MINUTE ANATOMY OF THE OLFACTORY NERVES. 215 



spherical bodies in question ? Are they special and peculiar 

 structures, or do they find their analogues in the nervous 

 system ? Although at first sight they appear to be finely 

 granular, extremely thin sections present precisely the same 

 appearance as the so-called molecular layer of the retina. It 

 would not however, it appears to me, be quite correct to admit 

 that we have here a reticular or spongy tissue before us. It 

 is rather a convolute of extremely fine fibrils, the origin of 

 which we are already acquainted with, and between which 

 is a considerable quantity of finely granular substance. Similar 

 relations are met with wherever there are only naked nerve 



Fig. 343. 



Fig. 343. a, An isolated corpuscle or spherule, with 

 adherent nerve cells, from the olfactory bulb of the 

 Torpedo ; b, isolated nerve cells, from the same. 



fibrils, or it may be the finest axis-cylinders, or in other words, 

 where the nerves have not reached the higher grades of de- 

 velopment. When such fibrils run parallel to each other, as 

 is the case in embryonal and in the olfactory nerves, the fasci- 

 culi of fibrils offer a striated granular aspect. The smallest 

 granules, or perhaps a substance which only changes into 

 granules under the influence of certain reagents, cleaves so 

 strongly to the fibrils, and glues them so firmly together as to 

 render their isolation very difficult. But when the fibrils as- 

 sume an irregularly convoluted course, we obtain the appear- 

 ance presented by the reticular connective tissue, which is 



