888 REPORT—1899. 
receive impulses direct from the periphery, that each is connected with other 
ganglia, and that impulses received from the periphery, or elsewhere, bring separate 
ganglia into co-ordinate action. And this view, which has been taken on general 
grounds, has been supported by microscopical observations. 
The evidence against this view is of two kinds. In the first place, it can be 
shown that in a number of individual cases the nerve-cells of one ganglion have 
no connection with the nerve-cells of another ganglion, so that anything like a 
universal scheme of connection is out of the question. And, secondly, it can be 
shown that whenever an action occurs, which might be referred to such connection, 
it is an action which is bound to occur in consequence of some other known 
arrangement, and that therefore it is unnecessary to seek for a further cause. 
The evidence of the first kind we need not enter into; the evidence of the 
second kind we may hastily touch on. If we accept the conclusion stated above, 
that the pre-ganglionic nerve-fibres branch and the branches run to different nerve- 
cells, it follows that a stimulus applied to one branch will stimulate a number of 
nerve-cells; this follows since a nerve-impulse set up in any part of a nerve 
travels over the whole of it. ‘Thus actions, resembling reflex actions, will inevitably 
be obtained whenever nerve-fibres are stimulated which send branches to different 
Fia. 2. Fie. 3. Fig. 4. 
ganglia. The mechanism in this case is confined to motor nerve-fibres and nerve- 
cells. The action, for lack of a convenient term, was spoken of by Dr. Anderson 
and myself simply as a reflex action. It is perhaps better to call it a psewdo- 
reflex action. 
Regarded from the customary point of view, a pseudo-reflex differs widely from 
a reflex action. The one is brought about by stimulating an efferent or motor 
fibre, and the other by stimulating an afferent or sensory fibre. 
But suppose we compare them from another point of view. Fig. 2 is 
a diagrammatic representation of a pseudo-reflex. A nervous impulse passes 
up one branch a of a cell A, passes to another branch a’, so excites a cell B and 
its nerve-fibre B. 
Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic representation of a simple true reflex in the voluntary 
muscle. A nervous impulse passes up one branch a of a cell A, passes to 
another branch a’, so excites a cell B and its nerve-fibre f. 
You see the two can be described in exactly the same terms, and both are 
reducible to the diagram of fig. 8. It is true that the cells A and B are not 
similarly situated in the two cases; in the pseudo-reflex A is in the spinal cord, 
and B is outside it in a peripheral ganglion; whereas in the true reflex A is out- 
side the spinal cord, in a spinal ganglion, and B is inside thecord. But thenno one 
has even suggested that the position of a nerve-cell determines whether an action in 
