ABSTRACT
The neurone or nerve cell, besides possessing the powers of absorption, growth, etc., common to all the cells of the body, has three special duties or functions:—
It is especially sensitive to or influenced by what happens to it or to parts of it.
It conducts or transmits; i.e., it so acts that a stimulation or disturbance or activity at one end of it results in a stimulation or disturbance or activity at the other.
It is especially modifiable; i.e., its action at any time depends upon its previous actions. In the human nervous system this third function is probably restricted in the main to the cells in certain parts of the central nervous system.
