EDITORIAL.

THE WORK OF CARL WERNICKE.

In the death of CARL WERNICKE last spring the world lost one of its greatest students of the form and function of the human brain. Comparatively a young man, only fifty-seven, WERNICKE, as a result of an accident, met with while holidaying in the forest of Thüringen, was cut down at the height of his professional activity. The revision of his text-book on psychiatry, one of the most original and inspiring of modern works on the subject, occupied him just previous to his demise.

As a teacher, WERNICKE attracted many students to work under him personally; he reached more through his published articles and books. As a personality, he possessed originality, independence and fearlessness, and accordingly came into conflict, sometimes bitter, with the opinions of other individuals of his time. As an investigator he leaves behind him a record of discoveries which will preserve his name permanently in the histories of brain-anatomy, brain-pathology, clinical neurology and psychiatry.

His life from his graduation on was devoted consistently to farthering progress in our knowledge of the brain. He began with brain-pathology, perfected himself in brain-anatomy, and did his best work in clinical observation.

Students of cerebral anatomy know WERNICKE especially through (1) his study of the gyri and sulci of the cortex cerebri, (2) his presentation of the microscopic features of the fibrebundles of the brain as a whole, and (3) his atlas of brain-anatomy. He enriched our knowledge of cerebral topography by observing in the maze of sulcus variation the constants now designated as the sulcus occipitalis anterior, the sulcus occipi ta

lis inferior and the sulcus fronto-marginalis. His contribution to the microscopic anatomy of the brain consists chiefly in his thorough presentation with valuation of the view points of embryology and phylogeny, of the totality of fiber-bundles, based upon the studies of MEYNERT, GUDDEN and FLECHSIG.

WERNICKE'S cerebral pathology was based upon anatomy and physiology. Indeed it is in the first volume of his "Diseases of the Brain" that his systematic description of microscopic anatomical structures is to be found; this first volume is a collective review which may well serve as a foundation for all who desire to begin the serious study of the complexities of the cerebral conduction paths. His greatest single contribution to the pathological physiology and anatomy of the brain, was, undoubtedly, the discovery of the so-called "sensory aphasia" and the definite localization in the pallium of the area, diseases of which calls forth that now well-known and generally recognized syndrome. Studies in brain-histology proper seem to have interested WERNICKE much less than studies in gross and microscopic anatomy. Accordingly one finds but little mention of intraneuronal features in his writings. It was the grouping and chaining-together of neurones in greater complexes with formation of 'centres' and conduction-paths which appealed to him most, as was natural, perhaps, in a man so profoundly interested in cerebral localization and in the problems of aphasia and psychiatry as WERNICKE was.

The study of the aphasic symptom-complex which WERNICKE published in 1874 stands as an important pillar of support to modern clinical neurology. It was a research which ranks with the earlier studies of BROCA and SAX. It had not only a great neurological significance but exerted, through the analysis of the cortical processes which it embodied, an important influence upon the conceptions of physiological psychology. The demonstration of the continous process:-stimulus, sensation, memory-picture, association with other memory-pictures and motor projection, was first brought, as ZIEHEN points out, by WERNICKE, though the principles upon which it is based may be found in the investigations of others.

Hemiplegia, next to aphasia, is the subject in clinical neurology to which WERNICKE and his pupils have paid most attention with the interesting results known to all actively working neurologists. Following upon the researches of the CHARCOT School, WERNICKE's studies have gone far to extend our knowledge of the exact relations in that particular paralysis. Especially as concerns the residual paralysis during convalescence from hemiphlegia are the studies of WERNICKE and his pupil LUDWIG MANN of importance.

The latter part of WERNICKE'S life was given over almost wholly to an attempt to found a scientific symptomatology of the psychoses, and it will generally be admitted, we think, that his greatest work is his 'Text-book of Psychiatry', which is wholly original, and widely divergent in the handling from that of any other psychiatrist, living or dead. WERNICKE in this treatise has made a book which will serve as a foundation for much of the psychiatric investigation of the future. Though written for students and physicians-the book bears the humble title of 'Grundriss'-it makes profitable reading for even the most experienced alienist. Indeed, as SPENSER is sometimes called the poet's poet, it would not be surprising if WERNICKE came to be known as the psychiatrist's psychiatrist. He was an observer rather than an experimenter but those who knew him say that his talent for observation seemed at times to amount almost to divination.

Take him all in all, CARL WERNICKE was a man, whose like neurology and psychiatry will scarcely soon see again. He occupies a place among the few-with PINEL, with CHARCOT, with GRIESINGER and with MEYNERT.

LEWELLYS F. BARKER.

