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This monograph is devoted chiefly to the cytoarchitecture of the primate thalamus while its fiber systems are only briefly summarized. The author wisely recognizes that the subdivisions described by various authors within the main nuclei (eg, 9 subnuclei in the lateral nucleus, 7 subnuclei in the pulvinar of the cercopithecus, according to Friedemann) are rather artificial and lack specific morphologic characteristics. His comparative studies show the predominance of the metathalamus, particularly of the lateral geniculate ganglion, in the prosimiae, the relative increase in size and cytoarchitectonic differentiation of the lateral formation in the simiae and in man. The centrum medianum, the nucleus parafascicularis and nucleus dorsomedialis are well developed in higher forms (cercopithecidae, pongidae, and man), while the nucleus reuniens shows a marked differentiation in the latter two species. The zona incerta is relatively wide and the corpus subthalamicum relatively small in the lower forms; the reverse applies to the