984 
and shows a normal hypolemmal nerve-ending in a muscle-fibre at 
the end of one of the non-medullated nerve-fibres. 
If thus we may assume this so called accessory innervating appa- 
ratus of the striated muscle-fibres to be of a sympathetic (parasym- 
pathetic) nature, then the following question arises immediately : 
both the motor nerve-ending and the accessory nerve-endings are 
hypolemmal in position, i.e. the nerve-fibre passes through the sarco- 
lemma and enters the muscle-fibre, being imbedded in the granular 
substance of the sarcoplasma, aud directly continuous with the 
intraprotoplasmatie reticulum of the periterminal network. Now itis 
generally assumed, that the efferent sympathetic nerve-endings do not 
enter the plain muscle-cells, but terminate by tapered or bulbous extre- 
mities which are applied to the outer surface of the cells. Why should 
there exist such a curious contradiction between equivalent elements ? 
Why should the accessory nerve-ending in the voluntary muscle-fibres 
(when of sympathetic origin) be hypolemmal, and the sympathetic 
nerve-ending in plain muscle-cells remain on the outside of the inner- 
vated elements? We will try to show, that there is no such contra- 
diction, and that the efferent nerve-endings in plain muscle-cells have 
exactly the same position as the accessory nerve-endings, which give 
the striated muscle-fibres their tonic impulses. 
In general the modes of termination of the efferent nerves in 
involuntary muscles are rather difficult to study. The Golgi-method 
and staining with methylene blue often procure splendid results, 
but these methods do not allow to give a definite answer as to the 
exact relations between the nerve-endings and the plain muscle-cells. 
Apart from earlier aberrant accounts, that localised the terminations 
of the nerve-fibres inside the cell, even inside the nucleus and the 
nucleolus (THANHOFER, lastly Osrecia in 1890), all the observers 
agree (I need only mention the names of Köruker, Lowit, Eric 
Mürrer, Huser and pe Wirt, S. Rerzius), that the efferent nerves 
of the plain muscle-cells form complicated plexuses between the 
elements of the involuntary muscular tissue, in which the nerve- 
fibres bifurcate and give off branches at frequent intervals, and then, 
either united with those from adjoining nerve-fibres or not, come 
into close relation with the plain muscle-cells themselves, either 
terminating by tapered or bulbous extremities which are applied 
to the surfaces of the cells, or ending in networks and loops, without 
having free extremities. 
Thus even the last observer in this field, AGABABOW *), who studied 
1) A. AcaBaBow. Ueber die Nerven der Augenhäuten, v. Graefe's Archiv für 
Ophthalmologie, 83. Bnd, 2. Heft. 1912, 
