400 NORMAL HISTOLOGY AND ORGANOGRAPHY. 



at a level with the Purkinje cells, where it forms a 

 basket-like net around the bodies of these cells. The 

 cells of Purkinje are the largest nerve cells in the body 

 (about 6o// in diameter or seven times the diameter 

 of a red blood-corpuscle). They form a single row 

 of cells, placed with considerable regularity some 

 distance apart, along the inner margin of the molec- 

 ular layer. Their neuraxes arise from the basal 

 end of the cell body and extend through the granular 

 layer and enter the medulla as the centripetal fibers. 

 The other extremity of the cell body passes into one 

 or more prominent dendrites that arise toward the 



Neuraxis. 



Fig. 276. Cell of Purkinje from the human cerebellar cortex. Chrome- 

 silver method (Bohm and Davidoff). 



periphery of the cerebellum. These dendrites 

 branch freely in one plane, like an ivy growing 

 against the wall, and this plane is always at right 



