

 Wiedersheim's " Comparative Anatomy of 

 Vertebrates," in his " The Structure of Man," 

 and in other works into which it has been 

 copied, is what purports to represent the base 

 of the brain of the rabbit as a representative 

 mammal. One of the constant and peculiar 

 characters of that class is the pons, a mass of 

 obviously transverse fibers at the ventral side 

 of the cerebellum. In this figure the region 

 is marked pv., and the abbreviation is said to 

 stand for " pons Varolii," but the contour and 

 the shading give not the least idea of its es- 

 sential character; indeed, the mesal furrow is 

 more distinct than in the bird on the oppo- 

 site page. To the serious and needless mis- 

 representation attention was called in Science 

 for May 8, 1908, p. Y41." 



8. In 1906 was published J. B. Johnston's 

 " The Nervous System of Vertebrates." In 

 January, 1908, his attention was called to the 

 fact that Figs. 2 and 120, said to represent 



^' For reminders of others that have caused or 

 might cause misapprehension I shall be grateful. 



" An interval of three years should have sufficed 

 for the replacement of the same faulty figure by 

 a correct one in the recently issued edition of Par- 

 ker and Haswell's "Textbook of Zoology," Vol. 

 2, p. 468. This new edition likewise repeats the 

 erroneous designation of the lamprey represented 

 in Fig. 793 (Fig. 749 of the first edition) as 

 Petromyzon marinus (sea lamprey) whereas it i3 

 P. fliwiatilis (river lamprey) in the original paper 

 of W. K. Parker, PhilosopMcal Transactions, Vol. 

 74, 1882, plate 8; the arrangement of the teeth is 

 very different in the two species, and the error is 

 sure to cause confusion. T. J. Parker, the senior 

 author of the work, and W. N. Parker, the asso- 

 ciate editor of the second edition, are both sons of 

 the author of the paper. Surely the latter would 

 have insisted upon the correction had he been in- 

 formed of the misnomer, to which the attention of 

 the publishers was called by me at least two years 



" the mesial surface of the right half of the 

 brain of Squalus acanthias " (the acanth or 

 spiny dogfish), must be of the smooth dogfish, 

 Mustelus. The latter genus exhibits a de- 

 cidedly more advanced morphologic stage as 

 to the cerebellum and the cerebral extensions ; 

 indeed the two genera are placed by zoologists 

 in not only separate families but different 

 divisions or suborders. In 1909, in a paper" 

 by the same author, the figure is reproduced 

 and correctly named; but the statement that 

 it was taken from the earlier work is unac- 

 companied by any intimation of the original 

 misnomer. Even had it been, students and 

 general readers are more likely to consult the 

 book than the comparatively technical journal, 

 and even instructors are none too familiar 

 with selachian brain forms; the original mis- 

 nomer was not mentioned in the reviews in 

 Science, December 28, 1906, in the Anatoin- 

 isclier Anzeiger, November 9, or in the Jour- 

 nal of Comparative Neurology and Psychiatry, 

 Volume 16, pp. 467-470 ;" hence it would have 

 been more just to others and better for him- 

 self if the author had published a prompt and 

 explicit correction in Science. 



9. In 1893 the late Wilhelm His published" 

 a figure described as " Medianschnitt eines 

 menschlichen Gehirns vom Erwachsenen." As 

 a mere diagram of general features it might 

 serve the purpose for which it was intended; 

 as purporting to represent a comprehensive, 

 complex, and important aspect of the brain it 

 embodies at least twenty errors or omissions 

 and would not have been accepted from a 

 member of my class in the morphology of the 

 brain at any time during the last twenty 

 years; especially does it fail to indicate the 

 circumscription of the cavities and the de- 

 marcation of the artificial (cut) surfaces 

 from the natural ones covered by pia or 



" The morphology of the forebrain vesicle in 

 Vertebrates. Journal of Comparative Neurology 

 and Psychiatry, November, 1909, pp. 457-539. 



^^ This review did correct the misplacement of 

 Figs. 175 and 177 and of Figs. 176 and 178. 



""Vorsohlage zur Eintheilung des Gehirns," 

 ArcMv fiir Anatomie, etc., Anat. Abth., pp. 172- 

 179, Fig. 3. 



