MALPIGHI, (1628-1694), had closely examined these ›globuli› and described them as small oval or polygonal ›glands›, which were closely surrounded by blood-vessels, and in _their inner central ends sent forth processes forming vessel-like fibres which continued into the cerebral medulla_.[82] As these fibres or vessels formed small clusters, the little glands hanging on their extreme ends, like ›dates on their stems›, as MALPIGHI expresses it, thus formed _small groups_. Within these groups the cortical elements were, however, _well isolated from each other_ by clefts, which indeed sometimes were very small, but could nevertheless be plainly demonstrated with the aid of colouring matter.[83] The cortical elements taken together formed the winding groups which on the surface of the brain gave rise to the so called gyres.[84] The profusion of blood-vessels, as was said, LEEUWENHOEK and MALPIGHI had already described as being very great, but RUYSCH (1638-1731) had afterwards by his famous vascular injections found it to be so great that he would not call the cortex a glandular but actually a ›vascular› tissue. (Œc. R. A., II., No. 86). Because of the enormous wealth of blood-vessels there was thus carried to the cortical substance, especially to the little follicles, a plenteous quantity of blood, and from this, according to the opinion of that day, the most subtile components of the blood could pass to the cortical elements and thereby be transformed into ›spiritus animalis›. And finally, the Italians BELLINI, (1643-1704), and ZAMBECCARI had shown by their analyses that the juice of the brain possessed a highly subtile composition, above all a great volatility and lightness, and was exceedingly mobile. (See Œc. R. A. II., Nos. 88, 96, 119). All this SWEDENBORG has himself quoted in his works. On the basis of these and some other anatomical and physiological data, in conjunction with a number of clinical and experimental observations, SWEDENBORG, as we have before seen, came to the conclusion that it is in the _cortex_ that the soul’s activity comes into being; but at the same time he concluded that, strictly speaking, the cortical elements were the real work-shops. For he reasoned in the following manner: When the sensory impressions enter the brain, they certainly proceed no further than to the _›Sphaerulae› of the cortex, since these constitute the beginnings of the nerve and medullary fibres_: were they to go further, for instance to the small arteries which surround the cortical elements, or to the membranes of the brain, then they would overstep the boundary, as he says, and leave the actual centre and go out to the more peripheral parts.[85]