NERVE-CELLS. 



CXXX1X 



Fig. LXXVII. 



number of fiue fibrils, it has been by some anatomists suggested, by others 

 maintained, that they are really bundles of immeasurably fine filaments ; 

 moreover, it is asserted that the fibrillar structure may be actually observed 

 in pale sympathetic fibres ; but this view, however probable, stands in need 

 of confirmation. 



Pale fibres are also met with (in the sympathetic nerve especially) which 

 appear as fine simple filaments with fusiform enlargements, often finely 

 granular in substance, and possibly of the nature of nuclei, but placed in 

 the continuity of the fibre, and not merely attached to a sheath. 



Nerve-cells, sometimes called Nerve-vesicles. 

 These, as already mentioned, constitute 

 the second kind of structural elements proper 

 to the nervous system. They are found in 

 the grey matter of the cerebro-spinal centre 

 and ganglions, constituting a principal part 

 of the last-mentioned bodies, and thence 

 often named gaitylionic corpuscles or ganglion- 

 globules ; they exist also in some of the nerves 

 of special sense at their peripheral expan- 

 sions, and, here and there, in the course of cer- 

 tain other nerves. The nerve-cells may have 

 a spheroidal, oval, or pyriform shape (fig. 

 LXXVII); and such for the most part is their 

 form in the ganglions ; but many, and espe- 

 cially those from the grey matter of the 

 spinal cord and brain, are of an angular or 

 irregular figure, and send out processes, 



Fig. LXXVII. GANGLIONIO 

 NERVE-CELLS, MAGNIFIED (from 

 Valentin). 



Fig. LXXVIII. 



Fig. LXXVIII. RAMIFIED NERVE-CELL, FROM THE GREY MATTER OF THE HUMAN 

 MEDULLA OBLONGATA. MAGNIFIED 350 DIAMETERS (from Kolliker). 



