Huber-DeWitt, Nerve-Endings in Muscles. 199 



mode of ending. We may here mention Kerschner, who, in 

 his first communication, mentions that he had found in connec- 

 tion with motor endings on the muscle fibers of the muscle- 

 spindle, very complicated endings of the large meduUated fibers 

 which had been traced to the muscle-spindles. By reason of 

 their resemblance to the Golgi tendon-spindles, with which they 

 are often associated, he regards the muscle-spindles, and we 

 may here use his own words, " als komplicirte sensible End- 

 organe, welche den Muskel-sinne dienen diirfen," 



In a second paper which appeared in the same year, he de- 

 scribed the ending of the large meduUated nerves more fully. 

 The following is taken from his account: "The sensory fiber, 

 or several of them (in man), divides soon after it enters the cap- 

 sule, di- or tri-chotomously. The resulting branches, which 

 may be far distant from the entrance of the nerve fibers, are 

 wound around the muscle bundle or its individual muscle fibers; 

 the windings above mentioned are especially numerous in man. 

 Here and there an end-fiber can be found, which terminates in 

 an end-bulb ; the motor fiber (or several such), which may 

 enter the capsule separately, or with the sensory fibers, runs par- 

 allel to the muscle bundle, and ends at a considerable distance 

 from the sensory endings, in a small motor ending." Kersch- 

 ner's preparations were demonstrated and described by von 

 Ebner, at the Vienna meeting of the " Anatomische Gesell- 

 schaft" in 1892. Von Ebner here states that he concurs in 

 Kerschner's interpretations of the muscle-spindles. About the 

 same time, Ruffini gave an account of his observations on the 

 nerve ending in muscle-spindles in man and cat, and gives the 

 only figures, with which we are familiar which may be at all 

 compared with the ones accompanying this article. (The cut 

 given in Kolliker's text-book, showing the ending of a nerve in 

 the muscle-spindle of a rabbit, seems to us sketched from an 

 incompletely stained preparation.) Ruffini makes this state- 

 ment concerning the ultimate ending of the nerve fibers on the 

 muscle fibers of the spindle: " J'ai pu ramener ces terminaisons 

 finales de la fiber nerveuse a trois types principaux, que j'ap- 

 pellerai terminaisons a anneaux, a spirales et a fleurs. " His ac- 



