NO NERVE ENDS EXIST. 113 



space. Proceeding from the finest nerve fibres, no fibres ex- 

 hibiting ends, or terminal extremities, can be detected, and the 

 general conclusion to which we are led is, that nerves are 

 arranged to form continuous strands of fibres, which pass 

 amongst the elementary parts of the tissues, but neither 

 become continuous with them, nor terminate in free extremi- 

 ties in or upon them" ("Biopl.," p. 172). 



"In all cases, as far as I can ascertain, the ultimate ter- 

 minal fibres are pale and granular, exhibiting nuclei at varying 

 intervals, but are distributed upon precisely the same plan. I 

 am of opinion, therefore, that there is not such a thing as a 

 true end to any nerve fibre" (p. 173). The diameter of fibres 

 composing the terminal plexus is often less than one-thou- 

 sandth of an inch. 



"Every fibre of this network is compound : so that, perhaps, 

 the term 'plexus' more truly describes the arrangement. 

 'Plexiform network/ I think, expresses the character of the 

 arrangement still more exactly. 



" Some have said that my view accords with the old idea of 

 loop-like terminations of nerves ; and this is, in the main, true, 

 but the course of one single fibre forming the loop is far more 

 extensive than was supposed by the older observers, and the 

 looped fibres divide and subdivide into finer fibres. This 

 diagram is intended to represent a plan of the arrangement 

 which is shown to exist in many tissues according to my obser- 

 vation" (" Croon. Lect.," p. 237). 



These views are not generally admitted, especially by the Ger- 

 man histologists who follow, for the most part, Kuhne, who 

 holds to the existence of terminal extremities in several motor 

 and sensitive organs, and Pfliiger, who describes the termination 

 of efferent nerves in the protoplasm of secreting organs. Yet, 

 after reviewing all that has been advanced against him up to 

 1872, Dr. Beale still persists as follows : 



"I am quite convinced that numerous specimens I have 

 made fully justify me in maintaining the general proposition 

 that, in all cases, the terminal distribution of nerves is a 

 plexus network, or loop, and hence that in connection with 

 every terminal nervous apparatus there must be at least two 



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