THE NERVES OF THE THYROID AND PARATHYROID 



BODIES 



DARMON A. RHINEHART 



From the Laboratory of Anatomy, Indiana U Diversity 



FIVE FIGURES 



Prior to the year 1867 the nerves of the thyroid were usually 

 described as vaso-motor for the supply of the numerous blood 

 vessels. 



Peremeschko ('67) examined thin teased preparations of thy- 

 roid that had been macerated in acetic acid and water, and found 

 many more nerves than the gland was thought to contain. He 

 described some of these as following the arteries, and others as 

 leaving the vessels, dividing again and again, and finally losing 

 themselves as fine varicosed branches in the interfollicular con- 

 nective tissue. 



Poincare (75), after macerating the gland in dilute acetic 

 acid colored with fuchsin, found abundant nerves and nerve 

 plexuses, which he considered to be a separate nerve supply for 

 this organ, connected with the central system by the nerves enter- 

 ing the gland. He also described ganglion cells lying in groups 

 or clumps either in the substance of the larger nerves, in the nerves 

 at their places of branching, or alongside the nerve stems. 



Anderson ('94) described the formation of very elaborate peri- 

 vascular plexuses from which fine fibers penetrate between the 

 follicles and form perifollicular plexuses in which the follicles 

 seem to be imbedded. These nerves are very irregular in their 

 course, do not anastomose, and, after repeated divisions, the ter- 

 minal fibrillae end in knobs on the bases of the cells. At no time 

 do they enter the cells nor do they penetrate between them. 



Berkeley ('95) described perivascular plexuses similar to those 

 of Anderson, and a primary and secondary plexus surrounding 



in 



THE AMERICAN JOURNAL (IF ANATOMY, Vol.. 13, NO. .' 

 MAY, 1912 



