VI. On the comparative structure of the brain in rodents
I have endeavoured in this abstract to summarise the results of my recent researches into the minute structure of the brain in the smaller Rodents. The pig and sheep, which were the subjects of my former memoir, possess a highly developed olfactory apparatus conjoined to a well convoluted cortical surface; but in the smaller animals now under consideration the surface of the hemispheres is almost perfectly smooth, while the olfactory organ, from its comparative size and complex relationship, has an important part to play in the architecture of the brain. Animals possessing the latter type of cerebrum have been classed together as the Osmatic Lissencéphales, in contradistinction to those which were the subject of my former enquiries, the Osmatic Gyren-céphales. My researches into the structure of the brain of prominent members of the former group, viz., the rabbit and rat, may be considered under two heads:— ( a .) The histology of the complete cortical envelope.