REVIEWS. 
71 
indulge, and which has been so well dwelt on by Mr. Wallace in his 
u Malay Archipelago.” We would refer more particularly to the author’s 
account of the moss and the leaf insects. More than anything that he has 
said in the course of the work, these two insects illustrate the law of evolu- 
tion which Mr. Belt has been endeavouring to illustrate. His description, 
and the cuts accompanying it, of the leaf and the moss insect, are simply 
marvellous. The leaf insect can with difficulty be distinguished from an 
ordinary leaf, and the moss insect, “ of which I only found two specimens, 
had a wonderful resemblance to a piece of moss, amongst which it concealed 
itself in the day time, and was not to be distinguished except when acci- 
dentally shaken out.” Altogether we have been much pleased with Mr. 
Belt’s volume, and we do not hesitate to recommend it to our readers. 
THE CONVOLUTIONS OF THE BRAIN* 
O NE of the most important advantages which has for many years been 
conferred on the student of philosophic anatomy has been given to him 
by the labours of Professor Ecker, in the book which has been translated 
into our language by Mr. J. C. Galton. Who has not wished, if he be a 
student of philosophy, for something like a definite work, in which he could 
follow out the various convolutions of the human brain. To the student of 
metaphysics, who has a certain knowledge of anatomy, this field has been 
completely a bare one ; and when he has attempted to study any of the 
various memoirs which have appeared of late years on the subject of 
paralysis of speech, and injury to the “ island of Reil,” how destitute has he 
not felt of a work on the particular locality of any of the convolutions. 
Further, how impossible it has been to compare the convolutions of man 
with those of the apes. Of course a great deal of work on these subjects 
has been done by English anatomists ; but if we ask where is there a book 
on the subject in English, we are compelled to say nowhere. Mr. Galton 
has therefore done wisely and well in introducing to us this admirable essay 
of Dr. Ecker’s, which, with its numerous excellent woodcuts, its clearness of 
translation, and its general distinctness of type, renders its perusal less of a 
study than a pleasure. We shall hope that the introduction of this work 
among anatomists, together with a careful study of Dr. Ferrier’s recent and 
valuable researches, will do much to render the study of the human brain 
by those who have the power — the superintendents of lunatic asylums — 
more popular and more productive than it has been of late. 
* 11 On the Convolutions of the Brain.” By Dr. Alexander Ecker, Pro- 
fessor of Anatomy in the University of Freiburg. Translated, by permission 
of the author, by J. C. Galton, M.A., Oxon, M.R.C.S., F.L.S. London: 
Smith, Elder & Co. 1873. 
