[Reprinted from the Journal of Physiology. 

 V Q l. XXXIV. Nos. 1 & 2, March 13, 1906.] 



ON THE RELATION OF NERVE CELLS TO FATIGUE 

 OF THEIR NERVE FIBRES. BY F. H. SCOTT, PH.D., 

 M.B. (Eleven figures in text.) 



(From the Physiological Laboratories of the Thierdrztliche 

 Hochschule, Berlin, and University College, London.) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



1. Introduction 145 



2. Fatigue in cut dorsal roots 147 



3. Stimulation of roots, one severed and the other unsevered from the 



spinal ganglion . . 151 



4. Effect of stimulating cut and uncut motor nerves .... 157 



5. Effect on the cells of the spinal ganglion of stimulating its peripheral 



fibres with cut and uncut dorsal roots 159 



6. Some points regarding the double (crossed and simple) reflexes . . 160 



7. Summary and Conclusions 161 



/. Introduction. 



IN a former paper 1 I pointed out the similarity, both as regards chemical 

 constituents and function, existing between nerve cells, the cells of the 

 pancreas, and the chief cells of the fundus glands of the stomach. On 

 these similarities, and from the known function of the constituents in 

 the latter two cells, I put forward the hypothesis that in the body of 

 the nerve cell a substance is formed from the nucleus and Nissl bodies 

 which gradually passes into the nerve fibres ; and also that stimulation 

 of other cells by a nerve fibre is brought about by the passage of some 

 of this substance into the cells on which the fibre acts. In the present 

 paper I give an account of some experiments on the effect of nerve cells 

 on fatigue which seem to support this hypothesis. 



A great difference in the behaviour of nerves as regards fatigue has 

 been noticed in their property of conduction and their power to keep 

 the end organ in activity. Nerves are unfatiguable as regards conduc- 

 tion, but their power of keeping the end organ in activity is more or less 



1 Brain, xxvin. p. 506. 1906. 

 PH. XXXIV. 10 



