A stereotaxic atlas of the brain of the pigeon (Columba livia)

The problems of evolution rank among mankind's most enduring interests, and it is therefore not surprising that virtually every branch of biology and medicine has ramified in the direction of comparative studies. Although in neurology this search traditionally has been an intensive one, a lack of adequately refined techniques has long held comparative neurology confined largely within the limits of normal anatomical description. The technological scene has changed rapidly over the last few decades, and the contemporary neurologist finds an instrumentarium of unprecedented refinement available: microelectrode recording techniques, sensitive quantitative chemical methods, greatly improved techniques for both normal descriptive and experimental anatomical studies, histochemical and embryological techniques hardly dreamed of by earlier generations of neurobiologists. In the monumental writings of Edinger, the Herricks, Cajal, Ariens Kappers, Huber, Crosby and their colleagues he will find a rich store of anatomical information on the vertebrate brain, but it will not take him long to identify the great problems of interphyletic homology, both in structure and function, that have remained unresolved. Almost certainly, new insights in these problems are in store for all who venture a fresh approach by the aid of modern methods. Brain research over the years has drawn huge profits not only from a progressive refinement of