ORGANS OF NEURAL EXCRETION 97 



that we are warranted in claiming that their true functions 

 are not really cerebral, or nervine, but, as their title implies, 

 secretory, or excretory, or what may be called vehicular. 



These views seem to us to open wide fields of investi- 

 gation and research for the physiologist, pathologist, and 

 clinician of a most promising character, the following up 

 of which we think is bound to repay, both in additions to 

 our exact and scientific knowledge, and our practical 

 resources. 



Moreover, the embryological study of the nervous 

 system affords the means, not only of tracing the evolution 

 of its component parts, but of perceiving the hidden 

 meaning of the existence of these textures known as the 

 pituitary and pineal glands, which are now regarded as 



FIG. 27. NERVE-FIBRES FROM THE OLFACTORY MUCOUS MEMBRANE. 

 (Max Schultze. ) Magnified between 400 and 500 diameters. 



From a branch of the olfactory nerve of the sheep ; at a, a, two dark bordered or 

 medullated fibres, from the fifth pair, associated with the pale olfactory fibres. 



the anatomical a survivals " of once important organs in 

 the everyday active life of some of our remote ancestors, 

 or progenitors. This latter view, however originated and 

 sanctioned, may be highly convenient as a means of saving 

 further trouble, and of satisfying the amour propre of some 

 enquirers after truth, but is highly objectionable, inas- 

 much as it shelves the needed investigation of the problems 

 involved and deprives mankind of the practical benefits 

 to be derived therefrom. Survivals forsooth ! 'Tis nothing 

 less than an insult to nature, and an impeachment of her 

 working and administration of the law of " evolution," to 

 manufacture and propagate this story of her prodigality 

 in the use of most valuable cephalic, or brain, space as a 

 museum for the storage of obsolete organisms, and her 

 persistent exhibition of a juvenile affection for the display 

 of some of the works of her ''prentice " hand in this, the 



