186 PHYSIOLOGY CHAP. 



fibrils to extend to vertebrates the morphological facts and con 

 ceptions which Apathy developed for Anellidae. According to 

 Bethe the fibrils in the ganglion cells remain independent, 

 without anastomosing among themselves to form a network, 

 except in the cells of the spinal ganglia, in which he found the 

 network to consist of coarser fibrils, with larger meshes, than had 

 been observed by other methods. Bethe's fibrils pass in every 

 direction from one process to another, and between different 

 branches of the dendrites. 



Golgi also investigated the minute structure of the nerve-cell 



FIG. 122. Fibrillary network of a cell of the dog's spinal cord, obtained by Donaggio with 

 hi ( s special method of elective staining. 



after his classical work on the general structure of the nervous 

 system referred to above. His own publications and those of 

 his pupil Veratti (1898-1900) demonstrated for almost every 

 form of nerve-cell : (a) an endocellular reticulum ; (6) a fibrillary 

 structure of the peripheral zone of the cell; (c) a kind of peri- 

 cellular network. 



The nature and function of the endocellular reticulum are 

 still undetermined. As between the two hypotheses now in the 

 field, according to which it is either a nervous network (Apathy) 

 or a system of nutritive canaliculi (Holmgren), Golgi does not 

 attempt to decide. 



The nervous character of the fibrils which constitute the 

 fibrillary structure of the peripheral zone of the ganglion cell 



