LITERARY NOTICES.

Goldstein, Kurt. Kritische und experimentelle Beiträge zur Frage nach dem Einfluss des Nervensystems auf die embryonale Entwicklung und die Regeneration. Three plates and two text-figures. Arch. f. Entwkmech., 1904, 18, 57-110.

SCHAPER'S experiment which showed motility in a frog larva in which he had destroyed the brain and found the spinal cord in a state of disorganization, left a certain desire for more evidence. WOLFF failed to obtain the same decisive result, and MOSKOWSKI actually considered the claim refuted. GOLDSTEIN, a pupil of SCHAPER, now supplements the first description by a drawing which is more convincing than SCHAPER's original one, and he adds new experimental material, which shows WOLFF's error and firmly establishes very important data in harmony with SCHAPER'S observations.

WOLFF divided frog larvae of less than 5 mm. so that the dorsal part contained the entire neural tube, and failed to corroborate SCHAPER. GOLDSTEIN succeeded in keeping both parts alive for five days, through the use of LOCKE's solution, and he showed that they recover motility in two days. Hence, spontaneous and reflex motility in an early embryonic period does not depend on the existence of nerve conduction of a central organ. Moreover, the ventral piece showed further development; notwithstanding the elimination of the neural tube it reached the size corresponding to a larva of about 6.5 to 7.0 mm. Against these facts any arguments based on laws of regenerative processes have absolutely no weight, since we deal here merely with a primary condition of development.

GOLDSTEIN next turns against certain views of NEUMANN. The latter had concluded that at least for a start in the development of muscles, nervous centers were necessary; that, once started, they would develop independently from the central organ, and, in post-embryonic life the trophic center of cord and brain would again put them into a dependent position. The first point is contradicted by various facts. BARDEEN found that muscle differentiation began before the nerves grew forth from the tube. Also HARRISON demonstrated an inde

pendent development of muscle with fibrils, striation and sarcolemma after excision of the spinal cord and ganglia in larvae of 2.9 and 3.7 NUSSBAUM, too, admits an independent development of embryonic muscles up to a certain degree-all agree with GOLDSTEIN's result that NEUMANN's first claim is incorrect. His second claim, made in order to explain the persistence of muscles in the amyelic monsters, would not be conclusive on his own assumptions. The muscles need not have degenerated within the short time between the lesion (3d or 4th month) and birth (usually in the 6th or 7th month). In WEBERALESSANDRINI monsters the lesion must have occurred at 2-3 months and the animal reached full term; the muscles were, therefore, degenerated and mere fat layers and tendons. LEONOWA also found the muscles of her case of amyelia extraordinarily fatty. (It seems, moreover, that the condition of the motor nerves in these monsters is not satisfactorially ascertained, but should be of great importance in view of BETHE'S claims). HERBST's attempt to attribute a trophic control over muscles to the spinal ganglia is refuted. Taking all the facts together, GOLDSTEIN comes to the conclusion that the central nervous system during a certain early period of development has no demonstrable morphogenetic influence on the developing organism.

The second part of GOLDSTEIN's article furnishes evidence showing that this same rule holds for regeneration. Regeneration need not follow the rules of development. It also depends largely on the age of the animal or embryo. The results in invertebrates are contradictory; those on vertebrates (BARFURTH), probably favorable to the theory of independence from the central nervous system. In adult Tritons WOLFF thought he had proved the necessity of a nervous influence. He obtained regeneration of a leg after removal of the cord, but with intactness of the ganglia; when the operation was done while regeneration had begun it was arrested in all but six cases. In an experiment of SCHAPER on a Triton larva of 30 mm., an extremity was regenerated after destruction of the cord, and although there was complete absence of sensibility and motility. What nerves there were, came "largely" from the spinal ganglia; the muscles were normal; even a piece of 1 mm. of spinal cord had reformed at the posterior end of the cut of the cord.

I

The conclusion is: In the stage of organ formation (Roux) the normal development and regeneration take place quite independent of the nervous central system. In the stage of functional development there is, however, a decided influence from the central organ.

A. M.

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 voluminous 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 DOHRN 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 Nevraxe, 1904, 5, 19-74.

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