30 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



monstrated loops at the peripheral ends of the nerves resting 

 on the muscular fibres. These loops were fully described and 

 figured in 1823, 1 and this view was afterward quite gener- 

 ally adopted by physiologists ; but it has been so completely 

 overthrown by recent observations, that it is not now a ques- 

 tion for discussion. In 1840, Doyere gave an account of the 

 peripheral termination of the motor-nerves, 3 probably as 

 accurate as was possible with his imperfect means of in- 

 vestigation ; but, as is justly remarked by Prof. Trinchese, 

 this observation, though confirmed a few years later by 

 Quatrefages, 8 seems to have been lost sight of by most phys- 

 iological writers. 4 In view of these early researches, it is 

 unnecessary to consider elaborately the claims to priority of 

 more recent observers, the results of whose investigations 

 present slight and unimportant differences ; and, although 

 these have been brought forward and warmly discussed 6 as 

 a matter of controversy, they possess but little interest. 



"We shall not enter into any further discussion of the 

 views expressed by different anatomists with regard to the 

 question under consideration, but will now simply describe 

 the connection between the peripheral nerves and the mus- 

 cles, as it appears from the researches that seem to be the 

 most exact and reliable. Without underestimating the value 

 of other researches, we may state that those of Rouget repre- 

 sent, perhaps, the present condition of the question as well as 

 any. As we before remarked, the differences between the 



1 PREVOST ET DUMAS, Memoire sur left phenomenes qui accompagnent la con- 

 traction de la fibre musculaire. Journal de physiologic, Paris, 1823, tome iii., 

 p. 322. 



2 DOYERE, Memoire sur les tardigrades. Annales des sciences naturelles, Zoo- 

 Ugie, Paris, 1840, tome xiv., p. 346. 



3 QUATREFAGES, Memoire sur Veolidine paradoxale. Annales des sciences na- 

 turelles, Zoologie, Paris, 1843, tome xix., p. 300. 



4 JTrinchese (loc. cit.) alludes to the observations of Doyere, which are also 

 fully discussed by Kuhne (STRICKER, Handbuch der Lehre von den Geweben, Leip- 

 zig, 1868, S. 147, et seq.). 



5 BEALE, An Anatomical Controversy. The Distribution of Nerves in Volun- 

 tary Muscle, etc., London, 1865, pp. 38. 



