NORMAL HISTOLOGY. 



Nerves of voluntary muscle of rabbit ; gold preparation : 

 , small bundle of medullated motor nerve-fibres, from which 

 fibres pass to the individual muscle-fibres (m) and bear the 

 motor end-plates ; s, some of the sensory nerve-fibres sup- 

 plying the muscle. 



primary bundles of the muscle-cells, and probably terminate in finely 

 pointed or slightly thickened free ends ; the direct connection be- 

 tween the nerve-fibrillae and the nuclei of the muscle-cells is, at best , 

 extremely doubtful. 



Striated Muscle is supplied with both motor and sensory nerves ; 



the latter are distributed 



FIG. no. as a loose net- work, the 



fibrillae of which appar- 

 ently terminate between 

 the individual muscle- 

 fibres. 



The medullated nerve- 

 fibres composing the 

 motor supply of a vol- 

 untary muscle unite to 

 form an intramuscular 

 plexus, from which small 

 bundles of nerve-fibres 

 spring, and subsequently 

 divide in such manner 

 that a single medullated 

 axis-cylinder passes to each muscle-fibre. At the point where the 

 nerve pierces the sarcolemma the medullary substance abruptly 



ends, while the neurilemma, blended 

 with the sarcolemma, joins the peri- 

 neurial (Henle's) sheath in forming the 

 telolemma, or the sheath investing 

 the end-organ. The axis-cylinder, now 

 beneath the muscle-sheath, continues 

 upon the surface of the sarcous sub- 

 stance, and, later, breaks up into a 

 number of somewhat tortuous ultimate 

 fibrillse, which irregularly unite and 

 end in thickened bulbous extremities. 

 The terminations of the nerve are 

 embedded in a flattened nucleated 

 mass the sole -plate composed of 

 soft faintly granular protoplasm, which 

 resembles sarcoplasm and is closely 

 applied to the surface of the muscular 

 substance; this mass, together with the embedded nerve-fibrillae, 

 constitutes the motor disk, or end-plate. 



Each muscle-fibre possesses usually but a single end-plate ; in 

 exceptional cases, however, there may be two or more; likewise, 



Motor end-plate of voluntary muscle 

 from rabbit: ft, medullated nerve-fibre 

 passing to muscle (JM>, on the surface of 

 which the axis-cylinder ends in the dark 

 arborescent figure; the latter lies em- 

 bedded within the nucleated sole-plate 

 (s) composed of granular protoplasm. 



