Abstract
IT is difficult to understand why a writer upon the higher branches or outlying districts of neurology should assume that his readers are totally ignorant of the rudiments of that science, and should occupy nine-tenths of his book with a description of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. If, indeed, for the purpose of throwing new light upon his subject, he presented his facts in a new form, or taught them from a novel point of view, or arranged them so as to bring out some new principle, then there might be an excuse for restating the facts; but even then a brief summary would be enough for the purpose, there would be no need for the rediscussion of settled theories and the requotation of trite authorities. Scarcely ever do we find a writer on neurology who is content to assume that his readers are acquainted with the alphabet of his subject, or who will refrain from inflicting upon them the wearisome account of cells and fibres, of corona and cortex, illustrated by the familiar engravings that have done duty in so many previous books. The vicious habit is common enough and bad enough, but very rarely is it carried to such an extent as in the book before us, in which only about three hundred out of the seventeen hundred pages of which it is composed are devoted to the subject of which it is said to treat; the great bulk of the book being occupied by anatomical and physiological descriptions which are not in this case even relieved by illustration. So far is this system of padding carried, that the author has even inserted, in his book on waking and sleeping, descriptions of the minute structure of the retina, of the internal ear and the organ of Corti. When we have at last waded through his pages of preliminary matter, we do not find that he presents any fresh theory of sleep that is worth considering, or that he has any new facts to bring under our notice. It is a shame that a student should be trapped by an enticing title into spending his time in reading such stuff.
Le Sommeil et le Système Nerveux: Physiologie de la Veille et du Sommeil.
Par S. Serguéyeff. (Paris: Felix Alcan, 1890.)
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Le Sommeil et le Système Nerveux: Physiologie de la Veille et du Sommeil. Nature 44, 444 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/044444a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/044444a0