Epilepsy and other convulsive diseases : a study in neuro-dynamics and pathogenesis / by F.W. Langdon.

  • Langdon, Frank Warren, 1852-1933.
Date:
[1896]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epilepsy and other convulsive diseases : a study in neuro-dynamics and pathogenesis / by F.W. Langdon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    6/18 (page 4)
    4 portant duty, of converting various stimuli into nervous activities9 *. This implies an activity of the neuron- * processes which can only be dynamically accounted for on the theory of inter-molecular and inter-atomic mo- tion. It is thus in harmony in a physical sense with any other force. The idea of a “ flow ” of energy or a nerve “ current per se ” is of course technically untenable in the present state of our knowledge, as it is in physics gener- ally. The term will continue to be used, however, in a conventional sense as the most convenient phraseology, though an entirely erroneous conception originally. As to the causes that initiate or direct this inter- atomic or inter-molecular motion they can be none other originally than stimuli from without, acting primarily upon the ultimate peripheral arborizations of neurons. In other words, it is exceedingly probable that nerve elements have no spontaneous or selective activity -of their own, but like all protoplasmic bodies they simply possess the power of responding to external influences. Hence even consciousness itself is but a reflex process in a dynamic sense The conclusions of Schafer7 are: (1) “ Every nerve cell (neuron of Waldeyer) is a structural element anatomically isolated but physiologi- cally connected. (2) Physiological continuity is due to ramified pro- cesses and contact of these with (a) other processes; (b) other neuron bodies. (3) That the same nerve impulses do not necessarily pass from one element of a nerve chain to the next but that more probably new impulses, often of different rythm are generated in the successive elements of the chain.” To these I would add: Impulses do not necessarily generate functionally visible impulses, but may be trans- formed into “ potential energy” (in storage neurons) e. g. memory, inhibition, psychic processes generally. These conclusions involve as well as emphasize the important conception that brain efficiency (potentiality) *9. 11 We can no longer think of nerve cells as the sources of nerve energy, as parts of a divided “ nerve battery ” whence nerve fibres con- duct the force produced. They are the vital elements in the machine, but they have nothing to do with its dynamics. Into the protoplasm of the cell pass the fibrils which conduct nerve energy ; through it they course unbroken ; from it they pass, contiguous, as the elements of the &is-cylinder of a nerve fibre.”—Gowers : Dynamics of Life, p. 47-