662 HUBER. [Vol. XI. 



It is an exceedingly difficult matter to give a correct summary 

 in a table of the above character, the reports at hand often 

 admitting of more than one interpretation. An attempt has 

 been made to give the operator's construction of the results 

 obtained by him, even though this might seem to the writer 

 unwarranted. Unfortunately, in the great majority of the 

 reported cases, sensation and motion do not seem to have 

 been carefully tested ; and too little account is often taken of 

 the fact that sensation and even motion is present, at least to 

 some extent, after section of a nerve, in the area to which the 

 injured nerve is distributed. This is admirably shown in case 

 17 (reported by Letievant), where, several months after section 

 of the ulnar and median, the sensibility of the hand was not 

 impaired. Weir Mitchell has collected a number of cases, 

 which may be used in corroboration of the above statement. 

 We have further the experiments of Arloing and Tripier, who 

 found that, in order to obtain complete loss of sensation in any 

 of the digits of a dog's foot, it was necessary to cut the four 

 nerve branches distributed in the same. Similar results were 

 obtained by Vanlair after division of the nerves of the posterior 

 extremity. This, of course, makes it difficult to say to what 

 extent the sensibility and muscular contractility, found some 

 time after an operation in the area to which the injured nerve 

 is distributed, should or should not be credited to a regenera- 

 tion of the divided nerve. 



The operation for nerve implantation has been performed 

 fourteen times, eight times as a primary and six times as a 

 secondary operation. Of this number, three are reported as 

 successful, seven as improved, and four as failures. In one of 

 the successful cases, namely, that published by Edward Atkin- 

 son, the report covers a period of but sixteen days after the 

 operation, at which time the sensibility was said to be so fully 

 established that the child could localize the prick of a pin 

 anywhere on the limb. This rapid return of sensory function 

 can hardly be attributed to a regeneration of the divided nerve 

 at this early date. Howell and Huber estimate that in man 

 sensation does not return to the peripheral part of a divided 

 nerve until about three months after the operation of suturing 



