ON THE NEUROGLIA 



285 



labour, and are kept in being. The systemic, or central, 

 nervous system, may thus be regarded as the innermost 

 texture of our being, and the " sanctum sanctorum " of 

 the " mind, and spirit," or the scene of the transcendental 



FlG. Il8. TWO NERVE-CELLS FROM THE CORTICAL GREY MATTER OF THE 



CEREBELLUM. Magnified 260 diameters. (Kolliker.) 



union, of mind, and body, where the great mysteries of 

 " being," the " mystery of mysteries," lie, wrapt up, and 

 enshrouded. 



The neuroglia, as thus described, may be claimed as the 

 great emporium, of brain, cord, and nerve, pabulum, or 

 plasma, deposited from the blood 

 circulation, as it permeates the 

 feltage of the glial fibro-cellular 

 reticulum, or matrix, where, also, 

 a proportion of the liquor san- 

 guinis escapes into the peri-vascular 

 spaces, to become continuous, in 

 circulation, with the peri-saccular 

 spaces, extra- and intra-cerebro- 

 spinal spaces, and peri-neural 

 channels, as the fluid, known as 

 cerebro-spinal. It, the neuroglia, forms, thus, the great 

 bulk of the substance of the brain, cord, and ganglia, 

 and before it has been utilised by the various neurons 

 composing these great structures, it may be called an 

 absolutely non-nervine substance hence the impunity 

 with which the neuroglial matrix can be disturbed, or 

 destroyed, by foreign bodies, or traumatic agencies, 



FIG. 119. PART OF THE RETI- 

 CULUM FROM THE SPINAL 

 CORD. (Kolliker.) Mag- 

 nified 350 diameters. 



