J. Anat. (1999) 196, pp. 493–495 Printed in the United Kingdom 493

Book Reviews

Brodmann’s ‘Localisation in the Cerebral Cortex’.

Translated and edited by L J. G.

(Pp. xviii­300; illustrated; £28 hardback; ISBN

1 86094 176 1.) London: Imperial College Press.

1999.

Brodmann’s now classic 1909 book on the cerebral cortexprovides a fascinating view of how major subdivisions of thecortex were established early in this century, and its recenttranslation by Lawrence Garey is welcome. Brodmann dealtwith much more than the cytoarchitectonic areas of cortex.He considered the functional role of individual nerve cells,the nature and presumed identity of cortical layers asbiological entities, the possible functional significance of theareas that he defined, and he provided a detailed com-parative overview. In addition he presented quite extensiveinformation about cortical thicknesses, cell sizes and cellnumbers ; these led to no clear conclusions and are still hardto interpret today.

One can ask who is likely to benefit from reading thisbook. Is the fact that many of today’s textbooks useBrodmann’s original maps a good reason for reading whatBrodmann had to say? Or should just those who arecurrently defining functional subdivisions of the cortex withnewer imaging techniques or molecular markers concernthemselves with how the areas definable by these methodsrelate to Brodmann’s classical numbering system? Oddly, itseems that contemporary studies of the frontal, motor andsensory cortex often use the Brodmann scheme, whereasstudies of the visual pathways generally avoid them. Coulda student of the brain not simply look at the overall schemethat the textbooks reproduce and perhaps look for moredetail when a problem about defining a cortical area arises?

Although this translation will help those who have toidentify particular cortical areas, reading the book offersvery much more. In the first place, it helps us to focus on thefeatures that Brodmann studied, so that by metaphoricallylooking over his shoulder as he describes cortical charac-teristics, we are given a fine tutorial in the cytoarchitectonicmethod. For this the book is extraordinarily useful, althoughperhaps the serious student should look at an originaledition. I was unable to locate one, but would imagine thatthe 1909 figures must have been finer than those in thistranslation. Secondly, and perhaps more intriguingly, byfollowing his extremely focused, almost monomaniacalapproach to the cortex, we can recognise issues that stillmatter today and that are still not all resolved. Thirdly, aswe consider Brodmann’s arguments, they will probablymake us want to become historians and discover what laybehind his approach. There are already too many olderneuroscientists who think they are historians, so I will nottry to join their ranks. However, it is worth consideringsome of the issues, and hoping that at some time aprofessional historian will be able to examine them and askwhat Brodmann’s motivation really was, why he did notextend his approach beyond the Nissl method and, mostimportantly, why, in spite of this limitation, his account hasbeen so widely used.

The way that Brodmann deliberately limited his ap-proach to the Nissl method is surprising when we bear inmind that he interacted closely with those who were usingmyeloarchitectonic methods at the time and that he knewand referred to Cajal’s studies of Golgi material. Although

he cites studies that defined the motor cortex by stimulationexperiments and the visual cortex by the effects of lesions,these studies are cited at the end of the book and used as ajustification of the analysis, not as an initial stimulus ; in theearly parts of the book he considers the motor cortex largelyin terms of the distribution of Betz cells. His actual analysiswas to a large extent based on his clearly stated argumentthat nerve cells (strictly speaking perikarya) having distinctappearances must have distinct functions. This has astrikingly modern ring. Today we can readily believe that adistinctive Nissl structure relates to the production ofparticular proteins and peptides and that the function of anerve cell relates as much to its membrane channels,receptors, transmitters, and second messenger systems, as itdoes to its connections. Brodmann, without knowing any ofthis, argued against the view, prevalent then and later, thatnerve cells were equivalent except for their connections.Perhaps that view had its first clear come-uppance in the1960s, when we thought we knew all there was to be knownabout the connectivity of the cerebellum, but had no ideawhat it did (see Eccles et al. book The Cerebellum as aNeuronal Machine ; Berlin and New York: Springer, 1967).Brodmann might have savoured that. However, when hewas writing, there was a clear possibility that the Nisslpicture of a cell related mainly to the dendritic or the axonalarchitecture of that cell. Brodmann made a forcefulargument for ascribing ‘different functions to specific,different cortical cells’ seen in Nissl sections, and heconsidered these functions as beyond those imposed by theconnections of the cells. This argument must have seemedweak to his contemporaries and, as he phrased it, still looksweak today.

