NEURAL AND H^iMAL LYMPH 27 



rence of autotoxis, which would otherwise be constantly 

 liable to take place, as is sometimes, notwithstanding, 

 the case at the motor terminations of the systemic nerves, 

 and beyond. This physiological necessity we find pro- 

 vided for by the many inter-communicating channels 

 and excretory organs along and through which the 

 cerebro-spinal fluid finds its exit from the cerebro-spinal 

 cavity. 



The haemal lymph, being largely nutritive, and, con- 

 sequently, prospective in systemic value, and the neural 

 lymph largely excretory, and, consequently, retrospective 

 in systemic value, the former requires husbanding, the 

 latter eliminating. Regarded from a physiological stand- 

 point these facts must, consequently, be borne in mind, 

 so that when the pathological and therapeutical bearings 

 of them come up for practical consideration, they, we 

 fondly hope, will not be found barren in affording indi- 

 cations for the scientific use and application of both our 

 medical and surgical skill in the suggestion, it may be, 

 of fresh lines of attack, in the capture of the enemy's 

 positions, in our hand-to-hand conflicts with the powers 

 of disease and death. 



I thus behoves us at all times, whether we are regarding 

 the cerebro-spinal lymph from a physiological or a patho- 

 logical point of view, to look upon it as a fluid, the vital 

 role of which is largely played out, and that, therefore, 

 it is not designed to be re-admitted into the blood stream 

 for redistribution throughout the system, a process to 

 which some of it the motor may possibly have been 

 already subjected ; besides that, its re-admission into the 

 haemal vascular system constitutes an outstanding danger 

 to be constantly guarded against, lest the lethal processes 

 of autotoxis be initiated. While the nutritive value of 

 the cerebro-spinal fluid may be regarded as a negligible 

 quantity or nil, if re-admitted into the blood stream, 

 and while it may be regarded as a fluid destined for 

 elimination from the economy of nutrition, as an agent 

 which makes for autotoxis, we must, nevertheless, regard 

 it as still playing an important part in the functional 

 activities of the nervous system proper, cerebral, spinal, 

 and neural, in its mechanical action as a buffer, as an 



