770 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
and silver, which either stained or was deposited upon the nerve-cells and 
fibres. Personally, he thought it was deposited, but it was worth noting 
that it was of little use in staining nerve-fibres already medullated, the 
tissue most suitable being embryonic and foetal. In illustration of the 
value of this method a number of slides were shown by the lantern, 
as examples of the effects of the treatment upon cerebellum, cerebral 
cortex, &c., of newly-born kittens. Examples w r ere also shown of cells 
without axis cylinder process, nerve-cells of the second type, and nerve 
fibres of the spinal cord, showing that they give off branches, and sections 
of brain and anterior portions of spinal cord of monkey. Dr. Turner, 
in explaining the value of the features of structure made apparent by 
this method of staining, pointed out that it seemed clearly demon- 
strated that the nerve-cells were of two types, in the first of which the 
axis cylinder process became the axis cylinder of the nerve fibre ; and, 
in the second type, the axis cylinder process broke up and came in 
contact with other similar processes. The structure of the cell itself 
was obscured, but the nerves proceeding from it were shown with re- 
markable clearness, black and sharply defined, upon the screen. The 
protoplasmic processes w r ere seen to be of two kinds, smooth and 
mossy, there being evidence that they conducted towards the cells. 
The axis cylinder processes could be very distinctly traced, giving off 
collaterals en route ; these were often several feet in length, and ended 
in a terminal arborization, or end tuft, very beautifully shown on the 
slide exhibited. 
Dr. Turner concluded by pointing out the great physiological prin- 
ciple which w r as determined by this method, viz. that the nerve-cell 
with its processes formed a unit, and that these units transmitted im- 
pressions, not by anastomoses or continuity of tissue, but merely by 
contiguity or contact of adjacent nerve cells and end-tufts, or of adjacent 
terminations. This principle appeared to hold throughout the central 
nervous apparatus, whether viewed in connection with centripetal tracts 
or with the great efferent projection system. 
Mr. G. C. Karop thought the most interesting point of all, in connec- 
tion with the sections exhibited, seemed to be the demonstration of the 
want of anastomosing in these fibres. It was customary to suppose that 
they did anastomose, and if it could be shown that they did not, it was 
clear that a great many things in connection with the subject of the 
nervous system would have to be re-cast. 
Prof. Bell said he was particularly anxious that the Society should 
hear these things at first hand, and he had therefore asked Dr. Turner 
to come down and give them this very interesting demonstration. As 
regarded Golgi’s method, he was at first much surprised to find that it 
had only been used in England comparatively recently, because there 
had been frequent references to Golgi’s methods in their Journal for a 
long time ; but then he remembered that the modern specialist, as a rule, 
read very little beyond the proof-sheets of his own productions, and the 
polemical books that dealt with his observations. They knew, however, 
that elsewhere these processes were adopted, and that Prof. Betzius 
turned out, regularly, examples of stained sections of the central nervous 
system of what they called the lower animals. They were sometimes 
asked, “ What w T as the use of a Microscopical Society ?” and it seemed 