A second issue, where Brodmann’s study laid thefoundations for, and which is still in accord with, muchmodern thought, concerns the identification of six corticallayers. Oddly, however, neither Brodmann nor our con-temporaries seem to have any solid foundation in ex-periment or logic. Cajal had many more layers andBrodmann’s review showed how much opinions about thisdiffered at the time. Why then did he decide on six? And whyis the six-layered terminology so widely accepted now?Brodmann based himself on a remarkably weak deve-lopmental argument. He found that early in development allcortical areas go through a stage showing three cell sparseand three cell rich ‘ tectogenetic ’ layers. Apart from the I}IIboundary there are no sharp boundaries, and Brodmann’sderivation of six apparently separate entities from this earlyconfiguration depends more on the use of long words like‘ tectogenetic ’ than on any basic biological principles.However, today we still find it useful to give each of thelayers a degree of independence that is not always justifiedeven by the much more extensive evidence available now.For example, the cells in layer V do differ from those in layerVI, but then there are subpopulations in each of these layersthat make one want to split the layers further. Confusionsabout layer III}IV boundaries have caused a great deal oftrouble, and one can reasonably ask whether there is anyknown functional significance to the difference betweenthalamocortical terminals that end in layer III as opposed tolayer IV. Is it reasonable to treat the layers as entities whenso many cells extend processes through several, occasionallyall, of the layers?

The creation of entities that extend well beyond what canbe seen is also illustrated by Brodmann’s thoughts about the

494 Book Reviews

comparative anatomy of cortical areas. In the hedgehog hefound that ‘caudal to the precentral region there follows ahomogeneously structured zone (5­7) that cannot befurther divided into individual areas and must whollyrepresent these two regions’ ; he concludes that within thisregion must lie ‘ the combined areas 1 to 3, 5 and 7 of othermammals, undifferentiated or regressed’. This creation ofconceptual structures that are not there at all is worrying.From this point of view, the book raises some profoundquestions about how neuroscience is done. These areperhaps not questions about science in general, or someidealistic concept of ‘science’, but they are importantquestions if we are to understand the criteria that can serveto make a particular contribution influential and (moreimportantly) useful to neuroscientists for the best part of acentury.

The translation has taken care to leave some of thedifficult Germanic constructions intact, and has added someuseful notes. Perhaps only the original can show just how farthe presentation and the development of the ideas dependsupon the complex use of the language to dress up conceptualstructures to look like biological facts.

. .

E. B. Jamieson—Anatomist and Shetlander. By J

and M E. (Pp. x­80; 12 pp.

colour and black & white photographs; £9±99

paperback; 1 898852 45 6.) Shetland: Shetland

Times. 1999.

Several years ago the Dundee Courier had a short articleabout someone who had bought a porcelain statuette of aDr E. B. Jamieson at a car boot sale and wondered if anyreader knew who he was. When I phoned the newspaper thefollowing day I was told that I was too late and that theyhad never had such a large number of replies to any querythat they had published as they had to the one about E. B.Jamieson. I was therefore delighted to have an opportunityto review a biography of this legendary anatomist.

Unfortunately only 18 out of the 65 pages refer to E. B.Jamieson. The first part (19 pages) deals with the historyand folklore of Shetland; the second part (20 pages) coversthe Jamieson family tree. The third part does deal with E. B.himself but most of the anecdotes are well-known, at leastby those who have ever worked with fellow anatomists ordoctors taught by Jamieson.

There are also two appendices ; one is a folk tale in theShetland dialect, which seems to have no relevance to therest of the book and the other is the Jamieson family tree.

