igS Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



ation of normal occurrence within active muscle." (Quoted 

 from Sherrington.) 



3. Muscle-spindles, or similar structures, have further 

 been described by a number of writers, who have been more 

 guarded in attaching any especial significance to them, and 

 have described them as ''physiological structures," without as- 

 signing them any definite function. 



We may here mention Mays, who, in two communications, 

 has drawn attention to them. In his first, the possibility of 

 their being sensorial end-organs is discussed ; in his second, he 

 contents himself with the following statement: " Da ich somit 

 die Frage, was die Muskelspindeln eigentlich seien noch nicht 

 fiir entscheiden halte, so kann ich auch heute der Ansicht noch 

 nicht unbedingt beipflichten, welche sie mit grosser Bestimmt- 

 heit als sensible Organe auffasst. " Roth, who has designated 

 them "neuro-muscular bundles" (Neuromusculare Stammchen), 

 has found them in man, -cat, dog, and rabbit, but ascribes to 

 them no definite function. 



Blocq and Marinesco found " neuro-muscular bodies" in 

 atrophied muscles of poliomyelitis and polyneuritis, and have 

 described quite accurately the capsular sheath, ascribing however 

 no definite function to them. Pilliet has described similar 

 structures in cases of alcoholic paralysis, amyotrophic lateral 

 sclerosis, and progressive muscular atrophy, and draws attention 

 to a similarity in their structure to that of the Pacinian bodies. 

 He suggests that they may represent the end-apparatus of cen- 

 tripetal nerves, peculiar to striped muscle, and more easily 

 found in atrophied than in normal muscle. Christomanos and 

 Strossner, in a carefully prepared article, state that they were 

 not able to satisfy themselves that the muscle-spindles were 

 growth centres, neither could they ascribe to them any patho- 

 logical significance ; they are inclined therefore to regard them 

 as a peculiar nerve end-apparatus. 



4. Finally we may mention those writers who have, with 

 more or less confidence, described the muscle-spindles as sen- 

 sorial end-organs, and have, consequently, given more attention 

 to the relation of the nerve fibers to the spindles, and to their 



