REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 685 
ancy as another proof of three views elsewhere urged by us; 1. 
That a very large number of specimens especially of foetal brains, 
must be carefully studied. 2. That the results must be checked 
by an equally careful comparison between the two halves of the 
same brain. 3. That the existing disagreement is likely to per- 
sist for a long time unless we discard the human brain for the 
simpler brains of the lower monkeys, the lemurs and carnivora, 
using large numbers of brains of nearly allied species. But the 
foregoing considerations do not hinder our acknowledgment that 
the present work is a real boon to anatomical science; since it 
for the first time renders it possible, for the reader of English only, 
to ascertain what has been done in cerebral topography; the 
figures are clear, the nomenclature uniform, and a full synonymy is 
prefixed to the description of each fissure and fold. 
The fissures, are, correctly as we think, stated to be the ‘‘ more 
important,” but upon what ground is not indicated; and there is 
given a brief account of the formation of the Sylvian fissure, as 
differing from all others: a point which has been in part con- 
firmed by our own observations upon the brains of young ani- 
mals. 
We are now inclined to return to the ancient belief that each 
cerebral hemisphere acts as a unit and with more or less vigor 
according to the number and depth of the fissures; but Ecker 
vigorously repudiates this idea, holding that it “ consists of a mul- 
titude of organs each of which subserves definite intellectual pro- 
cesses.” But this opinion, while according with the original idea 
of phrenology, by no means indicates our author’s estimate of the 
present ‘‘professors” of that “science” to whom, together with 
the rest of this admirable little work, we cordially recommend the 
following passage (p. 9). “The travelling phrenologists, who 
wander around with plaster heads of Schiller, Napoleon and some — 
celebrated rascals, and cipher out a character from a number of 
bumps on the skull, are well known. Few of them have ever 
seen a brain.” —Burt G. WILDER. 
InrusoriaL Lire.*—Under this title Mr. W. H. Dallinger and 
Dr. J. Drysdale publish, jointly, in the August No. of the 
“ Monthly Microscopical Journal,” an article of extreme interest 
as a natural history contribution, and of revolutionary importance 
* Researches on the Life History of a Cercomonad: a Lesson in Biogenesis. 
