FINER STRUCTURE OF SYNAPSE 157 



the 'terminal feet' — the nodal points of his terminal net — were 

 chiefly granular, whereas the beams between them appeared free 

 from granules. Auerbach (2, 3) also assumed the existence of 

 the nervous terminal net, whose nodal points coincide with his 

 'terminal knobs;' but his figures prove nothing. Besides, it must 

 be emphasized that his net-work possesses a three-dimensional 

 character not only on the cell surface, but also in certain other 

 parts of the central nervous system — the substantia gelatinosa 

 and the molecular layer of the cerebellum. The existence of a 

 nervous net-work of this sort, which would penetrate the gray 

 matter of the central nervous system, was denied by many au- 

 thors (Cajal, (13) Kolliker (cited in 9), Retzius (26), etc.). 

 Even Held (20) admitted that by means of Cajal' s technic he 

 could observe merely the indication of the extension of the 'peri- 

 cellular nervous terminal net.' The figures of Holmgren (22) 

 also prove nothing. 



Concerning the pericellular net-work, which is found now and 

 then in Bielschowsky preparations, I expressed my idea before, 

 that there might be a false picture caused by the simultaneous 

 impregnation of the Golgi net. This consideration will perhaps 

 be strengthened by the description and the figures of Wolff (27) . 

 He figured on the surface of the cells as well as between the 

 latter a net structure, which shows a striking resemblance to 

 Bethe's net-work and is mainly stained more feebly than the 

 terminal feet, which latter are directly continuous with the former. 

 In the text he stated that the axone fibrils are not naked, but 

 are enveloped in a mantle of bubble-like structure, which goes 

 over into the honeycomb structure of the cell border. On the 

 ground of his findings and Gegenbauer's intercellular bridge 

 theory, Wolff declared that Bethe's pericellular net-work is 

 nothing but the impregnated honeycomb structures of the cell 

 border, the neuroplasmatic anastomoses and the perifibrillary 

 mantles. That Bethe's net-work is not, however, to be regarded 

 as the honeycomb wall, but as a glious structure, I have already 

 stated. 



