PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 89 
like cells which surmounts the summit of the papilla. This hemi- 
spheroidal mass belongs not to epithelial, but to the nervous 
tissues. It adheres to the papilla after every epithelial cell has 
been removed; the so-called cells of which the entire mass con- 
sists cannot be separated from one another like epithelial cells ; 
fibres exactly resembling nerve-fibres can often be seen between 
them ; and very fine nerve-fibres may be traced into the mass from 
the bundle of nerves in the papilla. 
The fine nerve-fibres which are distributed to the simple papille 
of the tongue, around the capillary vessels, and to the muscular 
fibres of these fungiform papille, come off from the very same trunk 
as that from which the bundle of purely sensitive fibres which termi- 
nate in the papille are derived. The fine nucleated nerve-fibres of 
the capillaries which the author has demonstrated have been 
traced into undoubted nerve-trunks in many instances, so that 
it is quite certain that many of the nuclei which have been con- 
sidered to belong to the connective tissue (connective-tissue-cor- 
puscles) are really the nuclei of fine nerve-fibres not to be demon- 
strated by the processes of investigation usually followed.* These 
nerve-fibres in the connective tissue around the capillaries are 
considered by the author to be the afferent fibres of the nerve- 
centres of which the efferent branches are those distributed to the 
muscular coat of the small arteries. 
The author’s observations upon the tissues of the frog convince 
him that the nervous tissue is distinct in every part of the body 
from other special tissues. For example, he holds that nerve- 
fibres never pass by continuity of tissue into the “ nuclei” (germinal 
matter) of muscular fibres, or into those of tendon, of the cornea, 
or of epithelium. He advances arguments to show that the 
epithelium-like tissue upon the summit of the papilla is not 
epithelium at all, but belongs to the nervous tissues. Hence it 
follows that nerves do not influence any tissues by reason of 
continuity of tissue, but solely by the nerve-currents which pass 
along them.+ 
* See “On the Structure and Formation of the so-called Apolar, Uni- 
polar and BipolarNerve-cells of the Frog,” Phil. Trans. 1868, pl. xl, fig. 44. 
+ The author feels sure that the conclusions of Kiihne, who maintains 
that the axis cylinder of a nerve-fibre is actually continuous with the 
‘* protoplasm ” (germinal matter) of the corneal corpuscle, result from errors 
of observation. The prolongations of the corneal corpuscles, on the con- 
trary, pass over or under the finest nerve-fibres, but are zever continuous 
with them, as may be distinctly proved by examining properly prepared speci- 
mens under very high magnifying powers (1000 to 5000 linear). The cor- 
neal tissue results from changes occurring in one kind of germinal matter— 
the nerve-fibres distributed to the corneal tissue from changes occurring in 
another kind of germinal matter. Ifthe connection is as Kihne has described, 
a “nucleus” or mass of germinal matter would be producing nervous tissue 
in one part and corneal tissue in another part; and since it has been shown 
that the “nuclei” of the corneal tissue are continuous with the corneal 
tissue itself, the nerve-fibres must be continuous, through the nuclei, with 
the corneal tissue itself; and if with corneal tissue, probably with every 
