Boi/al Microseopical Society. 7 



The nerves distributed to capillary vessels are much more 

 difficult to demonstrate in mammalia, but I am sure that they 

 exist, and in considerable numbers. The tissues of man and the. 

 larger mammalia are very unfavourable for so dehcate an investiga- 

 tion, in consequence of the very diaphonous character of their nerve 

 fibres and the great density of the connective tissue in which they 

 are embedded, but in the mouse, shrew, mole, and some other 

 small animals, they may be distinctly seen in very thin preparations. 

 But during the last few years I have obtained some most excellent 

 preparations from the bat's wing. In these, nerves to the capil- 

 laries may be demonstrated conclusively with the aid of a yVth. 

 The o^th brings them out still more clearly. In the preparation I 

 have with me, which should be placed under the twelfth of an inch 

 object-glass, many delicate nerve fibres can be seen with great dis- 

 tinctness running very close to some of the capillary vessels. In 

 order to demonstrate this fact, it is necessary to remove the dark 

 cuticular covering from both surfaces of the membrane of the wing — 

 by no means an easy operation or always followed by success. 



Arrangement of the Nerve Fibres distributed to the Capillaries. 



"With regard to the general arrangement of these delicate nerve 

 fibres, it is to be remarked that in many instances a fibre may be 

 seen running on each side of a capillary vessel. The two fibres are 

 often connected by short branches which pass over or under the 

 vessel. Plate III., Plate IV., Fig. 3. 



Not unfrequently the nerve is so close to the capillary that it 

 cannot be seen distinctly in all parts of its course, but oftentimes 

 the capillary shrinks after death, and then a distinct interval is left 

 between its walls and the nerve fibre (Plate IV., Fig. 4). In 

 some cases the nerves are still more numerous, and in the bat's 

 wing I have seen three or four very fine fibres ramifying over a 

 capillary for a short distance. Over the capillary vessels of the 

 mucous membrane of the frog's palate (Plate IV., Fig. 1), these 

 fine nerve fibres are easily demonstrated, and oftentimes may be 

 seen a complete plexus of delicate nerve fibres with numerous oval 

 and triangular masses of bioplasm connected with them. Upon 

 the capillary loop of the fungiform papillae of the human tongue 

 (young subject) I have seen very fine nerve fibres in considerable 

 number. Over the capillaries of the ciliary processes of the eye 

 fine nerve fibres ramil'y very freely. All these nerve fibres are 

 connected with oval masses of bioplasm, which vary in size and 

 number in different animals and in difierent tissues of the same 

 animal. In some cases the bioplasts are separated by a considerable 

 distance from one another (sVth of an inch), but often they are 

 not more than 5^^th of an inch apart. At the point where a fine 

 branch divides into two others the mass of bioplasm is triangular ; 



