STUDIES ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF CRUSTACEA. 479 
true one, although in what way this takes place remains 
unknown. The constant relative position of these three tufts 
of fibres would seem to be inexplicable upon any other assump- 
tion, and it appears at least worth while to make the sugges- 
tion that the nervous energy resembles a static electrical charge, 
in the fact that the discharge takes place most readily through 
points. Wherever the methods of Ehrlich and Golgi have been 
applied to demonstrate the endings of nerve-elements, the 
breaking up of the fibre into finer and finer branches which 
end freely has been shown to occur, and the suggestion is 
that it is by means of these fine branches that the nervous 
discharge takes place. 
On the view suggested, each nerve-element resembles an 
electrical condenser capable of charging itself, and being 
suddenly discharged by an appropriate stimulus. The tufts of 
fibres at the ends of the elements C and D (fig. 4) would be 
comparable to the “ brushes” of an electrical machine. In 
the same way we should suppose that the nervous energy 
passes from one element to some other element by means of 
the numerous branches given off to the neuropile. 
Now it must be borne in mind that the elements repre- 
sented in fig. 1, some of which at any rate we know to be 
motor elements (cf. p. and fig. 9), also send off numerous 
branches to the neuropile, which interlace with the branches 
of the elements C and D. One such element has been inserted 
in black in Th. VIII (fig. 4). Although the speculation has 
perhaps little value, it is at least interesting to consider what 
would happen upon the suggested theory, supposing one of the 
elements to be in any way stimulated. Imagine, for instance, 
the element D Th. VIII to be caused to discharge, either by an 
impulse received from a sensory nerve-ending, or by an impulse 
coming along a fibre from the brain. The main discharge 
would, we must suppose, pass into such an element as E, and 
so along the motor nerve to the muscle. A portion, however, 
would pass along the element D to the lateral tuft, from which 
it might pass to the terminal tuft of the element D of Th. IX 
and, we may suppose, cause this element to discharge. Another 
