2i6 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



into a ribbon-like ending, more or less irregular, which is spir- 

 ally wound around the intrafusal fiber, this spiral extending for 

 a longer or shorter distance along the intrafusal fiber; the spiral 

 turns are sometimes so close together that they almost touch 

 each other, or again, farther apart, so that they can be clearly 

 made out. This mode of ending may be seen at a, in Fig. 38 

 and also in various places in Fig. 39. These spirals have also 

 been described by Kerschner, who very correctly adds that from 

 place to place offshoots proceed from the spiral, which may end 

 on the intrafusal fiber surrounded by the spiral, or on some con- 

 tiguous intrafusal fiber. The "ring shaped" endings of Ruffini 

 have, we believe, been correctly interpreted by Kerschner, when 

 he states: "Die meisten der 'ringformigen Endigungen' Ruffini's 

 entsprechen Seitenansichten flacherSpiralwindungen." Such ring 

 shaped endings may however now and then be formed by short 

 side branches of the non-medullated terminal branches, which 

 almost completely, or ccfmpletely, encircle an intrafusal fiber; 

 several such endings may be side by side on an intrafusal fiber. 

 (See b, of Fig. 38.) The flower-like endings mentioned by 

 Ruffini, are, no doubt, as suggested by Kerschner, the terminal 

 endings of the spirals, or of branches from the spirals ; they 

 may, however, now and then be seen as branches from the ter- 

 minal, non-medullated continuation of the spindle-nerves, which 

 have a zigzag course on an intrafusal fiber without forming a 

 spiral; see /"of Fig. 39. In the rat, Guinea pig, and rabbit, 

 spirals are not so apparent as in the dog and cat above de- 

 scribed. One, two, or three spiral turns of the ending may now 

 and then be seen. The endings of the non-medullated terminal 

 branches of the spindle-nerves, are, in the rabbit, Guinea pig, 

 and rat not so ribbon-like as in the dog and cat, are much more 

 irregular — " knorrig oder knotig " as Kerschner expresses it, 

 and are much more given to subdivision. We give in Fig. 33, 

 a portion of a compound muscle-spindle of a rabbit. This spin- 

 dle has three areas of distribution ; one (to the left of the fig- 

 ure), and a portion of another (to the right of the figure) are 

 shown in the section from which the sketch was made, the third 

 is in the succeeding section of the series. As may be seen in 



