388 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



luscs, vre have cells without fibres, and by the fact that, in 

 the recently-bom dog, we have fibres which have not yet 

 eflFected a junction with the cells. Again, when Funke, re- 

 viewing the controversy respecting the existence of ganglionic 

 cells destitute of processes, says that, " from all we know of 

 the functions of the nerve-elements and the laws of conduc- 

 tion in them, an isolated apolar nerve-ceU appears as an 

 anomaly (Unding) to which we can in nowise assign a phy- 

 siological pui'pose," * he is assuming that without fibres 

 tenninating in cells no nervous transmission can take place 

 — an assumption flatly contradicted by the facts we have just 

 been considering. 



Hitherto our remarks have been of a revolutionary tendency. 

 To unsettle established opinions, to shake the very founda- 

 tions of nervous physiology, and to show that we are in no 

 condition to propound theories, otherwise than as provisional 

 attempts, has been the serious business of this Chapter. Brown- 

 S^quard has proved that the doctrine of the schools relative 

 to transmission by the spinal column is in every point erro- 

 neous. Stilling has proved that the dissident doctrines of 

 the schools respecting the ultimate structure of nerve-elements 

 are erroneous or incomplete. And I have shown that the 

 doctrine of the schools relative to the function of the fibres is 

 erroneous — that conduction does not necessarily imply the 

 existence of a continuous fibre fi'om the periphery to the cell, 

 and ft'om the cell again to the periplicry, but takes place where 

 there are no fibres at all, and where a solution of continuity 

 exists. 



• FCNKE, Physiologie, p. 419. 