All in all I found this a disappointing book enlivened onlyby E. B. Jamieson’s advice to failed medical students, ‘Youneed to do better. Go home, find a hammer and nail yourscrotum to a chair. ’

. .

Human Sectional Anatomy. Atlas of Body Sections,

CT and MRI Images, 2nd edn. By H E,

B M. L and A K. D. (Pp.

x­245; fully illustrated in colour; £65 hardback;

ISBN 0 7506 3367 0.) Oxford: Butterworth

Heinemann. 1999.

The publication of the second edition of Human SectionalAnatomy could not be more timely. Imaging technology hasmoved on in leaps and bounds since the first edition came to

press in 1991 and there is a genuine need to correlate grossanatomy with cross-sectional anatomy by modern CT andMRI. The three co-authors of this tome are all internationalexperts in their disciplines of anatomy, surgery andradiology and they have combined their collective ex-perience to produce an atlas that is both instructive andrelevant to the practice of modern medicine.

A short but informative preface details the history of thestudy of sectional anatomy from Leonardo da Vinci to theearly decades of this century and is a salutary reminder thatif we can see more it is because we stand on the shoulders ofgiants. The Introduction provides a fascinating insight intothe technique of ‘bandsaw tomography’ for those un-familiar with it and the notes on CT and MRI are salientand informative without being exhaustive. Each subsequentchapter presents various sections of the cadaver withcorresponding radiological images, either CT or MRI orboth. In addition, line drawings and section levels areprovided for ease of orientation, and brief notes accom-panying each section highlight key applied anatomical andradiological features. There are 120 cadaver cross-sectionsin all with 154 CT and MRI images for correlation. Thelarger number of MRI slices used in this edition bearstestament to the increasing importance of this imagingtechnique in clinical practice and the authors have done itjustice. There are few omissions but CT and MRI high-resolution thin section slices of the petrous temporal boneand CT thin sections of the lung parenchyma are notincluded.

Keenly priced, the combination of high quality cadaversections, state of the art CT and MRI images and attractivelayout makes this an essential desktop book for radiologistsand anatomists alike. It will also prove extremely useful formedical students and for those doctors in the surgical andmedical subspecialties for which an ever-increasing knowl-edge of radiological anatomy is required.

Atlas of Peripheral Nerve Pathology. By R

K. (Pp. xii ­ 217; fully illustrated in colour

and black & white ; $155 hardback; ISBN 0 340

58666 4.) New York: Oxford University Press.

1999.

For a morphologist involved in the study of peripheral nervedisorders at the light and electron microscopic level, theAtlas of Peripheral Nerve Pathology by R. H. M. King witha foreword by Professor P. K. Thomas came as a real eventrepresenting the achievements of these techniques throughthe last 30 years. There are 449 images which are ofexceptionally high quality, reproduced large enough torecognise details. This is remarkable at a time whenreproductions of images in clinical or molecular geneticjournals tend to be reduced to such a small size that oneneeds a magnifying glass which then leads to recognition ofthe low resolution power of the printing media. Therefore itis to be appreciated that the publishing company took overthe risk of publishing this large collection of illustrations ina field which may look ‘peripheral ’ to those engaged instudying the ‘central ’ nervous system. Yet the peripheralnervous system offers a wealth of insights into basicpathomechanisms of the nervous system in general. Thereare a surprisingly large number of structural changes ofmyelinated and unmyelinated nerve fibres with theircovering cellular and extracellular elements.

The illustrations are accompanied by legends withprofound comments on the specificity of changes. There are

Book Reviews 495

introductory and explanatory text passages covering lessthan approximately 5% of the volume. These incorporate570 selected references alphabetically listed on 16 pagestogether with an exhaustive index at the end of this volume.The number of errors therein is really negligible (e.g. oxytalininstead of oxytalan).

