EDITORIAL. 



PROFESSOR GOLGI ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEURONE. 



The address delivered by Professor Golgi on the occasion of his 

 reception of the Nobel prize, which was printed in full in Archivio 

 di Fisiologia for March of this year, is of more than passing inter- 

 est to neurologists, physiologists and psychologists. As is well 

 known, the discoverer of the method of silver impregnation of 

 nervous tissue was led to conclusions regarding the structure of 

 the nervous elements which are widely at variance from those 

 reached by the majority of the able students who have followed 

 him in the use of his own methods. 



The neurone theory, as built up by the labors of His, Forel, 

 Cajal, vanGehuchten and others and formulated by Waldeyer, 

 has dominated all recent work in neurology, both in morphology 

 and in physiology. And now we are again inquiring how far this 

 dogma was accepted uncritically because of its illuminating sim- 

 plicity and how far it is adequate as a basal concept. With still 

 newer methods we are reaching still different points of view. We 

 therefore welcome this review by Professor Golgi of the whole 

 problem of the neurone doctrine, containing the fully matured 

 opinions of his ripest years. 



Professor Golgi insists first that if the word neurone is used at 

 all, it should be applied in the sense proposed by its inventor, 

 Waldeyer, the concept implying, (i) the embryological, (2) the 

 anatomical, and (3) the physiological, independence of the nerve 

 unit. He brings out evidence in vertebrates for a continuous 

 network of nervous processes, as opposed to their anatomical 

 independence and also opposed to the doctrine of polarization of 

 the neurone. The existence of the rete nervosa diffusa is in fact, 

 as it has been from the beginning, the chief point in Professor 

 Golgi's consistent opposition to the widely prevalent views based 

 on the neurone theory. 



