Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1876 — How They Study Brains at Munich. [ARTICLE]

How They Study Brains at Munich.

The student of comparative anatomy may find in Munich rare facilities for his pursuit, and he can enjoy advantages for studying the human brain which exist nowhere rise in the world. Some of the readers of the Courant fnay be interested in an unscientific word or two about what I saw the other day at the Institution for the Insane. The Director, Herr Prof. Barnhardt Gudden, invented some years ago a method of minutely examining the brain, which I believe is new, and a machine for facilitating the operation which Is original. By means of his process the structitfe of the brain is studied at leisure and more thoroughly than it has ever been before. The process is this: When the brain is taken from the head entire, it is submitted to a process which hardens it. This is accomplished by soaking it in a solution of bichromate of potash. It requires two years to give the brain of a man the requisite solidity; the smaller brain of an inferior animal will harden in three months. The mass is then imbedded in wax and fitted into a circular basin having a screw underneath by which the brain can be raised or lowered. The screw is turned so as to bring the subslaijpejusl ahove the rim ot the bj&in, and a long razor-like knife, resting upon the rim, is drawn over it, slicing off a paring of the brain, thin or thick, as the anatomist wishes. The operation is repeated until the brain—sliced, let us say, vertically, TfomlheTrohf to separated into a series of thin plates, or laminae. These laminae are then put up in Venetian varnish, between glass, labeled and numbered in the order they are cut off, and they are ready for examination under the microscope. The substance first, however, is a little tinged with vermfliion, in order to render the translucent, thin laminae visible. The color, however, does not at all obliterate the distinction between the gray and the white substance of the brain. In the room where I saw this process were brains in all the stages—brains of men, of dogs, oxen, rabbits, doves, etc.—Jars full of them, like some new and unpleasant soft l of pickle. And about the room were cases with shelves, and boxes, filled with brains, sliced, dried and put away for examination. Standing together in one corner 'Were over a dozen boxes, a foot and a half long and six inches square, fitted with a slide and filled with the glass containing the laminae. “ How many brains,” I asked, “ are contained in those boxes f” “Oh;” replied the professor, “only one; only the brain of one man; but it has been sliced in 700 plates. But we cut the brains of animajg thinner. There in that case (s the brain of a dog; it is 1,100 plates.” * /' . you will understand by this the facili-

S a Student would have for examining e structure of the brain. Beginning at the front, let us say, he can trace, with perfect certainty, back to the base of the Drain and the gpln&l column every nerve, every tissue, every minutest fiber. He can not only learn the origin of all, the growth nt diminution of all, but the direction 6f each. Without the necessity of enlarging upon it, you will see how completely this process layj the brain ijpen to study, and study that may be pursued months or years on the same bralh. Of course, brains are sliced In any direction, longitudinally as well as transversely, and horizontally as well as vertically. These admirable preparations have been, as yet, very little studied; but they will no doubt yield valuable results. The experiments with animals consist in removing the whole or a part of the brain from the living creature* when it is in extreme youth, and then observing the result in maturity. Take for instance a dog. A portion of the puppy’s brain is cut out. He is then allowed to grow ud, and at the end of a year he is killed, apd his brain is prepared in the manner I have described. Take out fi quarter of a dog’s brain, or even one entire lobe, and he does not mind it much: there is probably unusual activity in the half remaining. If more than half of both lobes (from the front) is removed, the brain even grows a little again, and the animal performs his ordinary functions. If all the brain is taken, tho dog lives, but he is little better than an idiot; bis tood must be put. into his mouth, he can directnis steps with no certainty, and his eyes see without recognition. Most of these delicate preparations in this museum have been piade by Dr. Auguste Forrel, a young Swiss naturalist, the ussistant, as I said, in this hospital, and a genius of the first order. He bad, however, in vials, many brains of ants, both big uud little. These brains he hardens and submits to the same slicing process described above. The dissection of a large ant is a delicate operation, but when the ant is as small as some of these he has here, the brain of which needs to be under a microscope to be seen perfectly, the delicacy of manipulatiauns&eaßary can be imagined. The ant, as you know, is a very wonderful animal, and hascapacities which seem to be wanting in animal larger, and usually credited with more intelligence. They exist in societies, if not in organizations; they are architects, they plan and carry out expeditions of plunder or of war, they have slavesi they seem to have (on occasions) recognized leaders, and they act sometimes very much as a community of men. The ants have three sexes, male, female and a neuter, which I think are named amazons. The slaves of an ant-hill are compelled to do the work; it is, if I understand it, the amazons mostly who form the army. The slaves are procured in the good old-fash-ioned way—by war. It seems to be the practice when slaves are needed for the hill to send out scouts to fbok for a weaker colony. Four ants have been seen to go on such au expedition. On their return they communicate the result to their fellows. The communication be-tweenjheni-fleemato bebythemea&s of their antennae. Two ants touch antennae and understand each other. The ant has poor or defective sight, and his feelers are his means of intercourse and of knowledge ; he feels his way over the ground by his antennae, by them he knows his friends from his enemies; if they are pulled out he is nearly as helpless as a blind man, and cannot tell friends from foes. They are his weapons of war as well. When an attack on another colony is determined upon, the army moves out of the hill, say from two hundred to seven hundred strong. The main body does not form in rank or order, but some of the leaders keep a rank, four abreast One thing is singular, they never go on such an expedition until afternoon. As long os they are certain of the direction they move Bwiftly on, at the rale of about a meter a minute. If the leaders are in doubt the mass halts; if the four first still seem in doubt they fall back in the crowd, and the fbur next take the lead, going on as long as (hey are sure of their way. Sometimes they halt a long time, sending out scouts to right and left, the army patiently waiting the result. If night approaches before they reach the prey they march back and try again the next day. When the force reaches the other colony they enter the hill at once, plunder it of its lame or eggs and, each taking one, carry them back to their own hill. Thvse eggs thus acquired are hatched and the young are brought up as slaves, differently educated ana trained from free ants.— Munich Cor. Hartford Courant.

