EXTRACT XV. 



ON THE NUTRITION, AND METABOLISM, OF THE 

 SYSTEMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM, OR SYSTEMIC NER- 

 VINE NUTRITION. 



THE theory of nutrition generally, but, more specially, the 

 theory of systemic nerve and muscle nutrition, must, we 

 feel, require revision on our part, in consequence of our 

 entertainment of the foregoing views. We, therefore, are 

 now impelled to attempt the task, and to put on record 

 some of the views on the subject, as related to the process 

 of nutrition that have presented themselves to us, from 

 time to time, as the progress of these studies allowed, or 

 suggested, and as the varied aspects of the particular 

 subject, pursued at the time, have presented themselves, 

 and novel views have consequently been obtained, as we 

 have been " carried along the streams " of exploration, 

 observation, and deduction, while holding aloft the " rush- 

 light " of our already acquired and immediately available 

 knowledge, to enable us to " determine our whereabouts " 

 amid our unfamiliar surroundings. 



We have somewhere else expressed, if not fully stated, 

 our belief in the existence of a secondary digestion, as repre- 

 senting, constituting, or lying, at the foundation of 

 neuronal nutrition and development, and have stated that 

 the neuroglial matrix of amorphous, and more, or less, 

 developed, substance, deposited amid a feltage of fibro- 

 cellular foundation texture (Fig. 66), supplies the pabulum 

 which is, or has been, carried hither by the haemal 

 circulation, and which is osmotically imbibed and con- 

 verted, into neural protoplasm by the dendritic rootlet 



