Davenport, C. B. Statistical Methods with special reference to biological variation. New York, John Wiley and Sons, viii + 223, second, revised

edition, 1904.

In this edition DAVENPORT has revised and enlarged his handbook of statistical methods in a manner which greatly increases its value to the student of biological variation. An important new chapter deals with the results of statistical work, several new methods are described, and the bibliography is much enlarged.

The present scope and nature of the book is well indicated by the titles of the several chapters: I. On methods of measuring organisms, II. On the seriation and plotting of data and the frequency polygon, III. The classes of frequency polygons, IV. Correlated variability, V. Some results of statistical biological study.

The work of the publisher is no less admirable than that of the author of this guide to statistical methods. Every student of exact science will find the book serviceable, and no student or investigator of biological variation can afford to be without it. Dr. DAVENPORT deserves much credit for the impetus which his energy and enthusiasm have imparted to biometric research in America.

R. M. Y.

Deaver, John B. Surgical Anatomy of the Head and Neck. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1904, pp. 770.

This book is printed from the same plates as the author's three volume work on Surgical Anatomy, those sections being assembled which will be of greatest interest to specialists in diseases of the eye, ear, nose, mouth, throat and nervous system. The book will prove useful to these and also to physiologists, psychologists and general readers who require a manual for ready and rapid consultation. The text is brief and clear and the illustrations are admirable. There are 177 full page plates drawn from original dissections, which by themselves constitute a useful atlas of topographical anatomy. All parts are designated on the plates in full, thus permitting the reader to glean much of his information by simple inspection without consultation of the text. The external and gross features of the brain are fully and clearly figured, without, however, any attention to histological detail. The printing and binding are exceptionally good.

C. J. H. Mendel, E. and Jacobsohn, L. Jahresbericht über die Leistungen und Fortschritte auf dem Gebiete der Neurologie und Psychiatrie. VII Jahrgang. Bericht über das Jahr 1903. Berlin, S. Karger, 1904. Price, M. 35. The Jahresbericht is issued this year in two volumes and, like its predecessors, is indispensable to all who wish to keep abreast of the vol. uminous literature of neurology and psychiatry. The bibliographies are

grouped by topics and accompanied by critical annotations on the contents of nearly all of the papers cited. Compendious indexes make the whole mass of material instantly available. C. J. H.

Sfameni, Pasquale. Sulle terminazioni nervose nei genitali femminili esterni e sul loro significato morfologico e funzionale. Archivio di Fisiologia, 1904, 1, 345-384.

In this careful and thorough investigation the author has confined his attention to the nerve terminations in the clitoris and the vulva. Topographically these are of three classes: (a) Intrapapillar nerve terminations; (b) nerve terminations in the reticular layer of the derma; (c) terminations in the subdermal connective tissue. The first and second of these are by far the most important. All of these terminations reduce to the single type of "a nervous organ, with or without an envelop of connective tissue, composed of one or more nerve fibers which, after divesting themselves of their myelin sheaths, if they have any, ramify in and around a granular, nucleated substance."

The nerve corpuscles are not the terminations of the sensory nerves but are peripheral ganglia, corresponding to spinal ganglia, and their function is to bring about a more subtle division and modification of the stimuli. The real terminations are always differentiated ectoderm cells scattered through the epithelium and the superficial layers of the derma, and connected with sensory nerve fibers. There is a bibliography of 46 citations. J. C. BELL. Harrison, Ross Granville. An Experimental Study of the Relation of the Nervous System to the Developing Musculature in the Embryo of the Frog. The American Journal of Anatomy, 1904, 3, 197-220.

Observations upon embryos the spinal cord of which had been completely isolated before the appearance of either nerve fibers or contractile substance in the musculature, and upon larvae which were reared in a state of constant narcosis by means of a dilute solution of acetone chloroform. Conclusion: "all of the constructive processes involved in the production of the specific structure and arrangement of the muscle fibers take place independently of stimuli from the nervous system and of the functional activity of the muscles themselves. Hardesty, Irving. On The Development and Nature of the Neuroglia. The American Journal of Anatomy, 1904, 3, 229-268.

G. E. C.

A study of pig embryos to demonstrate the syncytial nature of the neuroglia as proposed in the author's earlier paper on the spinal cord of the elephant. Attention is called to cells resembling the nervecorpuscles of the peripheral nerve which encircle the medullating axones of the cord.

G. E. C.

Streeter, George L. The Structure of the Spinal Cord of the Ostrich. The American Journal of Anatomy, 1904, 3, 1-27.

A description of the meninges and the macroscopic and microscopic features of the cord; including noteworthy contributions on the arachnoidea, the relation of the peripheral glia sheath to the sinus rhomboideus, REISSNER'S fiber, and the nuclei marginales. Tabulated measurements and a diagram of the cross-section area, in each segment of the cord, of the funiculi ventro-laterales, substantia grisea, and funiculi dorsales.

G. E. C.

2.

Fürbringer, Max. Morphologische Streitfragen. 1. Nervus trochlearis. Rabl's Methode und Behandlung der Extremitätenfrage. Morph. Jahrb., 1902, 30, 85-274.

Part I (pp. 86-143) is an important contribution to the morphology of the fourth nerve. It is, in the main, a reply to the criticisms made by RABL and DoшRN upon the author's theory to account for the dorsal origin and the crossing of the nerve in question: viz. that the superior oblique muscles were originally muscles of the parietal eye, and that with the disappearance of that organ the originally right. oblique muscle became associated with the left eye, and vice versa. A bibliography of 296 titles.

Van Gehuchten, A.

