48 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



logenetically to these sense organs. Leydig in Biolog. Central- 

 blatt, XIII, scouts this idea and derives the hair from the so- 

 called " Perlorgan " of certain fishes. The resemblance and 

 affinity of the sense organs is rather with the auditory apparatus, 

 as shown by Ayers and others. 



The Sense Buds. It is interesting to observe the wide dif- 

 ferences of opinion of competent observers as to the endings in 

 the end buds. Lenhossek (Anat. Anzeiger, V^III, 4) denies 

 absolutely Fusari and Panisci's statement that the proximal ex- 

 tremity of the sensory cells in the taste bud passes directly into 

 a nerve fiber and states that the nerves always end free in the 

 bud, or rather form a meshwork surrounding it, thus constitut- 

 ing a peri-gemmal reticulum. Nerve fibers pass in a horizontal 

 course below the epithelium and give off collaterals from time 

 to time which form a felting of free fibers among the general 

 epithelium cells. Essentially similar conditions prevail in the 

 sense buds of the mouth of fishes and the author concludes that 

 the rod cells are to be considered as short apolar nerve-cells and 

 that the class of nerve endings found in the earth-worm is found 

 in vertebrates only in the olfactory organ. (Figs. 15 and 16.) 

 Retzius takes the same view, but finds that the nerve fibers are 

 not perigemmal but intragemmal, thus illustrating the difficul- 

 ties growing out of a reliance on the Golgi and methylene blue 

 methods alone. 



A. Geberg in a brief article in the Anat. Anzeiger, VIII, 

 I, claims to be able to demonstrate the endings of the auditory 

 nerve in the cochlea by the methylene method, but, inasmuch 

 as the tissues were not stained, it seems that his conclusion, that 

 the fibers attach themselves to the hair cells without communi- 

 cating with the latter, must be considered as non-conclusive. 



Having reinvestigated the nerve endings in the sensory 

 buds of the skin of the axolotl with material leaving little to be 

 desired as to the fixation and hardening, and which had been 

 double stained successfully, we are able to assert with great con- 

 fidence that, in this case, there is a special cellular nerve termi- 

 nus having a direct basal connection with a nerve fiber. The 

 nucleus of these cells (which cannot be termed appropriately 



