TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION 1. 807 



directions, each alert to dance the molecular dance assigned to it at once by the 

 more lasting conditions which we call structural, and the more jjassing ones which 

 we call functional, so soon as some partner touch its hand. We see the body of the 

 cell with its dominant nucleus ready to obey and yet to marshal and command 

 the figure so started. We see the neuraxon prepared to carry that figure along 

 itself, it may be to far-distant parts, it may be to near ones, or to divert it along 

 collaterals, it may be many, or it may be few, or to spread out at once among 

 numerous seemingly equipollent branches. And whether it prove ultimately true 

 or no that the figure of the dancing molecules sweeps always onwards along the 

 dendrites towards the nucleus, and always outwards away from the nucleus along 

 the neuraxon, or whatever way in the end be shown to be the exact differences in 

 nature and action between the dendrites and the neuraxon, this at least seems sure, 

 that cell plays upon cell only by such a kind of contact as seems to afford an 

 opportunity for change in the figure of the dance, that is to say, in the nature of the 

 impulse, and that in at least the ordinary play it is the terminal of the neuraxon 

 (either of the main core or a collateral) of one cell which touches with a vibrating 

 touch the dendrite or the body of some other cell. We can thus, I say, by the 

 almost magic use of a silver tolcen — I say magic use, for he who for the first time 

 is shown a Golgi preparation is amazed to learn that it is such a sprawling thing 

 as he sees before him which teaches so much, and yet when he comes to use it 

 acquires daily increased confidence in its worth — it is by the use of such a silver 

 token that we have been able to unravel so much of the intricate tangle of the 

 possible paths of nervous impulses. By themselves, the acquisition of a set of 

 pictures of such black lines would be of little value. But, and this I venture to 

 think is the important point, to a most remarkable extent, and with noteworthy 

 rapidity, the histological results thus arrived at, aided by analogous results reached 

 by the degeneration method, especially by the newer method akin to that of Golgi, 

 that of Marchi, have confirmed or at times extended and coi'rected the teachings 

 of experimental investigation and clinical observation. It is this which gives 

 strength to our present position ; we are attacking our problems along two inde- 

 pendent lines. On the one hand we are tracing out anatomical paths, and laying 

 bare the joints of histological machinery; on the other hand, beginning with the 

 phenomena, and analysing the manifestations of disorder, whether of our own 

 making or no, as well as of order, we are striving to delineate the machinery by 

 help of its action. When the results of the two methods coincide, we may be con- 

 fident that we are on the road of all truth ; when they disagree, the very disagree- 

 ment serves as the starting-point for fresh inquiries along the one line or the other. 



Fruitful as have been the labours of the past dozen years, we may rightly con- 

 sider them as but the earnest of that which is to come ; and those of us who are 

 far down on the slope of life may wistfully look forward to ■ the next meeting of 

 the Association on these Western shores, wondering what marvels will then be told. 



Physiology, even in the narrower sense to which, by emphasis on the wavering 

 barrier which parts the animal from the plant, it is restricted in this Section, deals 

 with many kinds of being, and with many things in each. But, somewhat as 

 man, in one aspect a tiny fragment of the world, still more of the universe, in 

 another aspect looms so great as to overshadow everything else, so the nervous 

 system, seen from one point of view, is no more than a mere part of tlie whole 

 organism, but, seen from another point of view, seems by its importance to swallow 

 up all the rest. As man is apt to look upon all other things as mainly subserving 

 his interests and purposes, so the physiologist, but with more justice, may regard 

 all the rest of the body as mainly subserving the welfare of the nervous system ; 

 and, as man was created last, so our natural knowledge of the working of that 

 nervous system has been the latest in its growth. But, if there be any truth in 

 what I have urged to-day, we are witnessing a growth which promises to be as 

 rapid as it has seemed to be delayed. Little spirit of prophecy is needed to foretell 

 that in the not so distant future the teacher of physiology will hurry over tl;e 

 themes on which he now dwells so long, in order that he may have time to 

 expound the most important of alL the truths which he has to tell, those which 

 have to do with the manifold workings of the brain. 