The Gardener' t Monthly says, in an article on the old question of deep planting i- We want ordinary flower-se«is as near the surface as we can get them. Scrape from the bed of mellow earth soil to the thickness of the trowel-blade. Sow the seed, draw the soil back, and beat firmly down on the seed. The principle is that seeds want moisture to make them grow, but they must have air—one is an evil without the other. If deep, they get only water, In which case they rot. If entirely on the surface, they get only air, and then they dry up. As to heating the soil, the principle is that large spaces in soil enable the earth to dry out rapidly. Small spaces, on the other hand, hold water. Crushing earth, when dry, gives it these small spaces, or, a 9 gardeners call it, makes it porous. Planted as directed, the seeds are where they will be near the "Hr, andyefso M thitthey will be regularly moist. American tonnage shows a slight increase that is encouraging. Our tonnage xital for inland and ocean shows an aggregate of 4,858,732 tons. This is an increase over last year of 58,000 tons, and since 1872, of 416,000. There has been, too, we fir.d, a steady growth of tonnage since the war, and this growth, while it has not kept pace with the growth ol the country in wealth, population and commerce, has begun to be a growth in the right direction, t. that of steam navigation ask substitute for navigation by sail. The number of tons of vessels built during the fiscal year ending June 80, 1875, was 207,688; of these there were 114 ships, barks, etc., with an aggregate tonnage of 112,000.t0n5,0r 1,000 tons each. There were 828 steam vessels built; aggregating 62,459 tons, and of these twenty were iron steamers of over 1,000 tons each, aggregating 68121, tons.— N. 7. World. Fifty-one years ago the gas was first lighted in the house of Samuel Leggett, the then President of the New York Gas Light Company, at No. 7 Cherry street, now Franklin square. In honor of that event the company, on February 28,1876, reduced the price of gas from *2.75 to $2 50 per 1,000 feet, which is the lowest price at which gas has ever been sold on this island. During all these yours the fire that was lighted when the company started has never been allowed to expire: and when in 1874 the works were removed from Canal and Center streets, the burning coals were transported to the predent location at Twenty-first street, East River. — N. 7. Evening Pott. The State of Georgia exempts from taxes cotton and woolen mills and machinery for ten years the time the mills are started. There is one mill in operation In Augusta, containing 22,000 spindles, which has made a dividend'of twenty per cent, among the stockholders. • ■ w r"» —A man named Peters, eighty-four years old, dropped dead, the other cfay, at Mendoq, Vfc, from excitement at seeing a fight between two men.