Compared with the Ultrastructural Study of the HumanDiseased Peripheral Nerve by Claude Vital and Jean-MichelVallat (2nd edn, 1987), the present atlas comprises—inaddition to numerous electron micrographs—representativelight micrographs, usually of semithin sections in colour,covering a large spectrum of diseases of the peripheralnervous system. However, not all changes and diseases ofthe peripheral nervous system can be included on 217 pages(e.g. neuroaxonal dystrophy, B

'hypervitaminosis, EGR2-

gene associated neuropathies, and others). Nevertheless, theemphasis is on disorders of the human peripheral nervoussystem (excluding tumours) and not on experimental results.A number of recent molecular genetic findings on hereditaryperipheral neuropathies are included (some references upto 1997).

There is also an important chapter on artefacts and auseful appendix with processing schedules, providing anumber of techniques for frozen and paraffin sections,immunohistochemical stains, and resin embedding.

Thus, this book should be on the shelves of everybodywho is engaged in the diagnostic analysis of peripheral nervebiopsies ; it will also be of interest to any neurologist andneurobiologist concerned with disorders of the peripheralnervous system.

. $

A Photographic Atlas of the Human Body, With

Selected Cat, Sheep and Cow Dissections. By

G J. T. (Pp. v­250; fully illustrated

in colour; £18.99 paperback; ISBN 0 471 37487

3.) Chichester : Wiley. 1999.

This photographic atlas, as quoted in its preface, ‘ Isdesigned to accompany any textbook of anatomy oranatomy and physiology and may be used in conjunctionwith, or in lieu of, a laboratory manual ’. Its author teachesat the Bergen Community College in New Jersey. Althoughnot stated, it is obviously designed with the biology studentat a fairly elementary level in mind, since there is anintroductory table of directional terms, complete withphonetic pronunciation, which include the words ‘Deep’(DEP) and ‘Superficial ’ (SOO-per-FISH-al), which we hopeour medical students will have mastered by the time theyarrive in the Dissecting Room.

The atlas comprises a very nicely produced set ofphotographs. These include basic histology (here supple-mented by coloured drawings) ; this is then followed by the

skeleton, joints, muscles and the remaining body systems,with further histology, followed by a rather disappointingsection on surface anatomy. An interesting feature of theatlas is that the human material is supplemented by anumber of plates of sheep and cow dissections and by afairly complete dissection of the cat, apart from the cranialcontents. A disconserting feature of the book, at least in mycopy, is that a large number of the pages have been printedupside down.

I have little doubt that this small, cheerful and friendlyatlas, with its spiral binding which makes it easy to employin the classroom and laboratory, will be of help to juniorbiology students. It will not compete, however, with themany excellent atlases that already are available for medicalstudents and surgical trainees.

Self-Assessment Colour Review of Clinical Anat-

omy. By E. J. E, B. J. M, R. L. M.

N and R. M. S. (Pp. 144; fully

illustrated in colour; £9.95 paperback; ISBN 1

874545 76 6.) London: Manson. 1999.

In the ‘bad old days ’, anatomy was taught to the medicalstudent rather like the classics—Latin and Greek—to theunfortunate schoolboy, as something of an exercise inmental agility that was thought to be somehow good forhim. What really was the value of knowing the 13 centres ofossification of the sphenoid bone in his subsequent medicalcareer? Today the anatomy we teach is being attacked on allsides by so-called experts in education who do not bother tofind out what we now teach, which is, in fact, the verylanguage of clinical medicine. How can the studentunderstand a neurological lesion unless he knows hisneuroanatomy? How can he interpret an -ray or a CT scanwithout anatomical knowledge?

This interesting pocket-book is a good example of‘modern’ anatomy, which will be appreciated by medicalstudents and candidates for the various parts of the newMRCS. It is written by 4 members of the staff of thedepartment of anatomy in Cardiff and comprises excellentcolour photographs of dissections and of clinical conditions,together with -rays, MRIs and CT scans. To these areappended questions of varying degrees of difficulty anddetailed answers. The clinical pictures are provided with therelevant scenarios in the text. Neuroanatomy is not included.

I have no doubt that this book will prove to become adeservedly popular student’s aid. I certainly enjoyed testingmyself, and confess to making some silly mistakes. My onlycriticism is that, being a pocket-book, some of the dissectionphotographs were beyond the power of my elderly vision; Idoubt that younger users will find this to be so.