Vergleichende Anatomie des Nervensystems Erster Teil, Die Leitungsbahnen im Nerven-system der Wirbellosen Tiere

Abstract

THE author is to be congratulated on this excellent digest of the known facts regarding the paths of conduction in the nervous system of invertebrates—a work which has entailed careful reading of the extensive and complicated literature of the subject and skilful collation of the results. He gives an account of the principal issues of the researches—treated for the most part in historical sequence—on the arrangement of the sensory cells and ganglion cells and the course of their processes, so far as this has been ascertained, in each phylum of invertebrates. The internal structure of the cell and the intracellular neurofibrillæ are not discussed. After dealing with the Porifera in less than a page, there being no evidence of the presence of nervous elements in sponges, the author examines in turn the Cœlentera, Vermes, Mollusca, Echinoderma, Arthropoda, Bryozoa, Tunicata, and Amphioxus, the last-named being included because its nervous system presents a number of features in common with that of invertebrates. In some cases—e.g. Echinoderma, Bryozoa Tunicata—our knowledge of the paths of conduction is extremely slight, but in others —e.g. Annelida and Decapod Crustacea—there is an extensive literature which has received full consideration. The digest, illustrated by 116 diagrams, shows clearly what has been done, and renders obvious how much still remains to be done to elucidate the detailed structure of the nervous system of invertebrates, for, as the author remarks, we have as yet only an imperfect conception of the various conduction paths in the ganglia of the earthworm's nerve-cord, although these ganglia have been investigated more than any other part of the nervous system of any invertebrate.

Vergleichende Anatomie des Nervensystems. Erster Teil., Die Leitungsbahnen im Nerven-system der Wirbellosen Tiere.

Von Æ. B. Droogleever Fortuyn. Pp. viii + 370. (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn, 1920.) 12.50 guilders.