Meyer, Data of Modern Nanology. 133 



views of the day, but only ' demonstrated ' fully in invertebra- 

 tes, evidence only being ' promised ' for the vertebrates. The 

 demonstration of the preparations in Wood's Hole has con- 

 vinced most men of the correctness of his claim as regards the 

 existence of fibrils, but not quite that of the claim that these fi- 

 brils pass from one ' neurone ' into another. If we consider 

 further that Lugaro and especially Becker and Bethe have bet- 

 ter evidence than ever before of the existence of fibrils in human 

 nerve-cells, we must admit that the problem of the nerve-unit 

 is a greater puzzle now than two years ago when the dogma of 

 the ' neurone ' was almost looked upon as a finality. 



This short historical sketch must suffice for the present in- 

 troduction and cannot help leaving the impression that the dog- 

 matic inclinations have played a certain trick on those who 

 believe the definition of the ' neurone ' on the first page to be 

 a perfect soother of all suspicion and skepticism concerning the 

 units. We have certain embryological facts which we owe to His; 

 we have some experience concerning the life of the ' neurone ' 

 under the influence of injuries, the explanation of which we 

 owe to Forel ; we have the charming schematic pictures of the 

 Golgi preparations in the hands of Golgi, Cajal and others : 

 much evidence goes in favor of the monocellular character of 

 the ' neurone ', so that we may justly call the neurone-theory the 

 cell-theory, although even in a simple portion such as the peri- 

 pheral fiber we stand before a puzzling symbiosis of many cells. 

 Its formation in the period of development has been submitted 

 to a fruitful study by Wlassak, but for an understanding of all 

 the conditions difficulties increase in the fully developed state, 

 and the clean lines of the individual cells become less plain. 

 We come across uncertainties along the lines of the symbiosis 

 noticed in the medullated fibres, and, concerning the cells, 

 doubt is now thrown on the real value of the Golgi pictures 

 which are not capable of producing all the fibrils discovered 

 lately and which therefore would not show anastomoses of fi- 

 brils, even if they existed. 



Before wading into the deep water of details, we return to 

 some important data of His and Forel and others, and try to 



