374 THE SOLIDS. 



of course at first, lose their sensory and motor endowments : 

 these, however, after a variable time, are more or less per- 

 fectly recovered, thus completing the experimental proof. 

 The direct proof is derived from the former : the recovery of 

 the power of a nerve after the excision of a portion of it, 

 argues strongly the fact of the regeneration of tlie nerve 

 tubes ; and this result, by a careful microscopic examination, 

 can be positively demonstrated : the number of tubes in the 

 renewed part of the nerve is stated, however, to be less than 

 in the original portions ; and this in part explains the reason 

 of the restoration of the functions of a divided nerve being 

 usually but imperfect. Other proofs of the regeneration of 

 the nerve tubes may be gathered from the more or less complete 

 restoration of various sensitive and motor parts of the body, 

 as well as from the re-union of parts which have been en- 

 tirely detached from the body, as the nose, the top of the 

 finger, &c. 



With respect to the regeneration of the glandular element 

 of the nervous matter, but little definite or microscopic is 

 known: from analogy, however, it may be inferred, that 

 like other cellular structures, as the epidermis, epithelium, 

 &c. it also is capable of a more or less complete repro- 

 duction. 



RESEARCHES OF M. ROBIN. 



The following is a translation of an abstract made by the 

 author himself, M. C. Robin, of a paper communicated to the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences at the Seance of June 21st, 

 1847, entitled " Researches on the Two Orders of Elemen- 

 tary Nerve Tubes and the Two Orders of Ganglionary Glo- 

 bules which correspond to them." 



" The end of these researches is to show that tlTe ganglions 

 of the spinal nerves and of the great sympathetic do not give 

 origin to elementary nerve tubes as many modern anatomists 

 admit, as Hannover, Valentin, Remak, Bidder, and Volk- 

 mann, &c., &c. ; but- that all the nerve tubes arise exclusively 

 from the spinal cord and the encephalon ; consequently that 



