ii8 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



in the cells of the second category, the nerve-process dissolves 

 completely into fibrils before it becomes a real fiber. The cells 

 of the first type are motor, those of the second type sensory, 

 and the terminations of \}i\Q. fibers of both join in the anastomo- 

 ses of a common network of fibrils. 



This is, on the main, the first exact demonstration of the 

 standpoint of GerlacJi (apart from the denial of anastomoses of 

 the dendrites), with a greater number of corrections of detail ; 

 but the delicacy of the new specimens suggested to Forel more 

 than Gerlach's views. Forel's first criticism deals with the con- 

 tinuity of the net-work of fibrils. The absolute absence of 

 actually visible anastomoses in the Golgi specimens is quite 

 striking. Further it is difficult to conceive how these thin 

 fibrils coming from different cells would grow together at their 

 ends and how the growth of the individual cells in the years of 

 development of the nervous system could go on if there were 

 real continuity instead of free end-buds. The next step is the 

 assumption that all the fiber-systems and ' net-works ' of fibrils 

 throughout the nervous system are nothing but nerve-processes 

 of definite sets of nerve-cells, and further that Golgi is wrong 

 in calling all the cells motor whose nerve-process becomes a 

 long fiber. The excess of fibers in the nervous system is only 

 apparent, not real ; the fibers are so much longer and larger 

 than the cell ' body ' to which they belong that the preponder- 

 ance of 'white matter ' over ' gray matter ' is not very surprising. 



The evidence which Forel adduces for the radical concep- 

 tion that the nervous system consists of cells without anasto- 

 moses of the processes and not of independent fibers plus cells 

 is taken from the inability of finding anastomoses in Golgi 

 preparations, and from the results with the method of Gudden 

 and * secondary degenerations ' generally. Since the latter 

 are relatively little studied by the physicians on our side of the 

 Ocean, notwithstanding the summary of Seguin (Arch, of Med. 

 X, 1892) and Spitzka's work, I mention a few of the fundamen- 

 tal results which Forel discusses. The first one refers to the 

 external geniculate body, the principal end-station of the optic 

 nerves, and the place of origin of a great share of the ' optic 



