70 



GENERAL ANATOMY. 



In the voluntary muscles Beale and Kolliker have described the nerve-fibres 

 as terminating either in a plexiform arrangement, or (according to the latter 

 author), sometimes in free ends between the muscular fibres external to the 

 sarcolemma. Lately another method of termination, which had been formerly 

 described, has received the support of numerous eminent authorities viz., the 

 u motorial end-plates" of Kiihne, or "nerve-hillocks" (nerve-tufts) of Doyere. 



The latter author had described, nearly thirty years ago, a connection between 

 the nervous and muscular fibres in some of the lower animals, consisting in an 

 elevation at the point of junction of the two, where the sarcolemma of the 

 muscular fibre became blended with the tubular membrane of the nerve. This 

 has been since so far confirmed by subsequent researches, that it seems well to 

 figure, from the most recent author, Kiihne, what he supposes to be the termi- 

 nation of all motor nerves of voluntary muscles. The following is Kiihne's 

 description of the method of connection. 



"In all striped muscles the nerve terminates below the sarcolemma the 

 tubular membrane being blended with the sarcolemma. The white substance 

 accompanies the axis-cylinder as far as this point. The ending of the axis- 

 cylinder always represents an expansion with a considerably increased surface, 

 and this is constantly formed by its branching out on a flat plate. This nerve- 

 end-plate is sometimes more like a membrane, at others like a system of fibres. 

 In most cases the plate rests upon a base of granules and finely-granular proto- 

 plasm; in other cases there is no such support, and the nerve-plates then possess 

 the so-called nerve-end-bulbs. The ends of the nerves never penetrate the in- 

 terior of the contractile cylinder, nor does the plate ever embrace the whole 



Fig. 35. 



a. !> 



Muscular fibres of Lacerta Viridis with the terminations of nerves, a. Seen in profile : P P, the nerve 

 end-plates ; s s, the base of the plate, consisting of a granular mass -with nuclei. I The same as seen in 

 looking at a perfectly fresh fibre, the nervous ends being probably still excitable. (The forms of the variously- 

 divided plate can hardly be represented in a wood-cut by sufficiently delicate and pale contours to reproduce 

 correctly what is seen in nature.) c. The same as seen two hours after death from poisoning by curare. 



circumference of the cylinder. Short muscular fibres generally have only one 

 nerve-end, while longer fibres have several." 



It is right, however, to state that the most eminent English authority on this 

 subject entirely denies the description above given, and explains the appear- 

 ances, figured by Kiihne and others, in a different manner. In a very interest- 

 ing paper by Dr. Beale, published in 1867, l he endeavors to show that the 

 nerve-hillocks of Doyere are merely accidental elevations produced by the sarco- 

 lemma being drawn up in a cone, as the nerve which is attached to it is stretched 

 by. the manipulation of the observer; and with reference to the end-plates of 



1 On Anatomical Controversy. Seal's Archives, iv. 161. 



