SENSORY NERVE TERMINATIONS IN THE TENDONS 



OF THE EXTRINSIC EYE-MUSCLES OF 



THE CAT. 



By G. Carl Huber, 



Junior Professor of Anatomy and Director of the Histological Laboratory ^ 



University of Michigan. 



With Plate XII. 



In a former communication the writer (i) drew attention 

 to a nerve-termination in the extrinsic eye-muscles of the rabbit, 

 which differed from the motor endings found in these muscles 

 and which for reasons there given were described as sensory 

 nerve-endings. It is my purpose in this short paper, to call 

 attention to a sensory nerve-ending in the tendons of the ex- 

 trinsic eye-muscles of the cat which differs in many respects 

 from the neuro-tendinous end-organs found in the tendons of 

 other skeletal muscles of this animal. 



Golgi (2) in his communications on the nerves in tendon 

 and on the " musculo-tendinous end-organ" states that these 

 nerve-endings have a very wide distribution, being found in 

 practically all tendons except those of the eye-muscles. Soon 

 after the appearance of Golgi's research on this subject, Victor 

 Marchi re-investigated the eye-muscles with reference to this 

 point, and in a short paper bearing on this question asserts the 

 presence of these tendon end-organs in the eye-muscles of a 

 number of mammals. He states having found them in cattle 

 ('Rind'), the pig, dog, cat, rabbit and man. Marchi's descrip- 

 tion of these nerve-endings as found in eye-muscles of cattle is 

 in its essentials as given in the following abridged and free 

 translation. 



In the transition zone between the fleshy and tendinous 

 portion of the eye-muscles, he observed a nerve trunk coming 

 from the muscular portion, having at times a straight course, at 



