306 OF NERVES DISTRIBUTED TO THE CAPILLARIES. 



small veins are allied to the capillaries in structure 

 fig. 2, PL XV, page 293, 300, we may conclude 

 they act in the same manner, and that the nerve- 

 fibres distributed to them, belong, to the same system 

 as the nerves of the capillary vessels with which they 

 are in fact, in direct continuity. 



3O6. Of the nerves distributed to the capillaries. 

 While studying the distribution of nerves to striped 

 muscle in I860,* I had seen nerves lying close to 

 capillary vessels, and during the next two years 

 obtained several preparations from the frog, toad, and 

 newt, in which pale delicate nerve-fibres, which had 

 been followed from trunks containing dark- bordered 

 nerve-fibres, were discovered running by the side of 

 almost every capillary vessel ramifying over an ex- 

 tensive area of tissue. In 1863, some drawings were 

 published, f and in my Croonian lecture to the 

 Fellows of the Royal Society, in May, 1865, the dis- 

 tribution of nerves to capillary vessels was briefly 

 described, and the function performed by them dis- 

 cussed. Although I have incidentally referred to the 

 fact in several lectures and papers published since 

 this period, I have not collected my observations, nor 

 until no\v. have I entered into the matter so fully as 

 it deserves. The subject appears, however, to have 

 been almost completely passed over by other anato- 

 mical observers in this country and on the Continent. 

 After the paper, from which I copy these observa- 

 tions, had been read on December 6th, 1871, at the 

 Microscopical Society, Dr. Klein showed me some 

 plates to illustrate a memoir by him upon the same 

 subject, which was to appear in the January number 



* " On the Distribution of Nerves to the Elementary Fibres 

 of Striped Muscle," " Phil. Trans.," June, 1860. 



f " On the Structure and Formation of the so-called Apolar, 

 Unipolar, and Bipolar Nerve CeUs of the Frog." May 7, 1863. 

 1 'Phil. Trans.": Part II., 1863. Published separately. Churchill. 

 1864. 