PAPERS ON REACTIONS TO ELECTRICITY IN UNICELLULAR ORGANISMS.'

No other field in the behavior of the lower organisms presents such puzzles as the reaction to the electric current. The continued activity in research and speculation along this line is therefore to be welcomed. Some of the papers recently published represent real advances in our knowledge; others do not.

Reactions to Induction Shocks. ROESLE (1) and STATKEWITSCH (2) find that the reaction of Paramecia and other infusoria to single induction shocks is essentially the same as the reaction to other usual stimuli. The animal swims backward, turns toward one side, then swims forward. Sometimes, according to ROESLE, the reaction is a simple forward movement, as is often the case with other weak stimuli. Both writers find the anterior end more sensitive than the rest of the body, save that ROESLE finds the region about the mouth still more sensitive; this is not confirmed by STATKEWITSCH. The reaction begins, according to STATKEWITSCH, with a reversal of the cilia at the anode; this spreads at once over the body, causing the start backward. With a stronger shock there is contraction and a discharge of tricho

11. ROESLE, E. Die Reaction einiger Infusorien auf einzelne Induktionsschläge. Zeitschr. f. Allg. Physiol., Bd. 2, 1902, pp. 139-168.

2.

STATKEWITSCH, P. Ueber die Wirkung der Induktionschläge auf einige Ciliata. Le Physiologiste Russe, No. 41-45, 1903, pp. 1-55.

3. WALLENGREN, H. Zur Kenntnis der Galvanotaxis, I. Die anodische Galvanotaxis. Zeitschr. f. Allg. Physiol., Bd. 2, 1902, pp. 341-384. 4. WALLENGREN, H. Zur Kenntnis der Galvanotaxis. II. Eine Analyse der Galvanotaxis bei Spirostomum. Zeitschr. f. Allg. Physiol., Bd. 2, 1903, pp. 516-555.

5. STATKEWITSCH, P. Galvanotropism i Galvanotaxis Zhivotnyk. Chact pervaya. Galvanotropism i Galvanotaxis ryecnigatyx Infusorii. Dissertation. Moscow, 1903.

160 pp.

6. GREELEY, A. W. Experiments on the Physical Structure of the Protoplasm of Paramecium and its Relation to the Reactions of the Organism to Thermal, Chemical and Electrical Stimuli. Biol. Bull., vol. 7, 1903,

PP. 3-32.

7. BIRUKOFF, B. Zur Theorie der Galvanotaxis. Archiv f. Anat. u. Physiol. physiol. Abth., Jhrg. 1904, pp. 271-296.

cysts at the anode. With a still stronger shock, trichocysts are discharged also at the cathode, and at a later stage, over the whole body. Reaction to the Constant Current. WALLENGREN (3,4) studied the transverse electrotaxis of Spirostomum and the anodic taxis of Opalina. He finds that in both cases the current produces the same effect on the cilia as in the usual cathodic taxis. The cilia of the cathode region are reversed, striking forward, while those of the anode region strike backward. The taking of the transverse position (Spirostomum) and the movement to the anode (Opalina) are due to special peculiarities of the body structure and ciliary apparatus of the organisms. In a weak current Spirostomum, and in a stronger current Opalina, go to the cathode, like other Ciliata. It is evident from WALLENGREN'S work that the fundamental phenomenon in electrotaxis is the action of the current on the cilia; the direction of movement depends on more or less accidental conditions.

The work of STATKEWITSCH (5) is an extensive study of the reactions of many infusoria to the electric current, as part of a general examination of the reactions of animals to electricity. The work is careful and thorough; the apparatus and methods are of the best; all together it is exactly such a piece of work as was needed. It is to be hoped that the results may soon be published in a language that will make them more generally accessible.1

The work is filled with detailed observations of great interest; we can mention however only a few of the general results. Twenty eight species of infusoria were studied, Paramecium serving as the main type in the detailed description. The current was found to have the same effect throughout. In the cathode region the cilia are reversed, while elsewhere they strike backward, as under normal conditions. With a weak current only a few cilia at the cathode tip are reversed; as the current becomes stronger the reversal spreads toward the anode end. This account agrees throughout with the original one by Ludloff. Thus the cathodic reversal of the cilia is the one peculiar phenomenon in the reaction to the electric current. To it are due the characteristic features of the reaction, and it is this cathodic reversal that requires explanation. STATKEWITSCH made a thorough study of the internal chemical changes due to the current, by the use of ingested chemical indicators. It was found that the reaction of the endosarc becomes more alkaline under the action of the current, but this is not

'Since this review was written a summary of parts of STATKEWITSCH's results have appeared in the Zeitschrift f. Allg. Physiologie.