Meyer, Data of Modem Neurology. 281 



pression of a chemical connection between the toxin and the 

 cell body. [?] 



11. The injection of strychnine produces changes analo- 

 gous with those produced by the toxin of tetanus. The first 

 alterations set in sometimes as early as in three minutes. If 

 the animal survives the experiment one also sees that restitution 

 of the function precedes that of the morphological structure. 



12. The analogy ot the action of tetanus and strychnine 

 on the morphological structure of cells suggests that the ana- 

 tomical alterations are of great importance for the exaggerations 

 of that excitability of the cells which is found clinically in these 

 forms of poisoning. 



This is a fair instance of the present position of the ques- 

 tion. Studies of the axones and their terminations are not avail- 

 able yet and therefore the picture of the Jieiirone is incomplete. 



To judge from what was said of the direct motor neurones 

 (see p. 255, etc.) the great problem is now as follows: are there 

 two fairly distinct mechanisms in a nerve element, a vegetative 

 element supplying the possibilities for nutrition and growth, and 

 a functional element (the fibrils ?), the substratum of neural ac- 

 tivity ? Or we might perhaps ask more clearly: are there two 

 elements, the functional and the nutritive, held together by the 

 processes of metabolism and growth, and, morphologically, by 

 the nucleus ? The present methods give no satisfactory answer 

 to this because the stainable substance is the chief element 

 brought out ; and because diffusion of the stain (deeper colora- 

 tion of the non-stainable paths and the processes) is only a very 

 indirect criterion of the real condition of the 'fibrils.' This 

 may be the reason why the clinical and morphological phases 

 are not quite parallel and this again might justify us in assum- 

 ing as a great probability the existence of such a division of 

 mechafiisins into vegetative and specific activity. The promotion 

 of these studies depends largely on the improvement of tech- 

 nique. If Belhe's new fiber-method can give a perfectly relia- 

 ble demonstration of fibrils in the cells and all their processes, 

 we may remove many objections of fundamental importance, 

 as those made by Held. On the same evidence will depend 



