405 
formation of intercellular substance, the question of “ con- 
version ” as against “ excretion,” is of the highest interest, 
anil remains for further discussion. Our great observer iu 
this country, Dr. Lionel Beale, has enunciated views on 
these subjects which deserve the most careful study of his 
fellow-countrymen. We are too apt in England to over- 
estimate what comes from Germany, and some advanced 
philosophers are unwilling to accept the teachings of a 
believer in “ a vital principle.” Such matters as the latter 
ought not to influence the judgment as to facts ; and as to 
the former, a distinguished naturalist from Leipzig not long 
since told the writer that Englishmen believed too much in 
German work, and were ridiculed in Germany on that 
account. We ought not to mistake quantity for quality. 
Where so much is done some will necessarily be good ; but 
one has only to read the contradictory statements of eminent 
men, such as Kuhne, Kolliker, Brucke, and others, on such 
matters as nerve-termination, to feel convinced that the work 
done is not all sound. The system, too, which prevails in 
Germany of students working out some detail for their pro- 
fessor, and enunciating his views far and wide on the most 
trivial matters, tends greatly to the glorification of German 
histologists, and the appropriation of the observations of 
other men by the process — “ A has suggested this, and I 
confirm him “ A and I have shown this with finally, on 
the third occasion of reference, or in a third edition of some 
work, “ / have shown this ” — a process not unknown to one 
distinguished German writer at least — is a method of gaining 
a great reputation which is in use. The gradual but certain 
triumph of true views, and the inevitable, though sometimes 
tardy, justice which will be done to their originators, must con- 
sole us sometimes for present misapprehension. We point with 
satisfaction to the history of the discussion as to the termina- 
tion of the nerve in muscle, exhibiting as it does the gradual 
acceptance of facts carefully and quietly, and, without doubt, 
originally worked out by Dr. Beale. In a recent publica- 
tion Dr. Maddox has very fully confirmed some of Dr. Beale’s 
observations ; but it is in the lectures 1 and demonstrations 
lately given by Dr. Beale in the University of Oxford that 
the latest exposition of his views will be found. 
It is worth noting here that the structure of the tactile 
corpuscle, as lately described by Professor Rouget, of Mont- 
pellier, was long since indicated by Dr. Beale in one of his 
numerous papers 
The histology of the lower animals, especially of the in- 
1 See Report in the ‘ Med. Times and Gazette.’ 
