Meyer, Data of Modem Neurology. 117 



Prof. Ford's^ classical study excels rather by the clearness and 

 depth of critical analysis of a number of pathological and ex- 

 perimentally produced conditions and as such it is the most 

 suggestive publication for any one who wishes to advance the 

 anatomy of the nervous system on the ground of the study of 

 pathological lesions and degenerations in man, notwithstanding 

 its containing a number of minor errors. 



Forel found the key to his problems in the discovery of 

 Golgi. Before 1873, Camillo Golgi, a histologist and patholo- 

 gist in Pavia, had discovered an extremely valuable method of 

 impregnating nervous tissues with nitrate of silver. The great 

 value of his procedure lies in the fact that his reagents do not 

 affect all cells of a specimen, but only a few, and if an element 

 is stained at all, it is so usually in its whole extent ; the cell- 

 body with all its processes and ramifications stands out in black. 

 This pecuHarity of the 'black stain,' the small number of cell- 

 individuals brought out in their whole extent, furnished many un- 

 expected data concerning the nerve-cells. About 1885 Golgi 

 was ' discovered ' by German histologists. Translations of a 

 number of his contributions had appeared in this country long 

 before that, in the ' Alienist and Neurologist, ' but had not 

 fallen on fertile ground. In Germany, too, reports of his work 

 had been published, but were held in a very sober, hardly ap- 

 preciative tone of scepticism. The exploitation of the points 

 which could promote the general concepts came through Prof. 

 Forel. Golgi's results are summarized by Forel as follows : 



1. All the branches of the protoplasmic processes end 

 blindly. They never anastomose, are uneven and show no 

 fibrillary structure. 



2. Every nerve-cell is unipolar, i. e. it has only one nerve 

 process. 



3. This nerve-process has very fine branches. 



4. In the cells of the first category the nerve-process, 

 after giving off a few fine collaterals, forms a medullated fiber ; 



^ Forel, Aug. Einige Hirnanatomische Betrachtungen und Ergebnisse. 

 Arch.f. Psych. XVIII. 



