PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 
yol. xiv. 1886-87. No. 125. 
On the Conducting Paths between the Cortex of the 
Brain and the Lower Centres in relation to Physiology 
and Pathology. By D. J. Hamilton, M.B., F.R.C.S.Edin., 
F.R.S.E., Professor of Pathology, University of Aberdeen. 
(Plates XIV., XV.) 
(Read 31st January 1887.) 
Methods . — The great difficulties heretofore encountered in investi- 
gating the course of nerve fibres in the brain have been, firstly, the 
want of a method of preparation by which their gross anatomy 
could he thoroughly exposed, and, secondly, the failure of any 
previously known process of staining to satisfactorily indicate their 
direction on microscopic examination. In endeavouring to collect 
reliable data from the records of lesions of the human brain, it 
becomes only too evident that until more efficient methods of 
localising lesions he adopted than those generally dn use at the 
present day, little can possibly be added to the knowledge we already 
possess. 
The methods of preparation I now employ for demonstrating the 
connections of the brain are chiefly the gelatine-potash process I 
formerly described in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology 
(vol. xix., 1885, p. 385), along with a modification of Weigert’s 
heematoxylene - copper stain for medullated nerve fibres lately 
published by me in the same periodical (vol. xxi., 1887, p. 444). 
VOL. XIV. 15/5/88 2 L 
