OF MIND. 



Of Nerve Action in General. 



|T has been very generally concluded that the 

 peripheral excitation of a nerve is due to some 

 change taking place in the nerve fibre itself; and 

 it must be admitted that some of the most recent anatomi- 

 cal observations in Germany favour this view, inasmuch as 

 fine terminal filaments of nerve fibre destitute of germinal matter 

 said to ramify amongst the anatomical elements of certain are 

 tissues. And these fibres are- represented as terminating in 

 free ends, which may reach the surface of the cuticle for 

 example, and even come into actual contact with anything 

 which touches it. But those who describe and figure such 

 fibres amongst the epithelial cells of an epidermic tissue, 

 do not tell us how they were formed, and how they came 

 into the positions in which observers profess to demonstrate 

 them. Many of the appearances represented in recent 

 drawings of the supposed nerve terminations, have long 

 been familiar to me, but I cannot accept the interpretation 

 which has been given. It is curious that lines between 

 certain epithelial cells, which by some have been looked 

 upon as nerves, have been regarded by other observers as 

 lymphatics, the tubes of which it has been said have been 

 actually filled with colouring matter. Careful observation, 



