310 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
elapse before any intellectual labor is undertaken. An equal period of repose 
may well occur just before the renewal of teaching in the Fall. But the teacher 
who hopes to make his instruction each year more thorough and successful than 
the last, will be pretty sure to spend the remaining month or two in the search 
of help from books, and, while regretting the vagueness of the information thus 
obtained, may seldom think of making it more real by personal observation. 
Now it is true that in some branches of science this may require appliances 
not readily obtained. This is the case with Chemistry and Physics, and some 
parts of Natural History. But Botany and Entomology may be pursued under 
almost any circumstances, and I venture to suggest that at least one kind of 
anatomical work may be carried on with but a slight amount of apparatus. 
Obviously, the summer is not the most favorable time for study of the 
viscera, while anatomical details respecting the muscles, vessels and nerves are 
not especially required for ordinary instruction. But the ézezm is not only the 
organ least satisfactorily treated in the text books, but at the same time the one 
concerning which the most should be known, from the double standpoint of 
physiology and psychology. 
But how can the teacher procure brains, and how shall he preserve them 
when obtained ? 
The question is a perfectly natural one in view of the prevailing impression that 
the cerebral structure is to be learned from the human brain alone. _ So far from 
correct is this idea, that from a single animal brain, perfectly fresh or well pre- 
served, more may be gained than the average medical student learns from the 
human brains usually examined in the dissecting-room. 
This is due to the fact that, excepting the absence of the occipital lobes of 
the hemispheres, the brains of the cat, the dog, the rabbit and the sheep present 
nearly all of the structural features of the human brain, while their smaller size 
and greater accessibility better adapt them for manipulation and for the preser- 
vation of the numerous specimens which are needed to display all parts of the 
organ. 
Of the animals above named the cat seems to be the most favorable subject. 
It is always and everywhere obtainable; the brain is larger than that of the 
rabbit, and more easily extracted than those of the sheep and most dogs. 
Some features of the brain, as the coloration of different parts, and especially 
the relation of the gray and white substances, are better seen upon fresh speci- 
mens; but the beginner will do well to examine hardened brains first, so as to 
become familiar with the form and relative position of the parts, and with their 
names. 
Among the instruments needed for the removal and dissection of the brain 
the most essential are a very sharp knife, and a pair of ‘‘ wire-nippers’’ with the 
blades set at a slight angle with the handles. 
As an aid to the study of the brain any work upon Human Anatomy will 
be found useful. The best are those of ‘‘Quain” and ‘‘ Gray.’’ Descriptions, 
