182 ALBERT KUNTZ 



The great majority of the neurones in the gangha of the sub- 

 mucous plexus are more or less regular in outline and possess 

 relatively few dendrites which are usually long and slender and 

 give rise to relatively few slender branches. The slender proc- 

 esses of these neurones may frequently be traced into the com- 

 missures connecting the ganglia of the submucous plexus, into 

 the commissures connecting this plexus with the myenteric plexus 

 or into the fiber-tracts leading from the ganglia of the submucous 

 plexus into proximity with the digesti\'e glands and into the 

 gastric folds and plicae or the intestinal villi. 



Fiber-terminations 



In sections of the stomach and the small intestine of both the 

 cat and the dog prepared by either the methylene blue or the 

 pyridine-silver method, nerve-fibers may not infrequently be 

 traced from the ganglia of the myenteric plexus quite directly 

 into the longitudinal or the circular muscle-layer. Although 

 individual fibers could not be traced from their origin to their 

 termination on smooth muscle-cells, terminations of nerve-fibers 

 on muscle-cells could frequently be observed. In good methylene 

 blue preparations, slender varicose fibers may be observed in the 

 inter-cellular cement between the muscle-cells. The terminal 

 portions of these fibers are usually exceedingly varicose and fre- 

 quently give rise to very slender lateral branches which terminate 

 in minute terminal enlargements on the same muscle-cell on 

 which the terminal portion itself ends or on another muscle-cell 

 lying parallel with it. Figure 3, A, illustrates the terminal 

 portion of a nerve-fiber with several lateral branches ending on 

 the same muscle cell. Terminations of sympathetic nerve-fibers 

 on smooth muscle-cells have been similarly described by Erik 

 Miiller ('92), Retzius ('92) and Huber ('97). 



As indicated in an earlier section of this paper, sympathetic 

 nei-ve-fibers may be traced from the ganglia of the submucous 

 plexus into proximity with the digestive glands and into the 

 gastric folds and plicae and the intestinal villi. In methylene 

 blue preparations of the stomach of the cat, fibers could not 

 infrequently be obser\'ed terminating on parietal cells (fig. 3, D). 



