The systems may be divided into: (1) afferent
sensory, including the special senses and general sensibility; (2) motor
efferent; (3) association.
[Illustration: Fig. 15]
[Description: FIG. 15.--Diagrammatic representation of a motor neurone
magnified 300 diameters. Whereas the nerve cell and its branching processes
(the dendrons) form but a minute speck of protoplasm, the nerve fibre which
arises from it, although microscopic in diameter, extends a very long
distance; in some cases it is a yard long; consequently only a minute
fraction of the nerve fibre is represented in the diagram.]
The great brain or cerebrum consists of two halves equal in weight, termed
hemispheres, right and left; and the grey matter covering their surface is
thrown into folds with fissures between, thus increasing enormously the
superficial area of the grey matter and of the neurones of which it
consists without increasing the size of the head. The pattern of the folds
or convolutions shows a general similarity in all human beings, certain
fissures being always present; and around these fissures which are
constantly present are situated fibre systems and communities of neurones
having particular functions (_vide_ fig. 16.) Thus there is a significance
in the convolutional pattern of the brain.
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