Introduction

Abstract

Probably no other part of the central nervous system has been so thoroughly investigated and is so well known as the cerebellar cortex. For nearly a century all of its cell-types have been recognized, and the course and terminations of their processes have been described countless times by numerous authors. Yet unanimity on many doubtful points has not been reached. Most of our knowledge of the cerebellar cortex derives from the early work of RAMÓN y CAJAL. It was, in fact, during the period of his first successes with the Golgi method, when RAMÓN y CAJAL was seized with what he described in his autobiography as a fièvre de publicité, that the basic plan for the organization of the cerebellar cortex was worked out. Subsequent research has confirmed many of his intuitions and added only details. For a long time these observations and the plan of the cerebellar cortex that he derived from them were far in advance of the physiological understanding of this organ. The information that this cortex is divisible into three layers, each with its own distinct populations of cells, and that they are interconnected in a few simple' neuronal chains was already sufficient to baffle comprehension.