Cerebellar Functions
REVIEWS AND CRITICISM.
- Author:
Dr Andre-Thomas (of Paris). Translated
by W. Conyers Herring, M.D. JNervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series No. 12. New York: 1912. Pp. 223.
It may be taken for granted that Dr Andre-Thomas’s monograph is an important contribution to brain anatomy and physiology, inasmuch as the editors of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease have chosen it for translation as number 12 of their Monograph Series. It was originally published in Paris by Octave Doin et Fils in 1910 under the title, La Fonction Cerebelleuse.
Dr Andre-Thomas’s first work on the cerebellum was printed in 1897 as a thesis with the title, “Le Cervelet, etude anatomique, clinique et physiologique.” Since that time he has supplemented his researches by numerous papers on the cerebellum, medulla, cranial nerves, spinal tracts, and allied topics, most of them being published by the Societe de Biologie. In the early days of his career he seems to have been plain Dr Andre Thomas. Now that he has risen to eminence he has renounced his right to a Christian name in exchange for the luxury of a hyphen. This makes it somewhat confusing for the reader who tries to consult the works of Thomas, A., (or Andre-Thomas) by the aid of catalogue.
This present monograph on “Cerebellar Functions” belongs to a large class of treatises known to investigators in every branch of science,?treatises too important to be passed over, yet lacking in real distinction, and barren of suggestion for those who are doing pioneer work. Every neurologist sooner or later has to acquaint himself with the work of Andre-Thomas on the cerebellum. For their service in making it easy of assimilation, the editors and translator of the monograph deserve the thanks of all English-speaking neurologists, whose gratitude will be in no wise diminished by their sense of having obtained so little from its perusal. Had they been obliged to read it in French, they would have taken much more trouble to arrive at precisely the same conclusion.
Dr Herring’s translation on the whole is well done. One diverting mistake on the very title-page has eluded the eye of the proofreader, and it stands, “Ancient (!) Interne des Hopitaux de Paris.” On page 105 occurs the somewhat vague, not to say tautologous remark, “She was strong, robust, capable of lifting heavy burdens, but a feeble-minded imbecile.” And what, in the name of geometry, are we to understand by this sentence on page 192,?”With this object the animal was placed upon a plank, movable around a horizontal axis, either parallel or at right angles to this axis”?
The bibliography at first glance appears to be of satisfying amplitude. Upon closer study it comes to resemble one of those old gardens in Rome, conceived upon a noble plan, and carefully tended for decades, then allowed to sink into decay, and now needing to be replenished with new growth. Its gaps are conspicuous. For example, no mention is made of the extensive work on the cerebellum done by Dana, Mills, Weir Mitchell, and Spiller in.America, or of that upon spinal cord tracts by Henry Head and his collaborators in England. The index is quite as faulty. One will look is vain for the words anastomosis, anatomy, artery, blood, embolism, eyes, lesion, tumor, vascular, and vision. It is true the word hemorrhage is present, and refers to page 101, where we read, “The symptomatology of hemorrhagic foci, or foci of softening of the cerebellum, is very slightly known for two reasons. The anatomical examinations are generally incomplete, and it is impossible to affirm that the symptoms are exclusively localized in the cerebellum.” Dr Andre-Thomas’s own “anatomical examinations” are indeed “generally incomplete.” Can he wish to be understood as holding that there is no clinical distinction between “hemorrhagic foci, or foci of softening” ? Except for this one reference he leaves us to the assumption that the blood vessels of the cerebellum have no particular1 influence upon its functioning in health or disease. Yet it is an obvious fact that a goodly proportion of the cases with cerebellar symptoms occurring in neurological practice are cases of disorder of the vascular supply. The diagrams are probably the best feature of the book. Many of the beautiful schematic sections of the cerebellum and spinal cord are original with Dr Andre-Thomas, although some are borrowed from Kamon-y-Cajal. It is to be regretted that the pictures of dogs experimented upon are not photographs. The sketches are “from photographs,” and are fairly well drawn. Considering the present perfection of the camera, it should have been possible to illustrate the paper with instantaneous photographs of animals, or even with whole series of photographs of the animals in motion, showing abnormalities of gait and station. The camera, moreover, will record symptomatic appearances which, escaping the notice of the investigator who makes the pictures, would naturally be omitted from his sketches, but which if preserved might prove of the highest significance to another person examining them from a different standpoint.
In spite of its shortcomings, the monograph, it may be repeated, is of importance to neurologists, and will also be useful as a reference for students of physiological psychology.
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