No. 3.] PERIPHERAL NERVES. 635 



results as "positive and unmistakable," draw attention to a 

 failure on his part to make a thorough histological examination 

 of the peripheral nerves. In all their experiments, section of 

 a nerve was followed by complete degeneration of the periph- 

 eral end. 



Stroebe, in a very comprehensive and able research, ex- 

 presses himself as follows : " Aus alien meinen Experimenten 

 geht hervor, dass die durch Compression von ihrem 'trophi- 

 schen ' Centrum, den Ganglion-Zellen im Central Nerven- 

 system oder Spinal-Ganglion, abgetrennten Nervenfasernab- 

 schnitte des Ohrnerven und Ischiadicus jeweils regelmassig der 

 Degeneration anheimfallen, welche sowohl den Axencylinder 

 als die Markscheide ergreifen. Eine Wiedervereinigung der 

 gequetschten Faser an der Druckstelle/^r/r/;;m7« inteittionem, 

 welche zu einer physiologischen und morphologischen Resti- 

 tution der Nerven fiihren wiirde, bevor und ohne dass die 

 Degeneration in der peripheren Strecke zur Ausbildung kommt, 

 giebt es nicht." 



In Notthaft's article we read : " Nach jeder Verletzung 

 (Verbrennung, Quetschung, Durchschneidung), welche die 

 Nervensubstanz an irgend einer Stelle total zerstort, kommt 

 es zu einer Degeneration des ganzen Peripher von der Ver- 

 letzungsstelle gelegenen Nervenabschnittes und eines kleineren 

 etwa 1-5 ctm. betragenden Centralen-Stuckes. Eine Heilung 

 dwrch. prima intentio im Sinne Schiff's giebt es nicht." 



The accumulated evidence of nearly all workers in this field 

 coincides with the above statements. In the experiments to 

 be recorded in the second part of this paper, fifty in number, 

 peripheral degeneration followed every nerve section. 



Transplantation of nerves has further been tried experimen- 

 tally by Johnson. His experiments, three in number, were on 

 fowls. In two he resected the sciatic on one side, and trans- 

 planted a segment taken from the opposite sciatic. The 

 animals were killed, the one twenty-eight, the other thirty- 

 four days after the operation. In the third experiment he 

 implanted a segment removed from a rabbit's sciatic between 

 the resected ends of a fowl's sciatic. This animal was allowed 

 to live twenty-three days after the operation. In each case 



