THE SYSTEMIC NERVE CELL 317 



The nervous system, thus, becomes the centre, and 

 potential, or dynamic, mainspring, of the life-work, of all 

 the highly organised examples of animal life, besides being, 

 itself, the peculiar, and cryptic, material region, in which 

 repose the inscrutable mysteries of life, and intelligence, 

 with all their attendant attributes, and entities, material, 

 and immaterial. 



Though composed of innumerable quasi-independent 

 centres, and areas, but being, one, and indivisible, ana- 

 tomically, and histologically, through the complete organic 

 continuity of its component neurons, it must inevitably 

 follow, that its functional work, or activity, in part, and 

 in whole, must be conformable to, and controllable for, 

 both local, and general, purposes each neuron, thus, 

 representing a quasi-independent organism, as well as, 

 being an individual member of the great nerve com- 

 munity, or commonwealth, so to speak, and extracting 

 its support from the common neuroglial soil in which the 

 entire nervous system is rooted, and from which it grows 

 by dendritic absorption. From this common neuroglial 

 soil, cerebral, cerebellar, spinal, and ganglionic, all 

 systemic, and sympathetico-systemic, nerve cells, alike, 

 derive their nourishment, converting it into the necessary 

 protoplasm for supplying the nutritional wants of their 

 respective nuclei, and nucleoli, with their axonal continua- 

 tions. The cell protoplasm, -or such part of it as is 

 utilised in the support of the nucleus, and nucleolus, 

 passes, or grows, along the axons, or axonal processes, in 

 the form of the medullary, or " white substance of 

 Schwann," and the axis cylinder substance, and is finally 

 shed, by the various nerve terminals throughout the 

 entire nervous system, in the form of, more, or less, 

 plastic, and organisable pulp, which ends, as a material 

 addition to the substance of the epidermic, epithelial, and 

 sarcous, elements, wherever it may happen to be shed, or 

 accordingly as it may be finally disposed of preparatory 

 to removal, as effete, and worn-out material, with the 

 exception of the addition made, by the motor "terminal 

 plates," to the discs, or cells, of the muscle fibres, where, 

 it is conceivable, it may perform further important, 

 material, and functional, duties, in maintaining the latent 



