294: LECTURE XII. 



into even the most minute districts of the periphery, and 

 some route along which the messengers can travel who 

 have been appointed to bear the order to the remotest 

 points of the organism. Actual experience teaches us 

 nothing of the kind. At those very spots where we 

 know such an extremely complicated arrangement of the 

 terminal apparatuses to exist, as I have described to you 

 in the organs of sense, the nerves have no connection 

 with the nutrition of the parts, and especially no demon- 

 strable influence upon the elementary structures. In 

 nearly all other places, either whole surfaces, or parts of 

 organs are supplied with nerves in a uniform manner, or 

 from these surfaces and parts of organs collective impres- 

 sions are conveyed to the centres. In many parts con- 

 cerning which we can certainly demonstrate that nervous 

 influence is exercised upon them, as for example in mid- 

 dle-sized and small vessels, we do not yet at all know to 

 what extent their individual constituents receive special 

 nerve-fibres. So bad are the anatomical foundations of 

 the neuro-pathological doctrines. 



There still remains for us, gentlemen, now that we 

 have discussed the terminal arrangements of the periphe- 

 ral nerves, to consider the important series of nervous 

 centres, or in a more restricted sense of the term, gangh- 

 onic apparatuses. As I lately remarked to you, we find 

 these predominating in those parts of the nervous centres 

 in which there is grey matter. Still the mere grey hue 

 of a part is not decisive proof of its ganglionic nature ; 

 and in particular we must not suppose that the ganglion- 

 cells are at all essentially concerned in the production of 

 the grey colour, seeing that we find grey matter in many 

 places where ganglion-cells do not exist. Thus, the most 

 external layer of the cortex of the cerebrum does not 

 contain any well-marked ganglion-cells, although it looks 



