196 GEDGE, ON MOTOR NERVE. 
slides. them over the sides of the fibres. Now, although I 
have at present been unable to prove that these nuclei belong 
to nerve-fibres, still for some time past I have believed them 
to be, and Dr. Moxon’s observation has done much towards 
strengthening my opinion. 
The soft, almost pulpy, texture, or, more correctly, con- 
sistence, of the tissues in insects compared with those of the 
higher animals shows them to be unfitted for tracking the 
course of nerve-fibres. The muscular tissue is modified in 
proportion to the modification in the connective and nervous 
tissue. No one can fail on comparison to see the great dif- 
ference between the muscular fibre of a vertebrate animal 
and that of an insect, though at first sight the transverse 
markings on each are apt to mislead. The difference in sub- 
stance of the garglion-cells is also considerable. . Often on the 
slightest pressure these cells take a distinctly polygonal form 
from mutual pressure, while in the higher animals they 
always remain nearly spherical. 
Those who have not made up their minds as to the termi- 
nation of nerve-fibres, but stand as lookers-on at this con- 
troversy, ought to be careful how they receive those observa- 
tions which from time to time appear. When a man comes 
forward and declares “I have found the termination of a 
motor nerve,” it behoves us to look carefully into his method 
of research. Now, it is well known that Kiihne and his 
disciples, who declare that they have seen nerve-ends, go the 
right way to work to produce such appearances. Nitric acid 
of the strength Kiihne uses it is quite sufficient to destroy 
the capillary nerve-fibres of Beale. That these capillary nerve- 
fibres do exist, I have the strongest evidence, for, by following 
Dr. Beale’s delicate method of preparation, I have demon- 
strated these nerve-fibres most perfectly ; so perfectly, indeed, 
that I could not convince myself, until I had showed my 
preparations to Dr. Beale, that these decided nerve-fibres 
were the fibres unseen by Kiihne, but vaguely declared by 
him to be fibrous tissue—a mistake he could not possibly have 
made had he been acquainted with the appearance of fibrous 
tissue when thus prepared. 
Some, then, by rough usage destroy the finer nerves of the 
higher animals, while others think they have found the ter- 
mination of individual nerve-fibres in animals where the 
nerve-fibres themselves have not yet been demonstrated. 
These, then, are the points in which I differ from Dr. 
Moxon : 
1. The tissue known as connective tissue does exist in 
insects. 
