80 Scientific Intelligence. 



otic labyrinth belongs to the proprioceptors, and it is so deeply 

 placed in the bone that it cannot be directly affected by surround- 

 ing objects. Crnm Brown's statement of the function of the 

 labyrinth takes no account of the relation of the individual to 

 surrounding objects, and a little reflection will show that, con- 

 trary to the author's statement, the vestibular mechanism alone 

 can give no knowledge whatever of the relation of the body to 

 external objects. The relation of the body to external objects is 

 known through the exteroceptive sense organs — the eye, the 

 auditory portion of the ear and the other superficial sense organs. 



The optimistic prophecy on page 24 "At the present hour 

 perhaps the most valuable service that the otologist can render to 

 the government is in the Aviation Service" has scarcely been 

 justified by performance. I should, however, utter a warning 

 that the failure of the so-called Vienna tests to produce anything 

 of importance does not mean that the internal ear has no relation 

 to the problem of aviation, or that something of value might not 

 accrue from the application of other tests to a problem of a 

 somewhat different nature. The contention of the author that 

 the production of vertigo is dependent upon the integrity of the 

 cerebellum, never resting upon more than a slender basis of fact, 

 has been still further undermined by the observations on gunshot 

 injuries of the cerebellum in the recent war. In this connection 

 it may be mentioned that at least one exception to the statement 

 on page 4, "nor does the cranial surgeon yet recognize the 

 value of ear examinations in helping him to diagnosticate and 

 locate intracranial lesions" is to be found in Cushing's volume 

 1 ' Tumors of the Nervus Acusticus and the Syndrome of the Cere- 

 bello-pontile Angle" published a year earlier. 



Enough has been said to indicate that, on its scientific side at 

 least, the book is scarcely suitable to place in the hands of imma- 

 ture and impressionable students. It is matter for regret that 

 unsettled, to say nothing of unknown, matters are stated in a 

 dogmatic way. It is still more regrettable that the book conveys 

 the impression that it has the approval of the medical service of 

 the army. 



There are some good plates of the normal gross appearance of 

 the brain and its various divisions, but the illustrations of patho- 

 logical conditions, both gross and microscopic, are much inferior 

 to those in Cushing's volume. 



F. H. PIKE. 

 Department of Physiology, 

 Columbia University. 



Obituary. 



Dr. William Gilson Farlow, Professor of cryptogamic 

 botany at Harvard University, and since 1895 an associate editor 

 of this Journal, died on June' 3 in his seventy-fifth year. A 

 notice is deferred until a later number. 



