On the degeneration of the neurone / [Sir F.W. Mott].

  • Mott, F. W. (Frederick Walker), 1853-1926
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the degeneration of the neurone / [Sir F.W. Mott]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    u THE CROONIAN LECTURES ON THE that of Held, for they have shown that the terminal arborisations of the axons of one set of neurones end in a basket work around the cells of functionally related neurones, but do not form proto- plasmic connexions. Ihe neurone theory has always been opposed by Golgi, who maintained that his method demonstrates a diffuse network formed by the collaterals of the axons ; but it is especially the work of Apathy and Bethe which has led authorities such as Nissl to renounce the neurone theory. Lugaro,17 Lenhossek,18 Barker,1,1 Van Gehuchten, and many other authorities, on the other hand, maintain that the observations of Apathy and Bethe do not warrant the general conclusion that nerve cells are con- nected with each other by means of their primitive fibrils. Moreover, Apathy has only demonstrated a continuous network of elementary fibrils outside the nerve-cells in invertebrates; such an arrangement has not yet been proved to exist in verte- brates ; in fact, there is the strongest histological evidence that it does not exist. The study of the development of the nervous system and secondary degeneration to my mind shows the genetic and trophic independence of the nervous units ; and in spite of the opposition which the “ neurone theory ” has lately met wfith in some quarters it is still acceptable. The Structure of the Nerve-cell as Revealed by the Nissl Method. The Nissl method is generally used for demonstrating the internal structure of the protoplasm of the nerve-cell and its processes, but before referring to pathological conditions as studied by this method it is necessary to make a few remarks upon the method itself, and the appearances presented by normal nerve-cells. Nervous tissue, which has been fixed in 96 per cent, of alcohol, formol solution, or corrosive sublimate solution, and of which sections have been cut and stained by basic aniline dyes—e.g., methylene blue, toluidine blue, thionine, and by many other modifications of the original method, shows pictures of the 17 Rivista di Patologia, 1898, p. 500. 18 Loc. cit. 18 “ The Nervous System.”