448 AVERS. [Vol. VIII. 



ure, but rather as a modification of elements present in 

 all the sense organs. Golgi preparations show many degrees 

 of staining of the cell elements of the organ. In those 

 stained the least, only nerve fibres are visible and these, 

 few in number, are found in the cochlear axis and in the 

 lamina. The supporting cells of the organ are next in order to 

 take the stain, after which come the ganglion cells of the 

 cochlear ganglion, and finally the hair-cells themselves. When 

 the stain is abundantly deposited all detail is lost or rendered 

 valueless, but where the happy mean is observed, hundreds of 

 isolated cells are stained, and many of them show the nerve 

 endings clearly defined. The hair-cells in such preparations 

 show a subglobular or a pyriform body, on the top of which the 

 hairs are only occasionally stained {PI. I, Figs. 5 and 7). 

 From the centre of the base of each hair-cell issues a nerve 

 fibre which, in a favorable case, admits of being traced through 

 a ganglion cell of the cochlear ganglion into the collection of 

 fibres which pass on to the brain (PL I, Fig. 2). These fibres 

 are by no means simple straight threads, but show many 

 varicosities in their course from the hair-cells to the brain, the 

 largest of which are near the hair cells of the organ of Corti, 

 but within the territory of the Sauropsid organ (PL I, Figs. 2, 

 4, 5 and 7 ; PL II, Figs. 8-1 1, 15 and 17 ; PL III, Figs. 25 

 and 27). These varicosities vary greatly in size. The most 

 numerous are slight enlargements in the course of the nerve 

 thread, and are more frequently oval than spherical, but they 

 may appear angular as the stain brings them to view. This 

 kind of varicosity occurs in all parts of all the nerves of the 

 ear. Another sort of enlargement consists of medium sized 

 spherical swellings of the fibres or of their branches, and are 

 especially numerous in the organ of Corti upon the short 

 branchings of the nerve. They more especially belong to the 

 "connective" fibres or hair-cell commissures which run along 

 below each row of hair-cells for unknown distances, and enlarge 

 below each cell into subglobular beads into which as a rule the 

 fibres from the hair-cells penetrate. The largest varicosities 

 are scarcely inferior to the ganglion cells in size but unlike 

 most of the latter, several or many processes radiate from the 



