576 THE POSTERIOR PITUITARY AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



around which the ascending fibers twine." In other words, 

 the tips, or extremities, of the axon of one neuron, instead 

 of being in contact with the tip of the gemmule, touch the 

 intervals between gemmules. "Such a discharge of the nerve- 

 forces from cell to cell taking place at hundreds of indefinite 

 points," continues Berkley, "could not fail to produce stimuli 

 that would be more often aberrant than direct, and, in all 

 likelihood, such an arrangement would produce the utmost 

 confusion of thought and motion, a veritable inco-ordination 

 of the cerebral functions, which would reduce direct cerebra- 

 tion to a nullity." This point seems to us to be well taken, 

 and the identical argument prevails as regards contiguity, for 

 if, as we believe, myelin and the oxidizing substance are con- 

 stantly in contact in the neuron, i.e., the cell-body, dendrites, 

 and axon, nervous energy is continuously being formed, and 

 promiscuous contact with the dendrites of other cells would 

 give rise to the untoward effects enumerated. In the light of 

 our views, therefore, continuous contiguity between neurons 

 through their dendrites or axons does not appear possible. 



How do neurons transfer their nervous energy to other 

 neurons? Berkley states that it is "more than probable that 

 it is only at the free bulbous terminations of the nerve-filaments 

 [axons] that we have naked protoplasm, and from this uncov- 

 ered nervous substance the dynamic forces, generated in the 

 corpora of the nerve-cells, are discharged, through contiguity, 

 on to the protoplasmic substance of other cells. Thus, in con- 

 tradistinction to the hypothesis of Cajal," continues the author, 

 "we have only comparatively few points at which the nervous 

 forces may discharge themselves from ajsons to the protoplasm 

 of other cells, and these are seated at definite points on the 

 terminal arborizations of the nerve-filaments, for otherwise 

 what would be the necessity of a terminal apparatus were the 

 nerve-conductors free to discharge their dynamic forces at any 

 point at which they came in contact with the substance of a 

 dendron?" 



It seems to us that the feature to ascertain in this con- 

 nection is the character of the functions of the gemmules. Why 

 do these little projections of the dendritic walls become erect 

 during the cerebral congestion induced by poisons? Are they 



