download PDF version - Dr Harold Hillman

one must conclude that the heavy metal causing the thickness, is two-dimensional and isdeposited after the sections have been cut (Hillman, 1986; pp 135-156). That is to say, thesynaptic thickenings are artifacts.Synaptosomes are believed to be a fraction of the central nervous enriched in synapses(Rodriguez de Lores-Arnais, Alberici and de Robertis, 1967; Whittaker, 1972; Pappas andPurpura, 1972). If, indeed, they were spherical bodies, sections of them should result in circles ofdifferent diameters. Also, the 'stalks‟ from where they have been pulled off the presynaptic fibresshould be evident sometimes. I can find neither of these expectations from solid geometry eitherin the literature or under the electron microscope. Can anybody?In denying the existence of anatomical synapses (but not neuromuscular junctions), I amnot saying that there is no electrical signal where the nerves approximate to each other, but I amasserting that the microscopic location of the tip of a micro pipette is not accurate enough to sayfor certain precisely where it is.If synapses and synaptic clefts do not exist in life, the chemical hypothesis oftransmission (Katz, 1969) is thrown into doubt. This is beyond the scope the present discussion,but I have examined it in extenso (Hillman, 1991a,b). My main reasons for rejecting it are that itcontains too many unprovable assumptions, and that most of the evidence for it is collected fromexperiments on neuromuscular junctions, which are nowadays assumed to operate by the samemechanisms as synapses, but are very different (Hillman, 2008, p.246).18