The brain of the cat (Felis domestica). 1. Preliminary account of the gross anatomy / by Burt G. Wilder.

  • Burt Green Wilder
Date:
[1881]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The brain of the cat (Felis domestica). 1. Preliminary account of the gross anatomy / by Burt G. Wilder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1881.] psychological observations which are constantly making in all pai’ts of the world. But, with all deference to the presumed views of the many and indefixtigable workers in this finer field, I hold that the more urgent need is for a provisional, at least, identification and nomenclature of the visible parts. I am loth to believe that the authors of some histological contributions are not altogether clear upon the position and relations of the parts con- cerned ; but I apprehend that many readers of such contributions fail to appreciate their excellencies or to recognize their defects from the lack of an adequate familiarity with the gross anatomy of the brain ; a lack which seems almost unavoidable so long as the chief dependence is placed upon the text-books, or upon the appearances presented by human brains in the condition in which they commonly find their way to the dissecting-table. Had a recent writer employed the fresh or well-preserved brain of a cat in place of the (presumably) distorted and semi-decomposed human organ, he never could have published a paper “De la non-existence des trous de Monro;” nor, indeed, does the acceptance of a paper with such a reac- tionary title indicate that the editors of “Progres Medicale, Nos. 35, 26,” have left the beaten track in this respect. Whoever will carefully examine the fresh or well-preserved brains of cats need not, i;nless he prefer to accept authority in place of the evidence of his eyes, either doubt the existence of the “Foramina of Moni’o,” or believe that these openings are primarily for the “transmission of the choroid plexus.” Neither need he believe that “the third ventidcle com- municates with the fifth” in any animal, or at any period of develop- ment ; that “the great transverse fissure” is a real cleft from the outside of the brain into its “ventricular cavities that the “corpora quadrigem- ina, pineal body, corpora geniculata and thalami are internal parts of the cerebrum ;” or that, in the cat at least, the thalami enter, in the slightest degree, into the formation of “the floor of the lateral ventricles.” With the view of aiding in the correction of some of such current mis- apprehensions, and paving the way for more sound and enduring work in other directions, the present paper is purely morphological, and all teleological considerations have been excluded. Moreover, as has been said already, only a general view of the organ is here given. Each part of the brain requires more or less e.xtended mono- graphic treatment. Not only should its average or usual form, structure, and connections be determined, but its variations should be noted, and cor- related with known differences in respect to the age, sex, breed, color and disposition. Anomalies also should be recorded. Of course, such striking cases as the absence of the callosum, reported by the writer in 1879 (75) would be at once remarked ; but iu many other respects we are as 3mt un- aware what is the real normal condition, and are hence unable to deter- mine the extent of departure therefrom. The small size of the cat’s brain and the ease with which large numbers may be obtained and preserved, render it peculiarly adapted for this line of enquiiy.