390 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



cesophagus. In the course of the nerve trunks and occasionally 

 at the nodal points of the plexus, single usually bipolar, but 

 occasionally multipolar nerve cells are found, which, according 

 to Dogiel's (12) definition, are sensory sympathetic cells. In 

 the lower part of the oesophagus, I have occasionally seen 

 small ganglia containing from four to eight cells, some of which 

 were surrounded by the telodendria of white rami fibers. These 

 ganglia, when present, show the two types of nerve cells with 

 their processes found in the ganglia of the intermuscular plexus; 

 they present also the large meduUated sensory fibers and fine 

 non-medullated sympathetic fibers passing through the ganglion 

 on the way to their termination. Such a ganglion is represented 

 in PI. XXVI, Fig. 4. This ganglion was found in the lower 

 part of the oesophagus of a cat and presents four large cells, of 

 which one is surrounded by the end-basket of white rami fibers, 

 the others showing the long, fine, dendritic processes character- 

 istic of sensory cells. The form of plexus found iii the greater 

 part of the oesophagus is represented in PI. XXVI, Fig. 3, 

 showing the interwoven nerve trunks with, here and there a 

 few, isolated cells. While I have never been able to trace a 

 fiber of the submucous plexus from its origin in a cell to its 

 termination, it has seemed to me probable that most, if not all, 

 of the type I cells found in this plexus are secretory cells, 

 whose neuraxes terminate on the gland cells. Typical oesoph- 

 ageal glands are found in the submucosa only in that part of 

 the oesophagus in which ganglia are seen. Both medullated and 

 non-medullated fibers follow the course of the gland ducts, the 

 former terminating, as in the salivary glands (Arnstein (2) and 

 Huber (23) ), in free endings on the epithelial cells of the duct, 

 while the latter form a plexus about the acinus, from which 

 branches may be traced to their endings in slight enlargements 

 on the gland cells. I have found no ganglion cells in direct 

 connection with any of these glands. 



The blood vessels of the submucosa, as well as those of other 

 parts of the oesophagus, are, like the vessels of other parts of 

 the body (Dogiel (13), Schemetkin (38) and Huber (24)) sup- 

 plied with medullated sensory fibers, which end in telodendria 



