100 ANATOMY OF THE OENTHAL NEETOUS SYSTEM. 



tion lie here; what great association-systems occupy the whole, connecting 

 all of its levels among themselves and with higher and lower centers; what 

 important connections rvin from the oblongata to other parts of the brain, 

 it becomes evident that just this part of the brain is the most important for 

 the maintenance of life. On the one hand, one may, in a lower vertebrate, 

 remove everything anterior to the medulla without so disturbing the vital 

 functions that death supervenes, and may, on the other hand, remove the 

 whole spinal cord without inducing anything more than complete motor 

 and sensory paralysis. But no vertebrate can survive the removal of the 

 Medulla Oblongata, that general origin for the most important nerves, that 

 great center of co-ordination. 



The importance of the Medulla Oblongata for the existence of the 

 animal corresponds to the fact that this part of the brain reaches a high 

 development earlier than any other part. This is true, both in the phy- 

 logeny and in the ontogeny of the central nervoias System. 



