172 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



constituent part of the epidermic and sarcous tissues. 

 Reaching these neuronal limits, the erstwhile proper 

 nerve substance is finally disposed of, by a process of 

 organic shedding, determined by the respective, histo- 

 terminal agencies of the voluntary muscular, and cutaneous, 

 textures the former eventuating, or spending itself, in 

 sarcous disc formation, and the latter in epidermic cell 

 formation, both of which in turn are still further utilised, 

 or disposed of, in a way specifically their own. 



Accepting, as we do, the theory of the neuron, as being 

 most in accordance with our particular views of the 

 systemic nervous system, we would claim that, each 

 neuron feeds on, or is nourished by, the more or less 

 amorphous, or non-developed, elements of the neuroglial 

 matrix (see Fig. 66), in which it is rooted by its den- 

 dritic processes, by a process of osmotic selection, or 

 absorption, that the totality of these neurons is bound 

 up, systematised, organised, and co-ordinated, so as to 

 control the nerve traffic through the afferent and efferent 

 channels, of functional nervine molecular, charge, and 

 discharge, and the passage of nerve energy along the 

 axonal processes within their individual myeline sheaths, 

 and neurilemmar coverings ; and that a process of circu- 

 lation characterises the nutritive economy and nerve 

 force distribution throughout the entire systemic nervous 

 system. Therefore, throughout the whole process of 

 systemic nerve nutrition, circulation is operative, and 

 omnipresent, from its inception in the dendritic absorp- 

 tion of the neuroglial plasma, until that plasma is finally 

 disposed of by the nerve terminals, in skin, and muscle 

 development the former manner of termination resulting 

 in contributing to the formation of the " outer skeleton," 

 or skin, the latter, after supplying the fibral formative 

 material wants of muscle, exhausting itself in the pro- 

 duction of the synovial fluids, of tendon sheaths, and 

 joint cavities, and contributing to the growth, and 

 maintenance, of the inner, or "true skeleton," and render- 

 ing up its residual material to the bone marrow, and the 

 systemic lymph circulation, for final disposal. 



The nutrient course of the systemic nerve plasma, as 

 thus outlined, is a very long and complex one, but yet 



