6 NERA^E COMPONENTS OF BONY FISHES. 



the general laws of the dynamics and statics of the nervous 

 system as a whole, rather than towards contributing 

 merely complete knowledge of morphology or even specific 

 physiological data of a particular organism and stopping 

 then and there without probing into the general relations 

 of one particular nervous system to all other nerv^ous 

 systems. 



We should study the nervous system of any particular 

 animal or species in a determinate fashion, with the pur- 

 pose of interpreting structure in dynamic terms and of 

 throwing light upon the nervous system universally and 

 upon the inter-relation of the phylogenetic and onto- 

 genetic progression, bringing comparative neurology into 

 correlation with biology, physiology, pathology and the 

 psychological sciences. Again, should we find in the neu- 

 rons of some of the lower animals, peculiarities of re- 

 actions to stimuli, or variations in growth or metabolism, 

 evident in function or structure which would throw light 

 upon the life history of a/l neurons, and should we use 

 this knowledge in the form of a generalization, we would 

 then be using comparative neurology in its proper 

 sphere in the co-ordination of sciences for the purpose of 

 determining the nature and laws of the nervous system. 



It seems to me that the role that comparative neurology 

 plays in the correlation of sciences is primarily in its use 

 as a method, or instrument, keen in investigation of the 

 nature of the nervous system. Comparative neurology is 

 a means of verification, a control to the deductions gained 

 from the pathological method proper, which in my 

 opinion is the most powerful method in the investigation 

 of normal life phenomena. 



This brings us to the motive of this paper. What has it 

 to do with psychiatry ? The answer to this is very simple. 



