292 



LECTURE XIL 



wards by Billroth. The submucous layer of the intes- 

 tines is therefore, as Willis long ago declared it to be, a 



FIG. 87. 



7J 



nervous tunic. On following up the afferent nerves, they 

 are seen, after having divided, at last to break up into 

 real networks ; these in new-born infants present at cer- 

 tain points very large nodules, from which the nerve- 

 fibres spread out into interlacements, so that a certain 

 resemblance is thereby produced to a network of capil- 

 laries. 



To what extent such arrangements prevail in the body 

 generally has not yet been determined ; for these facts 

 also are almost entirely new, and have only recently 

 attracted the attention of observers, but probably the 



Fig. 87. Nervous plexus from the submucous tissue of the intestinal canal of a 

 child, from a preparation of Herr Billroth's. n, n, n. Nerves which unite to form a 

 network, and exhibit at their points of junction glanglioniform swellings abounding 

 in nuclei, -o, V. Vessels, and in the intervals nuclei belonging to the connective 

 tissue. Magnified 180 diameters. 



