396 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



in the one case, physiologically, in the other mechani- 

 cally, impossible^ * Can anything be more explicit ? 

 A solution of continuity between fibre and cell is said to 

 render tlie conduction of nerve-force impossible ; yet I 

 have shown that such a solution is constant in many ani- 

 mals, and is present in the embryonic condition of all ani- 

 mals. No one even slightly acquainted with the present 

 state of science will fail to see the bearing of this fact. 

 But before we proceed further it will be requisite to 

 ascertain, as far as possible, whether the facts I have 

 discovered had been already made public. When 

 Europe furnishes its hundreds of diligent workers in 

 any department, no one can expect to stand in isolated 

 originality ; he must be prepared to find that others 

 have more or less anticipated him. I had no sort of 

 doubt that the facts, which to me were full of signifi- 

 cance, must have been observed by others ; but I was 

 persuaded that no one had seen their significance, be- 

 cause no one expressed a doubt respecting the theory 

 which they undermine.-f* My first step was to send to 

 England for Leydig's work on Comparative Histology, 

 the latest authoritative publication. There, indeed, I 



* Todd : Clinical Lectures on Paralysis, 2d ed., 1856, p. 211. Equally 

 explicit is Gratiolet : Anat. Comp. cht Syst^me Nerveiix, 1857 ; ii. p. 4. 

 So also KiRKES and Paget, in their Handbook of Physiology, p. 364. 

 " All nerve-fibres are mere conductors of impressions." In Segond, 

 Traite cC Anatomic Generale, p. Ill, the nerve-fibre is said to manifest 

 a new and characteristic property, that of transmissihility, as the muscle- 

 fibre manifests that of contractibility . Compare also Fdnke, Lehrhxtch 

 der Physiologic. 



f We need only turn to Funke's Lehrluch der Physiologic, one of 

 the ablest and most erudite, as well as the latest of treatises, to be 

 assured of this. 



