38 THE STRUCTURE OF 



In accordance with this view, we should not expect to 

 find in the majority of ganglion cells terminations or origins 

 of such fibrils whether in the nucleus or free in the body 

 of the cell. If the fibrillations are the structural correla- 

 tives of nerve currents, they should be generally as con- 

 tinuous and unbroken as the latter, and just as devious, 

 winding and irregular in their path. 



"We should scarcely look for free ends or beginnings to 

 such fibrils elsewhere than at the periphery. And if the 

 semblance of free ends are ever recognizable within the 

 body of the cell, it will probably be in young cells in 

 which the functional (and therefore the structural) current 

 lines have not yet been sufficiently developed by constant 

 repetitions. Much obscurity, however, still reigns in 

 regard to all these matters. We do not, indeed, know 

 definitely how far this kind of fibrillation of the nerve cells 

 is general, and whether there may not be whole groups 

 of them in which no such arrangement exists. It is quite 

 conceivable that in some nerve centres, where ' spon- 

 taneity' of action appears to prevail (or, in other words, 

 whence widespread and sudden irradiations of motor 

 stimuli may emanate on slight provocation), we might 

 have a different kind of action altogether. The nerve 

 cells of such centres may approach nearer to H. Spencer's 

 ideal, and be true ' libero-motor ' elements. 



The Neuroglia, or intermediate substance, exists 

 most abundantly in the larger nerve centres, such as the 

 Brain and Spinal Cord. It has been most commonly 

 regarded as a comparatively insignificant connective tissue, 

 though some few physiologists have always been willing, 

 and even anxious, that it should be credited with higher 

 developmental and functional capacities. 



It is composed in part of minute corpuscles or cells, 



