Most authors who have studied the whole visual system described the
fiber connections between the different nuclear centers (Monakow, 1883,
1889; Probst, 1900; Minkowski, 1913, 1920, 1934; Kosaka and Hiraiwa,
1914; Put- nam, 1926; Oshinomi, 1930; Papez and Freeman, 1930; Lashley,
1931, 1934a, 1934b, 1941; Barris and Ingram, 1933/34; Le Gros Clark and
Penman, 1934; Waller, 1934; Chang, 1936; Gillilan, 1940; Le Gros Clark,
1942; Krieg, 1946a, 1946b, 1947; Nauta and Bucher, 1954; Hayhow et al.,
1962; Lund, 1966; Mon- tero, 1968). The histogenetic and cytogenetic
differentiation of the various components of the visual system has been
treated in numerous individual studies mostly on the cerebral cortex and
the retina and to a lesser degree on the superior col- liculus and the
lateral geniculate body, however, it has not yet been investigated under
the aspects of developmental interactions of a functional system on the
basis of comparing the development of the different brain parts involved
with re- spect to the establishment of a functionally interrelated
system. The first concepts of the histological differentiation of the
neural tube and parts of the more advanced central nervous system were
based on the classical neuroblast-spon- gioblast-theory of His (1889,
1904), Cajal (1911, 1960) and Lorente de No (1922, 1933, 1949). The
development of the definitive cerebral cortex with its 6 laminae
according to Tilney (1933) was attributed to three successive cell
migrations which form the supragranular, granular and infragranular
layers.
