Reflex Activity of the Spinal Cord.

No better description of the purpose of this book can be made than that given by the authors in the preface: "This small book attempts on behalf of the student of medicine— indeed, on behalf of any student interested in the physiology of the nervous system—a concise account of elementary features of reflex mechanism, as illustrated particularly by the mammalian spinal cord.... To that end the plan here followed is to introduce and describe seriatim a number of reflexes typically obtainable from the mammalian preparation. These in every instance are reflexes which take expression in the skeletal musculature, predominantly in that of the limbs. The description and discussion given of them in each case are directed mainly toward analysis of the working of the reflex mechanism. In that connection an object of study kept in view throughout is the individual motor unit as a basal element of the reflex response.