REPLY TO ADVERSE CRITICISM. 275 



of impressions to and from nerve centres and peri- 

 pheral parts. (See Fig. 2, pi. XIV, in which very 

 fine muscular nerve-fibres are represented magnified 

 eighteen hundred diameters.) 



291. Reply to adverse criticisms. Professor 

 Kiihne, of Heidelberg, is one of the foremost in con- 

 demning the conclusions I have arrived at concern- 

 ing the general arrangement of nerve fibres, and 

 although he has not seen the fine fibres above re- 

 ferred to, he expresses himself most positively, and 

 at least as regards the nerves of voluntary muscle, 

 as if it were absolutely certain that he alone was 

 right. But Kiihne has himself propounded three or 

 four different views. The first and the last differ 

 very widely. One would have thought that the 

 freedom exercised by him in altering his own conclu- 

 sions would have induced care as regards criticising 

 those of other observers ; but he speaks as if he were 

 an infallible authority dictating the only true faith. 



It has been maintained that in voluntary muscle a 

 dark-bordered fibre as wide or wider than the muscu- 

 lar fibres in the mylohyoid of the green tree frog, 

 may pass direct to the terminal organ, while on the 

 other hand, it is admitted that in the involuntary 

 muscle extremely fine nerve fibres far finer than 

 any seen by Kiihne in voluntary muscle, exist. On 

 the other hand my preparations demonstrated that 

 the nerve fibres in voluntary and in involuntary 

 muscle possess the same general arrangement, and 

 are equally delicate. If we accept the conclusions 

 now most in favour, we must admit that the distribu- 

 tion of nerves to voluntary muscle is far less abundant 

 than in the case of involuntary muscular fibre ; and 

 this, notwithstanding the fact that as an elaborate 

 working machine, the former is beyond all com- 

 parison superior to the latter. Some anatomists 

 would have us believe that of all tissues, voluntary 

 muscle receives in a given area the fewest nerves, 



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