392 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



the nerves ; instead of the ganglion being a distinct 

 structure from that of the nerve, the two were identi- 

 cal, the only difference being that the cells, both large 

 and small, which predominated in the ganglion, be- 

 came scarcer as the nerve was prolonged, and at last 

 only made their appearance by ones and twos, amid 

 the granular mass. 



It may readily be imagined that the doubt thus 

 raised, left me no peace. I dreamt of gangha and 

 their prolongations. They visited me in sleep, in 

 half sleep, in noontide walking, and in evening reveries. 

 For weeks I was in a " nervous fever." Every animal 

 I could lay hands on was sacrificed to the inexorable 

 scalpel, — from the new-born Puppy, to the Bee which 

 flew into my study ; from the Lizard, Frog, and Toad, 

 to the Grasshopper and Locust ; from the hideous 

 Dogfish, to the graceful Pipefish ; from the Hermit 

 crab, to the Dragon-fly larva ; from the garden Snail, 

 to the Slug ; from the Solen, to the Sea-hare. Scores 

 of dissections only increased my doubts respecting 

 current doctrines ; since, whether fresh specimens, or 

 preparations after treatment with alcohol, with chromic 

 acid, and with acetic acid, were under examination, the 

 facts required by the doctrines were not discoverable, 

 but, in lieu thereof, facts altogether opposed to them. 



The physiologist will read with surprise of the ab- 

 sence of fibres in the nerves, which are universally held 

 to be simply fasciculi of fibres ; and, indeed, the dis- 

 covery so much surprised me at first, that it was long 

 before I could persuade myself it was no optical illu- 



