Neurological Anatomy in Relation to Clinical Medicine

Abstract

This second edition of Professor Brodal’s text appears more than twenty years after the first edition, and in the opinion of this reviewer, it is really a new book with an old title. The text does not pretend to be a systematic textbook of neuroanatomy or of clinical neurology. Its object is to present correlations of the structure of the nervous system with functions that are pertinent to the clinician. The author appropriately begins with an introduction to methods for studying the nervous system and provides examples of how different approaches have yielded valuable information. A systematic approach is used to present somatic afferent pathways and descending supraspinal pathways. The discussion of descending supraspinal pathways, which represents one of the outstanding contributions of the Oslo school of anatomists, is lucid, relatively brief, and includes new findings found in few student textbooks. Many of the precise details, succinctly summarized, were not known at the time of the first edition. The Iatter part of each chapter is concerned with correlations of a physiological and clinical nature. Chapters dealing with the cerebellum and reticular formation provide important inforniation, a large part of which is new. The volume of literature cited is remarkable. In spite of significant advances in our understanding of cerebellar anatomy and physiology, it is d%-