The Form and Functions of the Central Nervous System

Abstract

IN no part of the body is the relation of form and function so clear as in the central nervous system. Modern neurology owes its present position to advances in knowledge which have come from many sources. Comparative anatomy has shown clearly how the brain has altered and increased in size with the gradual evolution of the mammalian series, and the addition of new centres to the primitive brain can usually be correlated with changes in the habits or reactions of the new species. Anatomists have aided in the understanding of the human brain by two further lines of approach. Embryological investigation has helped in outlining the various components of the brain and, by a study of the gradual myelinization of tracts, has correlated structure with function. Finally, histological investigations have shown that different parts of the nervous system contain highly differentiated cells, and cortical areas outlined by histological means have been found to subserve different activities. On the other hand, detailed study of the functions of the central nervous system has helped, in many instances, to a clearer understanding of the structure—study based both on physiological experiment and on clinical observation of patients with organic nervous disease.

The Form and Functions of the Central Nervous System

An Introduction to the Study of Nervous Diseases. By Prof. Frederick Tilney and Prof. Henry Alsop Riley. Third edition. Pp. xxxvii + 851. (London: H. K. Lewis and Co. Ltd., 1938.) 50s. net.