PROFESSOR HTRTL S jVNATOMICAL NOTES. 



97 



and plantar nervous arches afford also opportunities of witnessing 

 these nerves Avithont end. They are likewise met with in the loops 

 of the anterior branches of the spinal nerves ; in the anastomoses of 

 the right and left Hypoglossus ; in the fleshy portion of the Grenio- 

 hyoid muscles. That is to say, I have found such returning nerves 

 in the localities referred to. 



It will be the labour of years, if not of a life, to discover all the 

 anastomoses which possess or are destitute of these " regressive" 

 fibres. 



These nerves not being lost in the substance of muscles, nor in 

 sensorial surfaces, may merit the paradoxical appellation of ' endless 

 nerves.' 



To thoroughly investigate this very important fact in anatomy, I 

 should suggest the co-operation of a number of practical anatomists, 

 who would undertake to investigate* such and such anastomoses, and 

 who would give in an annual report of the result of their joint 

 labours. I will, in the course of this winter, take my share. The 

 returning branches are sometimes in such thick bundles that they 

 can, by a careful dissection, be easily traced onward. 



It may be the case, indeed is so, in some of the instances alluded 

 to, that a few of the returning fibres from B pass toward G, and 

 continue onwards to the periphery ; but even then a certain amount 

 of nerve fibre does undoubtedly run backward to the nervous centre 

 from which they emanated. 



In the Chiasma opticum, fibres 

 have been observed by Hannover, 

 Mayo, and others, running from 

 one nerve bundle to another, and 

 forming a loop, which is ' a nerve 

 without end.' These instances 

 show that the thing is not quite 

 new. 



The annexed woodcut exhibits 

 this form of recurrent anastomoses 

 in a Hypoglossus. h, branch from 

 a, meeting the first cervical and 

 proceeding back again. <?, branch 

 from first cervical proceeding back 

 along second cervical. 



7. On Portions of Lungs destitute of Blood Vessels. 



When I obtained the Professorship of Anatomy in the University 

 of Prague I published a little treatise, entitled " Strena anatomica 



• By means of the scalpel more than by any efforts at ' microscopising.' 

 N. II. 11—1862. ' H 



