124 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



even, diminishing in calibre only by splitting up into terminal 

 brushes and ending in little nodules. Golgi had also observed 

 that the protoplasmic processes chiefly terminated near the 

 blood-vessels and had therefore largely a trophic function, a 

 view strongly opposed by others. For the transmission of 

 nerve-impulses, according to Golgi, the collaterals are sufficient; 

 the cell-body with the protoplasmic processes stands above the 

 neural circuit as the trophic focus of the nerve element. This 

 same view is maintained by Nansen on the ground of studies 

 on invertebrates. The reader will see at a glance what the 

 three investigators give when looking at the two figures (Fig. i, 

 Plate XV) — A. representing the view of Golgi and of Natiscn 

 (from Nansen's work 1887), B. the view of z'^;^ GcJmcJiten-Cajal 

 (from the latter's nuevo Concepto, etc). In a later chapter we 

 shall have to speak of the views of Berkeley and Held. 



This short sketch may suffice for the history of the 

 question before us, the development of the neurone-theory and 

 of the embryological and experimental method. While the 

 neurone-concept was slowly accepted by the almost totality of 

 the investigators who become acquainted with it, there remained 

 a few opponents, open or disguised. It will be desirable to 

 pass them in review. 



The strongest and most emphatic opposition comes from 

 Golgi and his pupils. As the publication of Dr. AcJullc Montt^ 

 is probably not accessible to most of the readers of these notes, 

 an abstract is given here. 



Golgi had published in 1875 a description of the olfactory 

 bulbs of mammals which established the following facts : The 

 fibers of the olfactory nerve enter the olfactory glomeruli, ram- 

 ify repeatedly at right angles, and form an intimate meshwork. 

 A further constituent of the glomeruli are the dentrites (proto- 

 plasmic processes) of the large and small cells of the biilb, and 

 finally also collaterals and nerve fibers from the olfactory tract. 

 These results are reproduced from the original in the second 



' Sulla fina anatomia del bulbo olfattorio. Fatti vecchi e nuovi che contrad- 

 dicono alia teoria dei neuroni. Nota del Dott. Achilje Monti. Pavia; 1895. 



