SECT. 234.] ZONA DENTICULATA. 595 



of demarcation between the inner and onter Cortian fibres, and 

 appears to be intimately connected with the inner ones, and is 

 also united, or at least closely adjacent, to the structure to be 

 immediately described. 2. A reticular lamella in a more restricted 

 sense, composed of four series of segments ; a. of elongated straight 

 rods (/), slightly swollen at their end, whose number is the half 

 of that of the partitions of the transparent plate, and which also set 

 out from the line of union between the two series of Cortian fibres, 

 lying above the outer fibres ; b. of smaller pieces in the form of 

 an hour-glass (g), lying between the anterior ends of the rods, 

 and which I will call the f inner articulating segments'; c. of 

 more conical bodies (h) situated between the ends of those last 

 mentioned, which may be named the ' outer articulating seg- 

 ments' ; d. of a row of terminal segments (i), which in many 

 preparations have the form shown in fig. 244, while in others they 

 are rectangular pieces lying very closely upon each other : in either 

 case, there are seen to project from these segments filiform processes 

 of an uncertain nature. These segments will be found at one time 

 conjoined so as to give the appearance of a single plate, but at 

 other times they occur distinctly separated from each other. Be- 

 tween the segments of each row are found a series of apertures, 

 regularly disposed (k, I, m), which I have named the 'inner, middle, 

 and outer foramina of the lamina reticularis.' As to the size of 

 the perforated plate which is thus produced, the best notion will 

 be given by stating, that the external ends of the outer Cortian 

 fibres lie in a line with the third row of foramina ; and as to 

 the nature of the lamina reticularis considered as a whole, I can 

 only say that it appears to have in every respect the same sig- 

 nification as the Cortian fibres, except that I have never observed 

 nuclei or varicosities on its component parts ; on the other hand, 

 a variety of curves may often be seen, like those which frequently 

 exist on the fibres of Corti. 



The 'pedunculated cells' of Corti are the most delicate and 

 transient structures of the organ of Corti, as appears from the 

 fact, that none of the more recent observers, with the exception 

 of M. Schultze, have properly recognized them. They are situated 

 in three rows (those of one row alternating, it appears to me, with 

 those of the other), always over the foramina of the membrana re- 

 ticularis ; they have a pyriform outline, more or less stretched, and 

 are finely granular, with a conspicuous nucleus ; each of them is 

 prolonged internally into a fine filiform process. I formerly be- 

 lieved that these processes became united with the Cortian fibres, 



q q 2 



