TERMINATION OF NEKVES EST MUSCLES. 29 



oranclies before they pass to their termination ; * but there 

 is no such arrangement in the human subject or in the high- 

 er animals, in the course of the nerves, or anywhere, except 

 at the point where the fibres change their character just be- 

 fore their termination. The branching and inosculation of 

 the ultimate nerve-fibres will be considered in connection 

 with the very interesting and important question of their 

 ultimate distribution to muscles and sensitive parts. 



Mode of Termination of the Nerves in the Voluntary 

 Muscles. For a long time the actual mode of termination 

 of the nerve-fibres in the muscles was a question of great 

 uncertainty ; but within the last few years, thanks to the 

 elaborate researches of the French and German anatomists, 

 the peripheral extremities of the nerves have been so accu- 

 rately described and figured, that the great question of the 

 mode of connection between the anatomical element con- 

 ducting the stimulus to the muscles and the contractile 

 elements of the muscles themselves may be considered as 

 definitively settled. So many views, however, have been 

 presented on this subject from time to time, that an histori- 

 cal account of the numerous researches, within even the last 

 few years, would possess but little physiological interest. 3 



Before physiologists had any definite knowledge of the 

 true mode of termination of the motor nerves, the only 

 opinion on this subject entitled to any consideration was 

 that of Prevost and Dumas, who believed that they had de- 



1 ROBIN, Jfemoire sitr la demonstration experimentale de la production d'electri- 

 cite par un appareil propre aux poissons du genre des raies. Journal de Vana- 

 tomie, Paris, 1865, tome ii., p. 533, et seq. 



2 Prof. Trinchese, in an historical introduction to an account of his own 

 observations on the peripheral termination of the nerves, gives an admirable 

 review of recent researches on this subject. He is in error, however, in dating 

 the view of the termination in loops from Valentin and Emmert, in 1836, this 

 theory having been advanced by Prevost and Dumas, in 1823. (TRIXCHESE, Me- 

 moire sur la terminaison peri.pherique des nerfs moteurs. Journal de fanatomie, 

 Paris, 1867, tome iv., p. 485, et seq.} 



