96 ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



containing no cells (simply common reticular substance), and is most 

 commonly united to the lateral part of the Atlas by synostosis. 



I cannot give a better proof of the difference between the two 

 processes, than by stating that both these processes are to be seen 

 in a skull in my collection (No. 711). 



These processes are of no practical interest, but they are worthy of 

 notice in a morphological point of view. Some of the older anato- 

 mists tell us of " a double mastoid process" — mistaking, I think, the 

 pneumatic process for a secondary mastoid. 



6. 0)1 " Endless" Nerves. 



There has been of late years a very great excitement among physi- 

 ologists, in reference to experiments as to the functions of nerves. 

 Careful anatomical investigation as to their origin and distribution 

 has, I fear, been thrown somewhat into the back ground. I do not 

 speak of the svibject of the microscopical investigation of nerves, but 

 of then' origin and distribution, such as can be determined by simple 

 dissections. 



JSTow-a-days many are inclined to regard human descriptive ana- 

 tomy as a science abeady completed, and fancy that to it only trifling 

 details can be added ; but this is far from the case, and I would that 

 the scalpels of the anatomist would work a little closer and finer, and 

 that they would try to emulate, as it were, some of those high 

 powers of our microscopes ; for, in the minute anatomy of parts, 

 very much remains to be done. To proceed, however, to the subject 

 matter of this note. I think the commonly used term, anastomosis, 

 is capable of a stricter interpretation than is generally given to it. 

 As when a nerve A, as the text-books say, anastomises with B, we 

 want to know whether a branch of -4 goes to B, or a branch of B to A. 

 In a great number of anastomoses, it is true, we have clear evidence 

 on this subject. Others will, doubtless, follow. 



But we would further inquire : What does a branch, coming from 

 A to B do, wJie?i united with B ? The text-books tell us that the 

 branch coming from A to B will remain with B, or will separate from 

 it, and go to nerve C. 



" That, in some cases, the branch coming from the nerve AtoB 

 wiU, passing along B, 7'eturn to its nervous centre," is the newly 

 established fact, which I wish to call attention to noAV. 



Wlien a nerve returns to its origin, it has no peripherical end, and 

 it may, perhaps with convenience, be called o-eXtjc, just as engineers 

 and iiicchanies call a circular cord " ein Seil ohue Ende." 



Such nerves oceiu* in the ansa hypoglossi, in the anastomoses 

 between the branches of the spinal-nerves in the upper and inferior 

 extremities. When an accessory obturator* nerve exists, the greater 

 part of its fibres will be found to return with the true obturator 

 nerve, with which it anastomoses, to the spinal marrow. The palmar 



* Adam Schmidt, Ncrvi Lumbales. 



