clxviii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



terminations are now cone-shaped, though the rounded apparatus is 

 by no means excluded. Ganglion cells were not found, but in their 

 place appear quite numerous neural nodes situated among the fibres 

 of the peri-follicular meshworks, adjacent to them being situated the 

 only thickened nerves of the organ. 



VII. The Nerve Elements of the Pituitary Gland. In the glan- 

 dular portion of the hypophysis no nerve cells are to be found and all 

 nerves belonging to it appear to be derived from branches of the car- 

 otid sympathetic plexus. 



In the infundibular lobe it is only here and there through the an- 

 terior two-thirds that the silver stain affords examples of the variety 

 of nerve cells of the body. The only group of nerve cells is at the 

 extreme base. All the ganglionic elements belong to the multipolar 

 type. The most beautiful dendridic forms are presented in astonish- 

 ing variety. The axis-cylinder extensions of all the cells in the infe- 

 ferior portion of the lobe turn upwards, as do most of the others ob- 

 served. It is doubtful whether any of these fibres pass beyond the 

 limit of the lobe into the infundibulum, these sections giving no evi- 

 dence of such an arrangement, while on the other hand, the nerve 

 fibres accompanying the larger arteries are sometimes distinctly seen 

 coming from the infundibular tract into the body of the posterior lobe 

 of the gland and ramifying through it. It is probable, too, that some 

 portion of the threads m the posterior secretory portion of the lobe 

 are also derived from these vascular filaments, but connection be- 

 tween the fibres of the vascular supply and the nerve cells of the or- 

 gan has never been observed. 



In the central regions of the lobe certain rounded or oval bodies 

 are observed which in the chrome-silver preparations have a likeness 

 to closed follicles, but no visible structure. Around these bodies the 

 axis-cylinder processes coil with an intricate arrangement, the main 

 fibres in their upward course diverging around them, while from the 

 same fibres arise others that after passing to the oval bodies develop 

 upon themselves very extraordinary figures. These fibres twist and 

 coil upon themselves, develop irregular thickenings, the most com- 

 mon being an irregular comb-like figure with knobs set on the ends of 

 the blades. There is also a tufted form, and sometimes only a devel- 

 opment of intricate knobs is observed extending from a blackened 

 mass having a nerve fibre passing into it. These structures resemble 

 the endings of the mitral cells of the olfactory bulbs, the so-called ol- 

 factory glomeruli, and it is more plausible to refer them to some organ 



