xviii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



In the remainder of the paper the author discusses the result of 

 his recent researches upon the nervous systems of young Guinea pigs, 

 young rabbits and adult rabbits. The brains of about one hundred 

 animals were studied by his (Meyer's) intra-vitam methylene blue meth- 

 od. Dr. Meyer claims that this metod of studying the relation of nerve 

 cells to nerve fibers is superior to Golgi's. The plates illustrating this 

 article support this view. 



The author's sections showed conclusively : (i) The protoplasmic 

 cell-process or dendrites and the cell-body are structurally similar. (2) 

 The axis-cylinder first comes in contact with the cell at the apex of a 

 dendrite. (3) The axis-cylinder process splits into numerous branches 

 which rauiify over the surface of the cell and its dendrites, enveloping 

 them in a basket of fibrils. {4) In some cases the axis-cylinder process 

 begins to split on the dendrite with which it first comes in contact ; in 

 others the splitting does not begin until the cell-body is reached. (5) 

 In adult brains, the cell-enveloping fibrils are more numerous and closer 

 together than they are in younger brains. (6) Whether these cell-en- 

 veloping fibrils anastomose or not is uncertain ; but none of the sections 

 showed any trace of anastomosis. 



Although the existence of the cell-enveloping fibrils could not be 

 demonstrated in all parts of the brain, yet they were found in so many 

 places that the author thinks improved technique will show that they 

 are present throughout the nervous system. The author thinks there 

 is an intimate union of the tips of the enveloping fibrils with substance 

 of the nerve cells. 



These discoveries led to the following conclusion : Since there is 

 no structural difference between dendrites and the body of the nerve 

 cell, there is no physiological difference between them. The function 

 of a dendrite is nervous. c. h. turner. 



Junction of Va^us with Superior Cervical Ganglion.' 



In two cats the central end of the vagus, cut a little below the 

 larynx, was turned forward and joined to the peripheral end of the cer- 

 vical Sympathetic. The object of the experiments was to see whether 

 the vagus nerve fibers are capable of forming connections with any of 

 the structures with which the spinal nerve fibers of the cervical sympa- 

 thetic are normally connected. The experiments permit a decisive affir- 

 mative answer: " efferent fibers of the vagus had cither grown along 



' Note on the Experimental Junction of the Vagus Nerve with the Cells of 

 the Superior Cervical Ganglion. By J. N. Langley. Proc. Koy. Soc, LXII, 

 No. 384, 7 Feb., 1898. 