G. E. C.

Considérations sur la structure interne des cellules nerveuses et sur les connexions anatomiques des neurones. Le Nevraxe, 1904, 6, 83-116.

The author places great emphasis upon the fact that the anatomical independence of neurones, as they are demonstrated by the methods of GOLGI and EHRLICH, is the substance of the neurone theory. He considers that, so interpreted, the neurone theory is not contradicted by a single anatomical fact. Intracellular continuity by means of nets and "nervöse Grau” as proposed by BETHE, NISSL and others is purely hypothetical. Even the auto-regeneration of the axone as demonstrated by BETHE, and VAN GEHUCHTEN repeats this experiment successfully, affects only our idea of the origin of the neurone and does not bear upon the neurone theory proper. While in some nerve cells the fibrillae seem to be independent, in many they clearly anastomose in the dendrite and especially in the perikaryon. This condition refutes BETHE'S and NISSL's opposition to the idea of polarity of the nerve cell, and supports the neurone theory.

G. E. C. Van Gehuchten, A. Connexions centrales du noyau de Deiters et des masses grises voisines (Faisceau vestibulo-spinal, Faisceau longitudinal postérieur, Stries médullaires). Le Névraxe, 1904, 5, 19-74.

A critical review of recent literature on the subject, and a report

on several of the author's degenerative experiments on rabbits. The Marchi method was supplemented with the methods of indirect Wallerian degeneration and of NISSL. The vestibulo-spinal tract arises exclusively after DEITER'S nucleus and descends in the anterior column as far as the lumbo-sacral region. The spinal portion of the posterior longitudinal fasciculus is exclusively descending. Ascending fibers are found in this tract only within the bulb and mesencephalon. Both ascending and descending heterolateral fibers probably come as inferior arcuate fibers either from the terminal vestibular nucleus or from the tuberculum acusticum. The ascending homolateral fibers arise higher up, probably from the nucleus of BECHTEREW. The striae medullares arise exclusively in the tuberculum acusticum.

G. E. C. Soukhanoff. Contribution à l'étude du réseau endocellulaire dans les éléments nerveux des ganglions spinaux. Le Névraxe, 1904, 6, 75-80.

The endocellular net as observed by the KOPSCH Osmic acid method is identical with the GOLGI endocellular net, and is not the same structure as the canaliculi of HOLMGREN and others.

Agababow, A. Ueber die Nerven der Sclera.

H. 4, pp. 701-709, 1904.

G. E. C.

Archiv f. mik. Anat., Bd. 63,

Hyde, Ida H. Localization of the Respiratory Center in the Skate. Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1904, 10, 236-258.

By the employment of careful and precise methods of experimentation on living skates, Miss HYDE has demonstrated the segmental arrangement of the respiratory center. The animal under observation was placed on a board, and sea-water was passed in a continuous stream through a tube into the mouth. Artificial respiration could in this way be maintained for days. In a skate thus situated the medulla may be separated from the spinal cord and from those portions of the brain lying anterior to it without destroying its function as a respiratory

center.

Medisection of the medulla is followed, after the inhibitory effects of shock have passed off, by a resumption of coördinated respiratory movements on both sides of the body. The gill arches of one side may move in a rhythm quite different from that of the opposite side. The spiracles may keep time with the gill arches of their respective sides, or both spiracles may be in rhythm with the arches of one side. From the results of median section of the medulla it became evident that "the centers for the nervous respiratory mechanism in the skate were bilateral, each half controlling the movements of its respective side."

Evidence of the segmental character of these bilateral respiratory

centers was obtained by following medisection with hemisection. One lateral half of the medulla was separated into anterior and posterior divisions by a transverse cut. The arches and spiracle of the uninjured side continued their normal movements. The spiracle and first gill arch, controlled by the anterior division of the opposite side, sometimes exhibited a rhythm which differed both from the rhythm of the uninjured side and also from that of the remaining gill arches of the same side, which were under the control of the posterior division of the lateral half of the medulla. At times the respiratory mechanisms connected with all three divisions of the medulla moved in unison.

Lesions of the different lobes of the medulla indicated that the ganglion cells of sensory respiratory neurones, those of the seventh, ninth and tenth cranial nerves, are situated in the lobus vagi. Motor ganglion cells and neuraxones were found ventrad of the lobus vagi and in the fasciculus longitudinalis posterior.

F. W. C.

Gardella, Eloisa. Azione dell' acido fenico sulla sensibilità gustativa. Archivio di Fisiologia, 1904, 1, 398-402.

From its general anaesthetic properties we would expect phenic acid to cause a rise in the threshold of sensibility to taste stimuli. On the contrary, increasing strengths of phenic acid solution up to 3%, applied for 10 seconds, cause a lowering of the threshold for all four of the tastes, bitter, sweet, salt and acid, most of all for bitter. With a constant 2.5% solution and with varying time the threshold falls rapidly during the first 10 seconds, then rises to the normal at 30 seconds, and from there continues to ascend more slowly to 45 seconds.

J. C. BELL.

Langley, J. N. On the Effects of Union of the Central Part of the Cervical Sympathetic with the Peripheral Part of the Chorda tympani. Archivio di Fisiologia, 1904, 1, 505-511.

Three cats were operated upon and in 89, 96 and 176 days respectively they were killed and the nerves examined. Experiments upon the operated cats and examination of the nerves led to the conclusion that "the sympathetic fibers had united with the nerve cells on the course of the chorda tympani, and in consequence that sympathetic preganglionic fibers are capable of uniting with other similar cells. . . which occur on the course of the cranial nerves." The observations also showed that "the formation of medullated fibers in a peripheral nerve may be caused by fibers reaching it which are themselves non-medullated."

J. C. BELL.