December 13, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



931 



who accordingly have fully and sympathetically 

 entered into the doctrine of nerve components 

 as developed within the past decade. While he 

 has not himself studied the peripheral nervous 

 system of Acipenser, his analysis of the medulla 

 oblongata has been made in the light of the facts 

 of peripheral connections already known, and 

 hence his results are of far-reaching importance 

 to the major problems of the morphology of this 

 confusing region. Into the details of these re- 

 sults we cannot now go, merely calling atten- 

 tion to the fact that in this connection he has 

 made some observations of great importance 

 to the phylogeny and organogeny of the verte- 

 brate nervous system. 



For instance, he confirms statements of pre- 

 vious writers that the communis, or visceral 

 sensory, system of cranial nerves is related 

 anatomically with centers both in the ob- 

 longata and in the spinal cord which are 

 quite distinct from those of the tactile nerves 

 (general cutaneous centers and dorsal horns). 

 On the other hand, the acustico-lateral system 

 of cranial nerves, innervating the ear and 

 lateral line organs, is structurally very inti- 

 mately related to the general cutaneous 

 centers and dorsal horns. Johnston, in agree- 

 ment with other very recent writers, finds the 

 cerebellum directly related with the tuberculum 

 acusticum, all the types of cells characteristic 

 of the cerebellum being represented in the 

 acusticum by transitional forms. From this it 

 follows that the cerebellum and acustico-lateral 

 nerve centers are phylogenetically derived from 

 the dorsal horns of the spinal cord. It is im- 

 portant that this interesting conclusion be con- 

 trolled by studies upon still more primitive 

 vertebrates and by embryological studies upon 

 the lower fishes, and that the succeeding steps 

 in this evolutionary process be worked out in 

 the types next above the ganoids. The first of 

 these desiderata has already been met in large 

 measure by an exhaustive study of the brain of 

 the lamprey by similar methods, which Dr. 

 Johnston has now in press in an American 

 journal and by which the main theoretical con- 

 clusions of this paper are confirmed in a strik- 

 ing manner. 



Another critical region upon which interest- 

 ing conclusions are expressed is the pallium. 



" There are found in Acipenser two sets of cells 

 which seem to constitute the earliest representa- 

 tive of the cortex proper. One of these serves 

 to connect the epistriata of the two sides by 

 fibers through the anterior commissure. The 

 other is found in the dorsal membranous roof 

 of the fore-brain and probably corresponds to 

 the dorsal or dorso-median cortex of reptiles. 

 The transformation of a membranous pallium 

 into a massive nervous pallium, which has 

 recently been declared impossible, is seen in 

 actual progress in its early stages in Acipenser. ' ' 

 In conclusion, we may add that, whether Dr. 

 Johnston's theoretical conclusions stand or fall 

 (and we think that for the most part they will 

 stand), the cause of sound morphology is best 

 promoted by just such exhaustive and pains- 

 taking researches as this one, by which a secure 

 basis of positive fact is first laid down. 



C. JuDSON Herrick. 



The Smithsonian Institution, Documents Relative 

 to its Origin and History, 1835-1899. Com- 

 piled and edited by William Jones Rhees. 

 In two volumes. Vol. I., 1835-1887. 

 Twenty-fourth Congress to Forty-ninth Con- 

 gress. Washington, Government Printing 

 Office. 1901. Pp. liii + 1044. 

 The Smithsonian Institution is taking praise- 

 worthy pains to make permanent records of its 

 origin, history and activities, so that the future 

 historian of science in America shall be able to 

 draw from authorized sources. Three volumes 

 have previously appeared pertaining to the 

 origin and history of Smithson's foundation, 

 one bearing a title similar to that under review, 

 one dealing with the ' Journals of the Board of 

 Regents, Reports of Committees, Statistics,' 

 and the third, the large, handsome work, 

 'History of the First Half Century,' edited by 

 Dr. George Brown Goode and published in 

 1897. The volume in hand is compiled and 

 edited by one who has been in the service of 

 the Institution under all three secretaries, as 

 chief clerk and now as keeper of archives, and 

 whose familiarity with the life of the Smith- 

 sonian, together with painstaking research, has 

 produced a valuable work. 



The book is complementary to that issued in 

 1879, and contains in detail the history of the 



