56 



bodies of the Purkinje cells. Such a termination is shown in 

 Piff.?, a.l.f. The nerve-f ibre divides at some distance t'roir. 

 the cell into several twites, and from the portions of those 

 nearest the cell-boiy several small terminal twi£;S arise which 

 form an arborization quite near to the cell. There is given 

 in this way a direct riexus between the acustico-lateral fibres 

 and the most conspicuous neurone of the tubercalum acasticum. 

 Other fibres of iiinute siJ^e evidently terminate in the molec- 

 ular layer between the small molecular aeurones. E^ven here 

 tnere would be an indirect connection with the Purkinje neu- 

 rones, for these send their dendrites into the molecular layer. 

 Fibres are also to be seen in numbers which do not termi- 

 nate in the tuberculum scusticun at all. Some of these reciain 

 in the central core, continuing anteriorly; while ethers are 

 branches of fibres which have taken a course into the acusti- 

 cum for partial termination there. All of these pass upward 

 to the cerebellum; they will be duly considered in Section V. 



i. Theoretical Coiolusions . — It has already been pointed 

 out that acustico-lateral components are not present as such 

 in spinal nerves. Waiving the question of the origin of the 

 system as a whole, it will net be out of place to consider 

 here certain problems relative to its primary centre, the tu- 

 berculum acusticum. 



The position which the tuberculum acusticum occupies in 

 the oblongata is inde'id significant, superposed, as it is. 



