DISTRIBUTION OF THE NERVES IN THE SALIVARY GLANDS. 



If the point of attachment be examined with very high 

 magnifying powers, it will be seen that immeasurably fine 

 fibrils proceed from the nerve, which pass directly and without 

 interruption into the fibrils of the protoplasm of the salivary 

 cells. This appearance is most beautifully presented if the 

 medullated fibre be deprived of its medulla by pressure. There 

 then remains a pale fibre composed of extraordinarily fine 



Fiar. 88. 



Fig. 88. Termination of medullated fibres treated with perosmic 

 acid in isolated salivary cells. A, thick branched fibres distributed to 

 large salivary cells ; B, fine nerves distributed to smaller salivary cells. 

 From the submaxillary gland of the Rabbit. Magnified 590 diameters. 



fibrils, which are directly continuous with the fibrillated sub- 

 stance of the epithelial cells. This character is especially 

 important, because it constitutes a clear evidence of the abso- 

 lute continuity and fusion of the axis cylinder a,nd epithelial 

 cell. As I have not seen any fibres blackened by perosmic 

 acid upon the membrana propria, though both the blacken- 

 ing and the medulla may constantly be seen extending to 

 epithelial cells in well-isolated preparations, I must conclude 

 that ordinarily the mode of termination in the alveoli is 

 that the nerve perforates the membrana propria, and enters 

 directly into the superjacent salivary cells. The nerve me- 

 dulla consequently terminates at the cell. That point of the 

 salivary cell where the nerve enters is marked by a slight in- 



