20 S. BENT RUSSELL 



A group of neurons may be likened to a colony of animals 

 having points of contact with each other. Each neuron will 

 resemble a wriggling animal with arms like an octopus. If 

 any one animal is disturbed and made to wriggle, its move- 

 ments are communicated to the adjoining animals which are 

 disturbed and wriggle in turn. When the external disturbance 

 ceases the animals gradually come to rest, then as gradually 

 sink into sleep. The more often a given animal is irritated the 

 more irritable he becomes. Disturbances will be conveyed 

 through a colony on certain lines determined by experience. 

 In a similar manner are disturbances transmitted through a 

 nervous system. 



Having given the above brief outline of a theory for the 

 working of nervous discharges, a few words as to its significance 

 may not be amiss. Present day explanations of the working 

 of nervous discharges are so inadequate that they are helpful 

 to few. They leave large gaps to be filled by the imagination. 



A clear understanding of the working of the nervous system 

 that would reach the great body of world students and be as 

 lucid as the modern demonstration of the circulation of the 

 blood would be a great acquisition to the cause of general 

 education. 



That such a clear understanding will some day be reached 

 is most probable. It must be approached step by step. The 

 step aimed at here is the first that naturally presents itself, for 

 we find that a simple nervous discharge following a well defined 

 channel as in simple reflex action, presents no difficulty to the 

 scientific mind. The first step is then to explain such opera- 

 tions as learning, inhibition and habit forming. If we can 

 make these clear to interested minds a barrier will be passed. 

 That there will be other barriers to cross before animal intelli- 

 gence is fully understood goes without saying. 



The significance and importance of a proper solution of the 

 problem can not be better stated than in the words of that 

 high authority, Dr. Loeb, 6 viz.: 



' The unravelling of the mechanism of associative memory is 

 the great discovery to be made in the field of brain physiology 

 and psychology." 



8 Loeb, J. Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology. 

 New York and London, 1900, p. 14. 



