200 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



count of these endings will be more fully considered subse- 

 quently. In still another article, Kerschner reiterates his 

 former views as already given, and, while giving a summary of 

 the literature appearing before that time, adds little to what he 

 had stated concerning the ending of the nerve fiber in these 

 structures. Kerschner here, however, promises an extensive 

 monograph on the sensory endings in muscle and tendon-spin- 

 dles, with numerous plates. This, if it has appeared, we have 

 not been able to consult, as we have not found any refer- 

 ence to it. 



Sherrington deserves the credit of having conclusively 

 shown, by experimental means, that the nerve fibers going to 

 the muscle-spindles are sensory. We quote from him as fol- 

 lows : 



" My own experiments have been suitable for examining 

 the effect of degeneration of the motor spinal roots upon the 

 nerve fibers supplying the muscle-spindles ; they demonstrate 

 that the muscle-spindle is suppHed with nerve fibers arising in 

 cells of the spinal root-ganglion. In muscles from which all 

 motor fibers have been entirely removed by degeneration I 

 have never in a single instance failed to find every spindle met 

 with in the muscle still possessed of perfectly sound myelinate 

 nerve-fibers. The myelinate fibers are traceable from the sen- 

 sory roots, and penetrate into the spindles and terminate within 

 them. The muscle-spindle proves therefore to be a sensorial 

 organ as argued by Kerschner and as indicated by the histolog- 

 ical analysis of the nerve-ending by Ruffini." 



We may further mention Dogiel's work, who has de- 

 scribed very accurately the endings of the spindle-nerves in the 

 muscle-spindle of the frog, as seen when stained with methyl- 

 ene blue ; he, while mentioning that the spindle-nerves have no 

 connection with the motor nerves of the muscle, dismisses his 

 account without making any statement as to the probable func- 

 tion of the muscle-spindles. Sihler, who has quite recently 

 worked on the ending of the spindle-nerves in the muscle-spin- 

 dle of snakes, defends the view that this is a sensorial end- 

 apparatus which subserves the muscle sense. 



