44 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



an easy fight with the uncomfortable results of Golgi's method. 

 * Nissl's gray matter is supposed to consist of fibrils yet to be 

 discovered, but it is already made the sanctum of the omnipo- 

 tent unknown ' nervous function. ' And Bethe tries to make us 

 forget the pangs of not knowing any material memory-sub- 

 strata by drawing before our eyes a very plausible picture of 

 general biological concepts, which has not a word to say con- 

 cerning the essential problems of functional organization and 

 differentiation. Nissl's dictum of the extermination of the neu- 

 rone-theory reminds one of boys who make a snow man, de- 

 capitate him and declare solemnly that they have killed him. It 

 would be interesting to know what life the snow man had and 

 what Nissl's (and Bethe's) neurone-theory looked like before its 

 light began to fail. The motto which Nissl puts at the head of 

 his article seems to be intended for other people only ; or will 

 it be said to apply to Nissl himself as well? 'Wer die Geschich- 

 te der Nervenanatomie und Nervenphysiologie des letzten 

 Jahrzehnts priift und durchgeht, der muss in der That in den 

 vielen, mit grosser Zuversicht aufgebauten und durch alsbald 

 bekannt gewordene, an die Ironie des Schicksals mahnende neue 

 Thatsachen enttauschten und widerlegten Theorien eine Warn- 

 ung erblicken, jetzt schon Ansichten iiber die Funktion von 

 Theilen aufstellen zu wollen deren Erkenntniss noch weit — weit 

 von einem wiinschenswerthen Ziele entfernt ist. (B. Stilling, 

 1856).' 



The status of the neurone-problem developed a year ago is 

 not changed essentially to-day. It will be a difficult task — but 

 one which must be worked over — to bring into harmony the 

 widely differing pictures produced by the methods of Golgi, of 

 Ehrlich, of Bethe, of Nissl, etc., to work through all the im- 

 portant experimental reactions with these methods and to re- 

 frain from putting bright guesses down as statements of facts. 

 It is quite evident that we are still very far from a complete pic- 

 ture of the architecture of the nervous system ; but not so far 

 that we should allow ourselves to be thrown out of the saddle 

 by every little addition of detail. The neurone-theory deals 

 primarily with genetic and trophic relations, and as such it is a 



