54 ATLAS OF NERVE CELLS 



numerous dendrites come off. The number of dendrites varies from four to ten. No one 

 dendrite is very long, but each gives off very numerous fine branches which radiate in all 

 directions from the cell body, giving an appearance which seems to justify the name, which 

 I propose, of stellate cells. These dendritic branches are short and terminate in free extrem- 

 ities in the thalamus. The interlacing of numerous adjacent dendrites with one another 

 forms a fine plexus of fibres in the gray matter. The neuraxon of the stellate cells arises 

 from the body of the cell and passes off in a straight direction, giving off very few collat- 

 erals. The direction of the neuraxon varies in different cells even in the same nucleus. There 

 appears to be no general mass of neuraxons passing together in bundles that can be traced. 

 Yet the existence of the laminae medullares in the thalamus proves that such bundles do pass 

 through the masses of gray matter, and it is probable that the neuraxons gather into bundles, 

 leaving the thalamus through the internal capsule. Marchi l has studied the thalamus by the 

 Golgi method, but his monograph is quite incomplete; he found only two kinds of cells, large 

 and small,' and he does not distinguish the nuclei of the thalamus from one another. 



1 V. Marchi, Sulla struttura del thalami optici, Rev. Sper. di Fren.; 1884 and 1887. 



