136. From another point of view we must reject the hypothesis. Not only does the evidence which points to the essential continuity in structure of nerve cell and fibre discredit the notion of their physiological diversity, but it is further supported by the fact that although the whole nervous system is structurally continuous, an immense mass of nerve-fibres have no _immediate_ connection with ganglionic cells:--neither springing from nor terminating in such cells, their activity cannot be assigned to them. To many readers this statement will be startling. They have been so accustomed to hear that every fibre begins or terminates in a cell, that a doubt thrown on it will sound paradoxical. But there is an equivoque here which must be got rid of. When it is said that every fibre has its “origin” in a cell, this may be true if origin mean its _point of departure in evolution_, for “cells” are the early forms of all organites; but although every organite is at first a cell, and in this sense a nerve-fibre must be said to originate in a cell, we must guard against the equivoque which arises from calling the highly differentiated organite, usually designated ganglionic cell, by the same name as its starting-point. On this ground I suggest the term neuroblast, in lieu of nerve-cell, for the earlier stages in the evolution of cell and fibre. Both Embryology and Anatomy seem to show that cell and fibre are organites differentiated from identical neuroblasts, with a somewhat varying history, so that in their final stages the cell and fibre have conspicuous differences in form with an underlying identity; just as a male and female organism starting from identical ova, and having essential characters in common, are yet in other characters conspicuously unlike. The multipolar cell is not necessarily the origin of a nerve-fibre, although it is probable that some short fibres have their origin in the prolongations of cells. Although the latter point has not, I think, been satisfactorily established, except in the invertebrata, I see no reason whatever to doubt its probability; what seems the least reconcilable with the evidence is the notion that all fibres arise as prolongations from ganglionic cells, instead of arising independently as differentiations from neuroblasts. The reader will observe that my objection to the current view is purely anatomical; for the current view would suit my physiological interpretations equally well, and would be equally irreconcilable with the hypothesis of the cell as the source of Neurility, so long as the identity of structure in the axis cylinder and cell contents is undisputed.