120 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



peared since the publication of the article from which the above 

 quotations were taken, that these conclusions, as first enunci- 

 ated, are correct. 



We see therefore that an impulse, set up in a nerve fiber 

 coming from the spinal cord through the anterior root and 

 through a white ramus to a sympathetic ganglion, passes 

 through a nerve cell before reaching its destination. Langley 

 (82) has suggested the term pre-ganglionic (pre-cellular) fiber, 

 to designate the efferent meduUated sympathetic fibers before 

 they have traversed the nerve cell, and post-ganglionic (post- 

 cellular) fiber, for the sympathetic fibers after they have trav- 

 ersed the nerve cell. He states " that these terms involve the 

 view that each sympathetic nerve fiber has a nerve cell on its 

 course in one ganglion and in one ganglion only." And fur- 

 ther, — " In saying that a nerve fiber ' traverses a nerve cell' or 

 ' has a nerve cell on its course,' or ' becomes connected with a 

 nerve cell, ' I mean that a nervous impulse set up in a fiber on issu- 

 ing from the spinal cord passes through a nerve cell before it 

 reaches the periphery ; I express no opinion as to the histo- 

 logical connection of the nerve cell with the incoming or with 

 the outgoing nerve fiber. And I express no opinion as to 

 whether there is any branching of pre-ganglionic nerve fibers, 

 but that if such branching occurs, then each branch must have 

 a nerve cell on its course." 



It seems to me that we have every fact in favor of the sup- 

 position that the pre-ganglionic fibers of Langley, which enter 

 the ganglia through the rami, are the meduUated fibers which 

 in Golgi and methylen-blue preparations can be traced into the 

 ganglia, and which as previously stated end in intra capsular, 

 peri-cellular baskets, these baskets forming the histological con- 

 nection between the pre-ganglionic fibers and the nerve cells of 

 the ganglia. That the pre-ganglionic fibers branch, a possibili- 

 ty mentioned by Langley (82), has been shown by a. number of 

 investigators, and may be seen in Fig. 9. The branches prob- 

 ably all have end-baskets, although it is a difficult task to dem- 

 onstrate that fact. Fig. 9 shows that many certainly do. 



