with deep earnestness the only way of finding out what is true, particularly in our field of science. In the German original it is, v. 373 to 444 : Errors are here-they are there, and around us, yet Truth is among them; Mighty confusion exists, and oft are the pathways divergent; 5 Old is the sceptic's sneer, "What is truth ?" Yet older is wisdom! If you take something for true, then strictly question "What follows?" 'Tis by the sequence that truth plainly from error is shown; Truth engenders in fulness the true, forever extending. 10 Folly is falsehood's fruit, speeding itself to destroy. Carefully weigh what it is, to establish a tenet with clearness; Close be the scrutiny ere but the smallest we take as established, 15 Err in the aye-take falsehood for truth-the result will disclose; 20 Which, in inquiry's course, haply to profit may turn ; Stirring them over, in time, perchance, may their worth be discovered. Oft has the shapeless pile been to the grandchild, a prize. Every development helps—stand fast by intelligent labor; Whether it please thee or not, further it—lend it thine aid; 25 But for the nay-the boyish dissent-the flippantly uttered, Ne'er without rigidest proof-ne'er let it sully thy lip. Plain is the precept, unerringly certain the penalty also. Error in aye is light-weighty the error in nay. Grasp, if thou canst, at the wheels-in the circlings of Law, the eternal 30 Juggernaut's wagon, it rolls, even o'er civilized ground. Wilt thou attempt it? Thou may'st, and the multitude then will ap- Caught though thou be in the cranks-crushed in thy marrow and bones; Be the result as it may; ne'er let it trouble thy soul. 35 Blow upon blow, ever driven, will rend even granite primeval. He who but looks to himself, surely himself will destroy. Who knows aught, let him show it. Be no man abashed by another; Bravely confide in the truth, e'en though it aid thee in naught; Clamor of cliques be despised, with cabal and coterie clatter. 40 Seeming of moment at times, long hath it never endured. Seek, above all, the truth to achieve; let self be forgotten. Arrogance swells like the frog-swells to be seen-but it bursts. 45 Envy is folly supreme; when it draws in the reek of the dung-bed. Each is a laborer; each has been called to the toil of the vineyard. 50 There is thy labor-begin! even will bring thy reward. Pays thee the Lord for thy day not more than to those who were later? Simple indeed is the law that rules in the story of mortals; 55 One by himself, howe'er he grasps, and most deftly the guide-reins One is but nothing; for each man errs in a different pathway. Yet there's a spirit above, ruling, that never hath erred. Each one, each, though much he hath wrought, and produced, and discovered, 60 Chaff-like is wafted his work, if but to God 'tis unmeet. Trust but in Him, and the victory truth shall surely accomplish. Cherish with confidence, too, patience, the hardest of all When time comes that the sun stands high in the sign of the Lion— 65 Weeds grow up, for thick in the grain the foeman hath sown them. Nay, saith the Lord, for then, with the tares, ye would root up the good seed. Let them together grow up; sure there is sunshine on both; Harvest will come in its season, and then will I say to the reapers, 70 “Cut down the tares with the wheat-lay them in sheaves by themselves Ready to go in the flame that devours, and burns them to ashes; Gather the wheat by itself, clean, to be stored in my grange." ARTICLE XVIII.-Report upon some of the Recent Researches in Neuropathology. BY WM. B. NEFTEL, M. D. The pathology of the nervous system, more than that of any other, is intimately related to its physiology. Indeed, the modern physiological researches and discoveries in the domain of the nervous system have exercised a great bearing upon the neuropathology. On the other hand, the neuropathological phenomena have often been applied with great advantage as illustrations and tests for the correctness of physiological facts. The reader of these pages, therefore, will not be surprised at the absence of lines of demarcation between neurophysiology and neuropathology. Until quite recently, it has been unanimously accepted by the greatest authorities, that the cerebral hemispheres, especially their cortical substance, are only the seat of the psychical sphere, and are absolutely destitute of irritability, though it has always been conceded that for the nerves, irritability (the property to react by their specific energy against stimuli, mechanical, chemical, electrical) is an indispensable vital condition. The assumption of the absolute want of irritability of the cerebral hemispheres was based upon the results of experimental researches of Longet,* Magendie,t Matteucci,+ Eduard Webber, Budge,§ Schiff, and others. These great physiologists had irritated the cerebral hemispheres of living animals mechanically, chemically, electrically, without succeeding to call forth muscular contractions. Van Deen went so far as to deny the irritability to all the nervous centres. But the strongest arguments against the existence of irritability in the cerebral hemispheres were derived from Flourens's** celebrated experiments. From the result of removing the cerebral hemispheres he concluded that they are not the seat of the immediate principle (prin * Longet. Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveux de l'homme et des animaux vertébrés. Paris, 1842. T. I., p. 643. "On peut irriter les lobes cérébraux méchaniquement, chimiquement, galvaniquement, chez les animaux sans donner lieu a des secousses convulsives." Leçons sur les fonctions et les maladies du système nerveux. Paris, 1839. Matteucci. Traité des phénomènes électro-physiologiques des animaux.` Paris, 1843, p. 242. Ed. Webber, in R. Wagner's Handwörterbuch der Physiologie. Bd. III. § Budge. Untersuchungen über das Nervensystem. Frankfurt a. M., 1842. ¶ Schiff. Lerbuch der Physiologie des Menshen. 1859, p. 362. ** Flourens. Recherches expérimentales sur les propriétés et les fonctions du système nerveux das les animaux vertébrés. Paris, 1842, p. 35. cipe immédiat) of muscular movements, but only the seat of volition and sensation. The experimental researches, an account of which I present in this paper, mark an epoch in the history of the physiology and pathology of the brain. Made independently by several investigators, and with entirely different methods, these remarkable researches have led to an identical result, contrary to the one obtained by the former investigators, viz.: that the cortical substance of the cerebral hemispheres is in close relation to certain muscular groups (psychomotor centres of Gudden). The starting-point for the researches of Fritsch and Hitzig* was the fact observed by Hitzig that contractions of the eye-muscles can be produced in the living man by the galvanic excitation of the hemispheres. This fact being entirely in opposition to the generally adopted theory of the want of galvanic excitability of the hemispheres, Fritsch and Hitzig instituted the following experiments. Having removed in dogs a portion of the dura mater (which was found extremely sensitive) and of the pia mater (which is not at all sensitive), the cerebral hemispheres were irritated with an extremely weak galvanic current. By intercalating a rheostate as an accessory current, they were enabled to experiment with great precision and with all the precautions necessary for exact scientific researches. They found that the excitation of distinct and limited localities (centres) of the anterior convex portion of the brain produces movements of certain muscular groups on the opposite side of the body, whilst the same excitation of portions of the hemispheres, situated more posteriorly, produced no such effect. Thus they found the centre for the muscles of the nape of the neck situated in the middle of the præfrontal convolution (gyrus præfrontalis); the centre for the extensor and adductor muscles of the anterior extremity at the extremity at the external end of the postfrontal convolution; * Fritsch und Hitzig. Ueber die electrische Erregbarkeit des GrossbirnsReichert and Dubois-Reymond's Archiv. 1870, p. 300. and somewhat behind, the centre for the flexor and rotation muscles of the same extremity. The centre for the muscles of the posterior extremity is also situated in the postfrontal convolution, but more behind and towards the median part than the centre for the anterior extremity. The muscles, innervated by the facial nerve, are controlled by a centre located in the middle portion of the supersylvian convolution. The irritation of these centres by metallic closing of a galvanic current of minimal intensity will call forth a single contraction of the corresponding muscles on the opposite side, whilst tetanizing currents will produce tonic and gradually disappearing contractions of these muscles, followed by epileptiform movements. A very remarkable phenomenon is noticed in these experiments, viz.: the predominant effect of the anode. Unlike the nerves, the cortical cerebral substance is easier excited by the anode than by the cathode, and if the current be of a minimal intensity, the contractions can be produced only by the anode. On placing the anode on one centre and the cathode on another, only those muscles will contract whose centre is under the influence of the anode, and no contractions will take place if the anode, not the cathode, be moved away from the centre. That the muscular contractions were produced by the excitation of the centres situated in the cortical substance, and not by current loops affecting the central terminations of the motor nerves, is proved by the minimal intensity of the employed current, by the extremely small distance between the electrodes, by the great resistance of the brain-substance, by the appearance of the contractions only on the opposite side of the centres, by the cessation of the contractions at the least shifting of the electrodes, and, when the irritability of the brain is rapidly abolisbed, by hæmorrhage. Immediately after the death of the animal the irritability of the brain is entirely extinguished, and no contraction of the muscles can be obtained by the galvanic excitation of the described centres; but the irritability of the nerves and muscles remains perfectly intact for some time after death, and contractions, therefore, could have been called forth, had they been pro |