100 DR. BEALE, ON NERVE-FIBRES AND CELLS. 
says that, in the muscles of the leg of Hydrophilus piceus, the 
axis cylinder, after passing through the sarcolemma, is lost 
amongst granular matter, but is probably connected with the 
rows of granules, or nuclei, which extend throughout the 
length of each elementary muscular fibre. Through these 
nuclei it comes into close relation with the sarcous substance 
of the fibre. 
Kolliker, on the other hand, after examining the same 
muscle of the breast of the frog, has arrived at a different 
conclusion. He quite failed to see the special oval bodies as 
described by Kiihne, but saw the nuclei connected with the 
fibres; and he states that the nerve-fibres never pass through 
the sarcolemma, but always lie outside it. So, far, therefore, 
he agrees with Dr. Beale, but differs from him in asserting 
that the nerves end in free extremities. 
It was indispensably requisite for Dr. Beale, after these 
statements of Kiihne and Kolliker, to study this same muscle. 
The results of his observations were given in a memoir read 
before the Royal Society on June 19th, 1862. According 
to his observations the ultimate arrangement of the nerves 
in the pectoral and other muscles of the frog is fundamentally 
the same as that in the muscles of the mouse, the only dif- 
ference being that the nerves in the frog are thinner, firmer, 
and much less numerous than in the mouse. They form a 
network outside the sarcolemma, the meshes of which are 
very wide. The various nerve-fibres of this network are very 
fine, and the nuclei are much less numerous than those of 
the mouse; they are directly continuous with the dark- 
bordered fibres, and result from their division and subdivision ; 
but there are also to be traced some very fine fibres derived 
from fine fibres ramifying in the sheath of the dark-bordered 
fibres which have not previously been described by any ob- 
server. He was also enabled to follow the fibres much 
further from the point where Kihne and Kolhker make 
them to end; the former in the special oval bodies, and the 
latter in free extremities. It may also be added that the 
finest nerve-fibres seen by him in the breast-muscle of the 
frog are often not more than one third of the width of the 
pale fibres of Kiihne beneath the sarcolemma; and even 
these fine fibres are not single, but consist of at least two 
fibres. By a careful examination of the ultimate distri- 
bution of the nerves to the muscles of the leg of Hydrophilus 
piceus, he came to the conclusion that the rows of nuclei 
described and figured by Kiihne as belonging to the nerve- 
fibres, are the proper nuclei of the muscular fibre itself. In 
this insect, as is shown by a transverse section of the mus- 
