4 
SCIENCE. 
A BIT OF SUMMER WORK. 
BY PROFESSOR BURT G. WILDER, M. D. 
Notwithstanding the number of “ Summer Schools 
of Science” to be in operation this season, many 
teachers are likely to pass the vacation at a distance 
from the facilities afforded by organized laboratories. 
How shall they employ their time ? 
Doubtless they all need rest, and in most cases at 
least a fortnight should elapse before any intellectual 
labor is undertaken. An equal period of repose may 
well occur just before the renewal of teaching in the 
Fall. But the teacher who hopes to make his instruc- 
tion each year more thorough and successful than the i 
last, will be pretty sure to spend the remaining month 
or two in the search of help from books, and, while 
regretting the vagueness of the information thus ob- 
tained, may seldom think of making it more real by 
personal observation. 
Now it is true that in some branches of science this 
may require appliances not readily obtained. This is 
the case with Chemistry and Physics, and some parts 
of Natural History. But Botany and Entomology 
may be pursued under almost any circumstances, and 
I venture to suggest that at least one kind of anatom- 
ical work may be carried on with but a slight amount 
of apparatus. 
Obviously, the summer is not the most favorable 
time for study of the viscera, while anatomical details 
respecting the muscles, vessels and nerves are not es- j 
pecially required for ordinary instruction. But the 
brain is not only the organ least satisfactorily treated 
in the text-books, but at the same time the one con- j 
cerning which the most should be known, from the 
double standpoint of physiology and psychology. 
But how can the teacher procure brains, and how j 
shall he preserve them when obtained ? 
The question is a perfectly natural one in view of j 
the prevailing impression that cerebral structure is to 
be learned from the human brain alone. So far from 
correct is this idea, that from a single animal brain, 
perfectly fresh or well preserved, more may be gained 
than the average medical student learns from the 
human brains usually examined in the dissecting-room, j 
This is due to the fact that, excepting the absence of 
the occipital lobes of the hemispheres, the brains of 
the cat, the dog, the rabbit and the sheep present 
nearly all of the structural features of the human 
brain, while their smaller size and greater accessibility 
better adapt them for manipulation and for the preser- 
vation of the numerous specimens which are needed to ' 
display all parts of the organ. 
Of the animals above named the cat seems to be 
the most favorable subject. It is always and every- ; 
where obtainable ; the brain is larger than that of the 
rabbit, and more easily extracted than those of the 
sheep and most dogs. 
Some features of the brain, as the coloration of 
different parts, and especially the relation of the gray 
and white substances, are better seen upon fresh spe- 
cimens ; but the beginner will do well to examine 
hardened brains first, so as to become familiar with 
the form and relative position of the parts, and with 
their names. 
Among the instruments needed for the removal and 
dissection of the brain the most essential are a very 
sharp knife, and a pair of “ wire-nippers ” with the 
blades set at a slight angle with the handles. * 
As an aid to the study of the brain any work upon 
Human Anatomy will be found useful. The best are 
those of “ Quain ” and “ Gray.” Descriptions, with- 
out figures, of the brains of the sheep, and of the 
dog and rabbit, are given in the little works of Morrell 
and Foster and Langley. With some modification 
these apply to the brain of the cat. f 
Finally, it is hardly necessary to urge that outline 
drawings be made of the brain as a whole, and of its 
parts as exposed by dissection. If this is done, by 
the end of the summer the teacher will have become 
better able to appreciate the peculiarities of the human 
brain when one comes in his way, and will have laid 
a substantial foundation for the physiological and 
psychological instruction which he may be called upon 
to impart. 
Antipatharia of the “Black” Expedition. — In vol. 
iv. No. 4 of the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology at Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. (February), 
I . F. Pourtales describes twelve species of this interesting 
group taken in the Caribbean Sea (I878-79). In determin- 
ing the species an attempt has been made to use the differ- 
ences in the shape of the polyps, as well as the disposition 
and form of the spines to draw characters for a much- 
needed revision of their classification. It would seem as if 
there were at least two different types of spines : the 
triangular compressed and the more cylindrical. These 
latter are generally more densely set, even assuming some- 
times a brush-like appearance, as in Antipathes kumilis,a. 
new and wonderfully spinous species, figured but not de- 
scribed by Pourtales. These cylindrical spines are also 
unequal on the two sides of the pinnules, being longer on 
the side occupied by the polyps, with a very few around 
the polyps. The triangular spines are disposed regularly 
in a quincuncial order around the pinnules, and in a 
cleaned specimen nothing indicates the place formerly 
occupied by the polyps. In one series, however, A. 
desbonni, the spines are in regular verticils. There would 
appear to be a connection between the shape of the polyps 
and the shape and disposition of the spines. Those species 
with triangular spines have polyps with longer tentacles 
than those with cylindrical spines, and the tentacles have a 
greater tendency to become regular in shape. 
* These nippers are imported from Germany by H.Boker&Co., 
of New York, and are for sale by A. J. Wilkinson & Co., of Bos- 
ton, and Treman, King & Co., of Ithaca, N. Y. They cost about 
75 cents. 
t Hektograph copies of instructions for the removal, preserva- 
tion and disseciion of the cat’s brain maybe had upon application 
to Mr. F. L. Kilborne, Anatomical Laboratory, Cornell Univer- 
sity, Ithaca, N. Y. 
