112 BEALE'S NERVE THEORY. 



oleo-albuminous material. Connected with the threads, at 

 varying intervals, are oval masses of bioplasm. In highly- 

 sensitive peripheral nerve organs, and in the motor nerves of 

 muscle, these masses of bioplasm are very numerous, and, in 

 some cases, are almost continuous with one another ; but in 

 less sensitive textures the masses of bioplasm are often sepa- 

 rated from one another by a distance of one-hundredth of an 

 inch or more. In all these cases these bioplasts, or ' nuclei/ 

 are situated very close together at an early period of develop- 

 ment, and at first the tissue which represents nerve, consists of 

 bioplasm only. As the tissue advances towards maturity, the 

 masses of bioplasm become gradually separated from one 

 another by a greater extent of fibre ; but at all periods of life, 

 and in all peripheral branches of nerves, these bodies are 

 present "("Biopl.," p. 171). 



" The active part of the nerve fibre distributed to the peri- 

 pheral nerve organ which receives the impressions, exhibits the 

 same general structure and anatomical arrangement in all 

 cases. It is invariably a pale, very transparent, faintly granu- 

 lar, but, in the natural state, perfectly invisible cord, composed 

 of still finer fibres" ("Monthly Microscopical Journal," 1873, 

 p. 173). 



These fine fibres are themselves compound, and "fibres 

 often pass off at an angle from these fine nerve fibres, and 

 divide and subdivide, joining others, so as to form a network, 

 the meshes of which vary very much in diameter in different 

 cases. Every one of these delicate fibres, of which some are 

 not more than one-thousandth of an inch in diameter, must 

 be regarded as composed of still finer fibres, which, after 

 leaving the branch under observation, pursue opposite direc- 

 tions. In using the term network, therefore, I do not mean to 

 imply that fine nerve fibres unite with each other after the 

 manner of capillaries, but merely that the bundles of fibres are 

 arranged like networks. The fibres composing the bundles do 

 not anastomose. In lace the appearance of such a network of 

 fibres is produced ; but every apparent thread is composed of 

 several, each of which pursues a complicated course, and forms 

 but a very small portion of the boundary of any one single 



