GHL to Henry Charlton Bastian, London, [February? 1868]
Title
GHL to Henry Charlton Bastian, London, [February? 1868]
Title
GHL to Henry Charlton Bastian, London, [February? 1868]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Henry Charl
Date(s)
- 1868-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Henry Charlton Bastian, London, [February? 1868]
MS: Nuneaton Public Library.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Wednesday.
My dear Sir,
The very remarkable paper 772 you were kind enough to send me has been very instructive, and some day I will ask you to lend me Bouchard's memoir, 773 if you possess it.
I have many doubts respecting Waller's idea of the nutritive centres of nerve fibres. 774 His facts are indisputable, and his idea for a long while misled me on a wild goose chase after the homologies of the spinal and posterior horns; but I have seen too many contradictory and destructive facts to hold that explanation now. In the special case you have brought forward I do not think the explanation acceptable because I have very many times separated the fibres from those supposed centres of nutrition (by section and hemisection of the cord, and removal of the brain) yet after several weeks the cord has exhibited no degeneration when hardened in chromic acid. On the other hand I did once observe what I now (enlightened by you) comprehend to have been a secondary degeneration in the cord of a mole whom I stunned by a blow on the back part of the head. Query: Is not the cause of the degeneration primarily an exhaustion of Neurility owing to the excess of stimulus (shock) destroying the molecular structure of the nerve, and secondarily a consequent influence on the capillaries?
Yours very faithfully,
G. H. Lewes.
H. C. Bastian, Esq., M.D.
MS: Nuneaton Public Library.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Wednesday.
My dear Sir,
The very remarkable paper 772 you were kind enough to send me has been very instructive, and some day I will ask you to lend me Bouchard's memoir, 773 if you possess it.
I have many doubts respecting Waller's idea of the nutritive centres of nerve fibres. 774 His facts are indisputable, and his idea for a long while misled me on a wild goose chase after the homologies of the spinal and posterior horns; but I have seen too many contradictory and destructive facts to hold that explanation now. In the special case you have brought forward I do not think the explanation acceptable because I have very many times separated the fibres from those supposed centres of nutrition (by section and hemisection of the cord, and removal of the brain) yet after several weeks the cord has exhibited no degeneration when hardened in chromic acid. On the other hand I did once observe what I now (enlightened by you) comprehend to have been a secondary degeneration in the cord of a mole whom I stunned by a blow on the back part of the head. Query: Is not the cause of the degeneration primarily an exhaustion of Neurility owing to the excess of stimulus (shock) destroying the molecular structure of the nerve, and secondarily a consequent influence on the capillaries?
Yours very faithfully,
G. H. Lewes.
H. C. Bastian, Esq., M.D.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Henry Charlton Bastian, London, [February? 1868], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/94553