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[May 1, 



figure 2 at it, and one is represented on a larger scale in figure 4. 

 They are found on the finer muscular fibres, and appear on a super- 

 ficial inspection as nodular swellings or somewhat thickened portions 

 of the fibre, marked by a profusion of rather roundish nuclei, and 

 receiving a single very thick nerve-fibre, loosely surrounded by its 

 comparatively wide membranous sheath. On further examination it 

 is found that the nerve-fibre, on reaching the nodule of the muscle, 

 is wound up at one or more spots on the surface into a coil or tuft, in 

 the mean time undergoing repeated division ; and for the most part it 

 may be seen to enter the muscular fibre, in which the dark-bordered 

 fibres, becoming finer, are finally lost to view. 



Fig. 4*. 



The last-mentioned fact struck me as specially important, inas- 

 much as it seemed to afford an instance of the penetration of a nerve 

 into the interior of a muscular fibre, as maintained by Kuhne. On 

 a careful examination, however, of the structures in question in 

 muscles rendered transparent by acetic acid, I found that the 

 apparently simple muscular fibre bearing the swelling is really a 

 small bundle of from three to seven fine fibres (fig. 5), and that the 



* Fig. 4. A nodule or swelling of a muscular fibre (or rather fasciculus), with 

 a large nerve-fibre, nerve-tuft, and nuclei ; highly magnified. 



