The present position of the neurone doctrine in relation to neuro-pathology / by F.W. Mott.

  • Mott, F. W. (Frederick Walker), 1853-1926.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The present position of the neurone doctrine in relation to neuro-pathology / by F.W. Mott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    1/30
    [Reprinted from the Proceedings op the Royal Society of Medicine November, 1909.] PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. The Present Position of the Neurone Doctrine in relation to Neuro-pathology.1 By F. W. Mott, E.R.S. Gentlemen,—Allow me first to thank you for the great honour in electing me to the chair of this Section. I was recently informed by the Senior Secretary that I should he expected to open this session by an address, and I propose therefore to give a general survey of the present position of the neurone concept, a subject in which I have been especially interested, as it is fundamental in neuro-pathology. During the last fifteen years it has given rise to much discussion, to many experiments and observations, and to new modes of improving our knowledge of the minute structure and development of the nervous system. The neurone theory was at first accepted by most neurologists with- out hesitation, as it explained so many facts in pathology ; but grave doubts wrere cast upon it, owing to observations and experiments made by those who disbelieved the interpretation put upon histological details by those who upheld the doctrine. This controversy between scientific men seeking after truth was not without great advantages, for it led to the discovery of new methods of technique and new methods of embryological research, which now have finally established on a firm basis' the neurone concept, which I may remind you was due to Forel, although reintroduced in the following terms by Waldeyer : A neurone is a nerve cell and all its processes,