314 OF NERVES TO THE CAPILLARIES OF BAt's WING. 



It is SO very difficult to demonstrate nerve-fibres in 

 connection witli the capillary vessels of man and the 

 higher vertebrata, that for some time I was disposed 

 to doubt whether nerves were distributed to capillary 

 vessels generally. I had seen such nerves in the 

 white mouse and in the mole, also in the rabbit and 

 Guinea pig, but as I could not demonstrate them in 

 every instance, and in all parts of the body in which I 

 looked for them, I could not feel sure that the pi'e- 

 sence of nerve-fibres close to capillary vessels was 

 not owing to some special and perhaps exceptional 

 circumstances. Investigations upon these nerve- 

 fibres in the bat's wing were, however, conclusive. 

 The arrangement of the delicate nerve-fibres and 

 capillaries in this tissue is very beautiful. After long 

 soaking in glycerine the skin may be removed fi"om 

 both surfaces of the thinnest part of membranous 

 tissue of the wing, and the specimen mounted under 

 the thinnest glass, in order that it may be examined 

 by the a-jth of an inch object glass. I have given a 

 figure of the capillaries and nerve-fibres as they 

 appear under a quarter of an inch object glass in 

 Plate XIX ; and in the following plate is a drawing 

 of a portion of a capillary vessel with its nerve- 

 fibres, as they appear under a magnifying power of 

 700 diameters. The division and subdivision of the 

 finest bi'anches of the dark-bordered fibres is w^ell 

 defined, and the distribution of some of the fine pale 

 nerve-fibres to the capillary is represented. The two 

 drawings should be carefully examined, as a great 

 many points of interest and importance are repre- 

 sented, which I cannot describe in detail here. The 

 arrangement here delineated is very different from 

 that figured and described by Dr. Jos. Schobl, in his 

 paper on the bat's wing, published in the first part 

 of the seventh volume of Max Schultze's Archives, 

 1870. 



The method of preparation adopted by Scliobl, does 



