276 REPLY TO ADVERSE CRITICISM. 



while to a single epithelial cell some authorities 

 maintain that many fibres are distributed ; — in short 

 we are expected to believe that a tissue every part 

 of which we know to be eminently under the influence 

 of the nervous system, receives very few nerves as 

 compared with such a body as an epithelial cell of a 

 glandular organ. As eveiy one well knows, the 

 structure and action of voluntary muscle actually 

 depend upon the state of the nerves ; — while it is 

 certain that at least in very many cases the most 

 complex secretions are formed without the existence 

 of a nervous apparatus at all. 



The fine pale nucleated nerve fibres which I was 

 the first to describe, exist in all tissues, and consti- 

 tute the active part of every peripheral nerve ap- 

 paratus. Certain appearances have very recently 

 led some anatomists to the conclusion, that these 

 very fine nerve fibres give ofl^ still finer ones, which 

 become continuous with the processes of the connec- 

 tive tissue corpuscles, the tails of epithelial cells, or 

 pass into these bodies in considerable number, or 

 terminate in fine free extremities ; but I think this 

 view will prove to be incorrect. When I first 

 studied the arrangement of the fine nerve fibres, I 

 was myself led towards a similar conclusion, but sub- 

 sequent more careful observations upon well-prepared 

 and exceedingly thin specimens of tissue, examined 

 with the aid of the -^j and -j-L, convinced me that the 

 nerve fibres did not enter or become continuous with 

 the above structures ;* and although there is still 

 much doubt on several questions of detail, vvith re- 

 gard to the arrangement of the finest nerve fibres 

 in some special organs, new- facts demonstrated from 



* That I had most carefully studied and made myself familiar 

 with the appearance of the finest ramifications of nerves is 

 proved by the statements in my paper on the nerves of insect 

 muscle, published in 1864. See fig. 1, PI. XII. Having seen 

 these excessively fine fibres, it was but natural I should search 

 for delicate fibres in the tissues of man and the higher animals. 



