184 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF LIFE 



* Epithelium 

 FIG. 14. 



been possible to measure its velocity in certain cases, but 

 there is no reason to believe it to be the same in all cases. 



If the neuron's hairs represented in 

 Fig. 14 were isolated from every proto- 

 plasmic mass, the phenomenon of trans- 

 mission would be limited to the epi- 

 thelial element and neuron taken to- 

 gether as a whole ; the nervous influx 

 would lose itself in the hairs of the neu- 

 ron and its energy be transformed into chemical energy or 

 simply into accumulated colloid energy, such as we studied 

 in relation with the energy of life. 



But things do not happen in this way. 

 The hairs of one neuron 

 have a relation of contiguity 

 or of continuity (there are 

 different opinions on this sub- 

 ject and it is not easy to settle 

 the question by methods of 

 histological observation) with 

 the hairs of one or more neigh- 

 bouring cells (Fig. 15). Be it 

 by real protoplasmic con- 

 tinuity or by contiguity suffici- 

 ent to allow of a phenomenon 

 of colloid influence, analogous 

 to the phenomenon of electro- 

 static influence, what we ob- 

 serve is this the influx is 

 transmitted from neuron to 

 neuron. Evidently the trans- 

 mission is by the line of least resistance, as the particulars 

 will show us later. 



FIG. 15. 



