4 
DEGENERATION AND REGENERATION OF NERVE FIBERS 9535 
4. The axons of the peripheral stump do not die at once after 
the division of the nerve, but live for two or three days at least, 
and undergo changes in the neighborhood of the lesion which 
must be regarded as an abortive regeneration. After a few 
days all the newly formed structures degenerate and disappear. 
This abortive regeneration has no significance for the ultimate 
regeneration of the nerve and is of interest only because of the 
light it throws on the life processes within the neurone: These 
phenomena, first seen by Perroncito, have been fully confirmed, 
not only in the present investigation, but also by Poscharissky, 
Marinesco and Cajal. 
5. Alterations in the axons of the proximal stump can be 
noticed within twenty-four hours after the lesion. They con- 
sist of the formation of fine branches, and the rearrangement 
of the neurofibrils of the old axons to form the most compli- 
eated networks. These changes are limited to the immediate 
neighborhood of the cut surface and are too varied to summar- 
ize in detail. These were also first seen by Perroncito and con- 
firmed by the others who have used the Cajal technique. 
6. The new observations presented in this paper concern 
almost exclusively the non-medullated fibers which are now 
known to outnumber the medullated fibers in the spinal nerves. 
These observations have been summarized in the section on 
“The mechanism of the regeneration of nerves.” 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
BaLuance, C. A., AND STEWART, P. 1901 Cited after Cajal. 
Betue, A. 1908 Allgemeine Anatomie und Physiologie des Nervensystems. 
Leipzig. 
x 1907 Neue Versuche iiber die Regeneration der Nervenfasern. Archiv 
f. d. Gesam. Physiol., Bd. 116, p. 385. ¥ 
BUnener, O. v. 1891 Ueber die Degenerations- und Regenerationsvorginge 
am Nerven nach Verletzungen. Betr. z. path. Anat. u. z. allg. Path., 
Bas 10)-p.. 320 
“Casat, RaM6n y. 1908 Nervenregeneration. J. A. Barth. Leipzig. 
~ Dominici, M. 1911 Experimenteller Beitrag zum Studium der Regeneration 
der peripheren Nerven. Berl. Klin. Wochensch., Bd. 48, p. 1937. 
> Durante, G. 1904 A propos de la théorie du neurone. Rev. Neurol., vol. 
12, p. 573. 
THE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY, VOL. 22, NO. 6 
