26 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



nervous relation and yet he would be a bold physiologist who 

 would venture to deny that there is a most subtle and powerful 

 coordination between the stationary tissues and the free cor- 

 puscles. One may talk of chemotropism or vital susceptibility, 

 but such terms express merely the fact that the corpuscles, like 

 other cells, are coordinated with the rest of the body and bear 

 both its specific and individual impress. The mysteries of serum 

 therapy only increase our confidence in such an intimate re- 

 lation. 



It, then, may be supposed that the circuit of nervous action 

 in any part of the body passes through a variety of smaller 

 somatic circuits and that the spheres of the two forms of activity 

 overlap so that the return nerve current bears the influence of 

 this interaction. The nervous equilibrium is only a central spec- 

 ialized part of a vital equilibrium embracing all the activities of 

 the body. The wandering cell, even though not in direct con- 

 tinuity with a nerve fiber, nevertheless may be said to act in a 

 " nervous field " and so is not beyond the sphere of coordina- 

 tion, while, on the other hand, the results of changes in the ex- 

 tra-nervous mechanism of the body all have their effect upon 

 the central system. In the same way we may explain the effect 

 of the sum of organic and total or somatic stimuli upon tem- 

 perament and disposition. 



The processes of nutrition may be said to be common to 

 protoplasm quite irrespective of nervous control, but the trophic 

 influence of the latter is well authenticated and it may be as- 

 sumed that no nervous action takes place without having its 

 effect on growth. From the above it may be gathered that the 

 ground of the mutual reaction may be sought in the fundamen- 

 tal similarity of the two processes, or rather the close relation 

 between the processes of waste and repair lying at the founda- 

 tion of both. It is necessary to suppose, accordingly, that the 

 central nervous system is continually affected by the vital phe- 

 nomena of the body at large as truly as the vascular system is 

 under the control of the nervous system. 



As a striking result of this effect of the somatic or extra- 

 neural processes, one may take the phenomena connected with 



