258 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 112. 



water containing powdered carmine. It was noticed, 

 that, although all the cells took up the carmine, the 

 epithelium of the ciliated chambers soon ejected the 

 granules, while the cells of the upper surface of 

 the subdermal cavity gave them off to the amoeboid 

 wandering cells of the mesoderm, which, after they 

 had partly digested the carmine, transmitted it to the 

 cells of the ciliated chambers for ejection. He con- 

 cluded, therefore, that although all the cells had the 

 power of absorption, as is the case in man, still the 

 digestive function in the species upon which he ex- 

 perimented was centralized in the upper wall of the 

 subdermal cavities. Other authors have held differ- 

 ent views ; and in a subsequent paper he himself has 

 concluded that it cannot yet be decided whether 

 sponges digest with the ectoderm or the entoderm, 

 though he considers it not improbable that both 

 layers may have that function. His papers will be 

 found in the Proceedings of the Linnean society of 

 New South Wales. 



K. von Lendenfeld has also described in the Annals 

 and magazine of natural history for December, 1884, 

 a new variety of Medusa wbich may prove to be a 

 new species evolved within the last forty years. The 

 species is Crambessa mosaica, which Huxley in 1845 

 described from Sydney, Australia, as blue to gray, but 

 which is now found in this locality distinctly brown 

 in color, due to a parasitic alga which infests the flesh 

 near the surface. The evidence is sufficient to cause 

 von Lendenfeld to state that it is probable that this 

 new variety has been born since Huxley described it 

 in 1845. He also mentions the case of another 

 Medusa (Cyanea annaskala) which has hitherto been 

 found only at Port Philip, where it is abundant, but 

 which has recently been found at Port Jackson in 

 warmer water. Those in the latter place differ from 

 the typical species in being much larger, and, besides, 

 in possessing deep-purple pigment-cells around the 

 mouth-arms, which he thinks may be able to perceive 

 light. He makes a new variety from this variation of 

 color. 



THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF 

 THE BRAIN IN THEIR RELATION TO 

 MENTAL DISORDERS. 



Treatises upon insanit}- have been appear- 

 ing recently in quick succession, both in this 

 country and abroad. There is none, however, 

 which will command more notice, and prove 

 more suggestive, than this work. 



Professor Meynert, who has been at the head 

 of the department of psychiatry in the Univer- 

 sity of Vienna for the past fifteen years, was 

 one of the first to advance the opinion that a 

 studj T of mental disease must be preceded by 

 an understanding of healthy mental action. 

 Regarding mental action as the subjective side 



Psychiatrie. Klinik der erkrankungen des vorderhirns be- 

 grilndet auf des-sen bait, leistungen und ernahrung. Von Dr. 

 Theodor Meynert. Erste halfte. Wien, Braumuller, 1884. 10 

 +288 p., illustr. 8°. 



of a physiological process in the brain, lie 

 seeks primarily to ascertain the function of the 

 organ from its anatomical structure. The logi- 

 cal order which is followed in this work is 

 therefore, first, the anatomy of the brain ; sec- 

 ond, the physiolog}- of the brain, that is, the 

 mechanism of mind ; and, lastly , disturbances 

 of the mechanism, that is, mental disorder. 



The first volume is devoted to the structure 

 and functions of the organ of mind. The po- 

 sition which Professor Meynert holds as the 

 founder of modern brain-anatomy entitles him 

 to a respectful hearing on this subject. Since 

 the appearance of his first articles in Strieker's 

 ' Handbook of histology ' in 1870, he has been 

 the chief authoritj^ in Germany ; and almost 

 every one of the younger scientific men who 

 have done original work in this department has 

 been imbued with his enthusiasm by personal 

 contact with him in his laboratory. Within a 

 hundred and twenty-five pages he has succeeded 

 in giving a clear statement of the complex 

 subject of the arrangement and relations of 

 the gra}' masses and white connecting-fibres 

 which make up the brain. An important aid 

 to the comprehension of the structure will be 

 found in the numerous excellent drawings of 

 dissections and of microscopic sections. 



The gray matter of the nervous system is 

 the part in which sensor} T impulses are received 

 and registered, and in which motor impulses 

 are initiated. The white matter is made up of 

 threads which transmit the impulses without 

 modifying them. The structure and functions 

 of the gray matter differ in different parts ; 

 simple functions being performed hy that in 

 the spinal cord, more complex functions in the 

 gray masses within the brain, the most complex 

 and the conscious functions being assigned to 

 the layer which is spread out upon the surface 

 of the brain, and which is thrown into folds by 

 its convolutions. Each part of the surface of 

 the.bod} T is in anatomical connection, by means 

 of nerve-fibres, with its own part of the surface 

 of the brain ; and thus it is not difficult to im- 

 agine a projection of a map of the body upon 

 the brain-cortex. The fibres which act in this 

 manner to bring the external world into con- 

 sciousness are named bj T Meynert ' the pro- 

 jection system of tracts.' This 'projection 

 sj'stem ' was announced in 1870, and was the 

 starting-point to which all the recent discov- 

 eries regarding the localization of functions in 

 various regions of the brain can be traced. It 

 is to-day the ground- work for many arguments 

 in favor of the theory of localization, — a the- 

 ory to which Meynert gives his hearty support. 



At present, investigations in brain-anatomy 



