40 STUDIES ON THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM 



biological conception of the organisation of sensibility in the 

 central nervous system. Once more I must emphasise the 

 fact that conduction of sensory impulses is not limited to the 

 sensory nervous system. In my opinion the autonomic 

 nervous system must play a significant role in conducting 

 sensory stimuli, not only from the intestines, but also from 

 the surface of the body. To study only the centrifugal 

 functions of the autonomic system appears to me to be 

 dogmatical and one of my reasons for giving this lecture was 

 to lay greater stress on this side of the autonomic functions. 

 The other purpose of this lecture was of a totally different 

 character. I have given you some of our results in tumours 

 of the spinal cord, diagnosed with the help of the lipiodol- 

 test. It is sometimes said that this method has dangers 

 but I have not seen them. Only a slight rise of temperature 

 and some pain at the upper border of the anaesthetic area, 

 caused by the lipiodol lying on the roots, is stated, but these 

 symptoms soon disappear. Still there was one disagreable 

 factor in the use of this method. A good deal of my re- 

 search work lies in the field of the physiological anatomy of 

 the central nervous system. I studied with great interest 

 the fine histological organisation of the brain and the spinal 

 cord and the numerous pathways along which stimuli are 

 spread through the nervous system. As clinician I used 

 this hardly acquired knowledge to localise tumours and to 

 obtain the therapeutical results. And now a new method 

 in science suddenly springs up, which seems to make a 

 good deal of this knowledge superfluous. Localising tu- 

 mours in the spinal cord was thus far an artistic work, but 

 now it is more simple. Just as when Dandy brought his 

 famous air work in literature, two different lines of research 

 and of thought clashed here. 



It will be clear, however, that both these methods cannot 

 be used separately but must be combined. Clinical ex- 

 amination, based on an exact knowledge of the structure 

 and function of the nervous system, must be followed by 



