From the point of view of its function, a nerve fibre is a conductor of nervous impulses, and as such is the path of communication between two structures, the one situated in the central nervous system, and the other in the periphery. In the mixed nerve, such as the sciatic, the nerve fibres are distinguished as afferent or as efferent, according as they conduct impulses originating at the periphery, and received by a cell in the central nervous system, or vice versâ. It has long since been shown that nerve fibres are capable of conducting impulses in either direction, but normally, from their anatomical connections, the individual nerve fibres are conductors for impulses only in the one or in the other direction. This is proved by the Wallerian method of investigation, as on severance of the posterior spinal root distal to the ganglion only certain fibres degenerate and the conductivity of the nerve only for afferent impulses is lost, while the severance of the anterior root is followed by the degeneration of the remainder with loss of functions depending on efferent impulses.