50 BULLETIN OF THE LABORATORIES 



Nansen agrees with Golgi in identifying two kinds of processes, 

 nervous and protoplasmic. " Of nervous processes each cell (unipo- 

 lar or multipolar) has always one and never more; the nervous pro- 

 cesses are always directed toward the dotted substance, or in a few 

 cases pass directly into the peripheral nerves." 



The results of such a condition as this are evidently realized as 

 revolutionary, as reference is made to the observations of Fritsch.* 



" Die apolare ganglion-cellen haben lange genug in unserer Lit- 

 eratur gespukt." " Eine wirklich unipolare Zelle ist fuer den Organ- 

 ismus nicht viel mehr werth als eine apolare Zelle." To this the 

 present writers fully assent and furthermore find abundant evidence of 

 the existence of two fully developed "nervous processes" in very 

 many cells connected with the cranial nerves as well as in the cortex 

 and feel that the ganglion cells might as well be dismissed from the 

 ranks of servitors of cerebral function if deprived of all members but 

 one. How the function of inhibition, for example, can construe with 

 such a condition, does not appear. 



Nansen proceeds: " When a ganglion-cell is bipolar, then the 

 processes it possesses, besides the nervous process, are protoplasmic 

 processes. These protoplasmic processes are not directed toward the 

 dotted substance, but generally have a peripheral direction toward the 

 external layers of the central nervous system." "Like Prof. Golgi, 

 I believe the function of the protoplasmic processes to be a nutritive 

 one; when the ganglion cells can not get sufficient nourishment in 

 their neighborhood, they have to send processes toward the periphery 

 of the nervous system." " Having elucidated that no combination 

 between cells can be produced by the protoplasmic process, and as it 

 is very improbable that any combination between them can be pro- 

 duced by the neuroglia, I suppose it to be most probable, if not cer_ 

 tain, that if any combination upon the whole exists between the gang- 

 lion cells, then this combination must be produced by the nervous 

 processes. That such a combination can exist, with the dotted sub- 

 stance as a medium, we can readily understand when we think of the 

 course of the nervous processes. There may be drawn a distinction 

 between ^7C'o types of ganglion cells in respect to the course of their ner- 

 vous processes ; viz: (i) ganglion cells with nervous processes which 

 directly become nerve tubes and thus do not lose their mdividuality 



[*Arch. mikr. Anat., 1886.] 



