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practice of considering, as distinct parts, all the
forms accidentally produced by such a mode of
dissection. He himself viewed the cerebral
parts in their connexions. He says too, that the
anatomical demonstration of the brain should be
begun at the basis ; by basis, however, let me
observej he understood the striated bodies and
thalami. Ascending from these to the superior
parts, and returning on the inferior in succes-
sion, his attention was confined to the larger
masses, which he designates by names that indi-
cate physical qualities only. " From the striated
bodies," for example, he says, " the legs of the
medulla oblongata are prolonged ; remaining
apart for a short way, they then approach and
get blended into a common stalk, composed, as
it were, of two peduncles or stems."

As the Committee of the French Institute have
conceived themselves authorized to assimilate
the method of dissecting the brain, described in
our Memoir, with the plan pursued by Yarolius
and Vieussens, and have interpreted these au-
thors in a way which their language will not
bear, I hope it will not he found amiss, if I
extract a few passages from our Memoir, follow-
ing them by some observations on the report,

" The brain," say the Committee, " is at-
tacked from below ; the medulla oblongata is
pursued across the bridge of Yarolius, through
the thalami of the optic nerves, and the striated




bodies, when its fibres expand and compose tbe
hemispheres. The hemispheres also, if we
choose, may, by tearing their lateral attachments
to the crura cerebri, be unfolded, the medulla
oblongata and cerebellum be split longitudinally,
and each half of the former shewn as a sort of
stem implanted into the hemisphere of its own
side, like the stalk of a mushroom into its cap."
They add, " It is probable that this method
would have had more vogue, were it not ex-
pressed in a rude drawing by Varolius, and had
not the work of Vieussens remained, it would be
difficult to say wherefore, in a sort of discredit,
which it by no means deserves,"

In reply to this we cite the following passages,
from the works of the two authors mentioned
above*. " The generality of anatomists," says
Varolius, " think the spinal marrow begins at
the occipital hole only ; I can bring proof to the
contrary. 