NERVES. 365 



2nd. The apparent structural unfitness of nucleated fila- 

 ments to serve as a conducting medium of the nervous force. 



3rd. The evidently tubular character of the nerve filaments 

 in parts which, from their nature, we should expect would be 

 pre-eminently supplied by the gelatinous filaments. 



4th. The fact of the non-occurrence of gelatinous fibres, 

 separate from the tubular, is strongly opposed to the idea of 

 the independence of the former. 



The above short summary will serve to give some idea of 

 the state of the much canvassed question of the nervous or 

 non-nervous character of the grey or gelatinous filaments of 

 the sympathetic. 



STRUCTURE OF GANGLIA. 



The ganglia consist of the peculiar globules already de- 

 scribed, of nerve tubules and of gelatinous filaments. 



Each ganglion is enclosed in an investing tunic of fibrous 

 tissue, a continuation of the common envelope of the nerves 

 which enter and depart from it, and which sends down dis- 

 sepiments which divide the contained globules into parcels, 

 and thereby give the ganglion the general arrangement and 

 character of a gland. 



The gelatinous nerve filaments in the ganglion form a kind 

 of inner capsule, and their arrangement is thus described by 

 Henle : " Besides the nervous fibres properly so called of the 

 soft nerves, one meets with also, in the ganglions of the great 

 sympathetic gelatinous fibres which have special relations 

 with the ganglionic globules. The fibres of a bundle expand 

 in the form of a funnel, in order to embrace a globule or a 

 series of globules, and unite together afterwards afresh, to 

 separate again a second time. In this way we often come 

 to draw out of a ganglion entire threads of gelatinous fibres, 

 which are dilated, in the manner of a chain of pearls, and 

 enclosing the globules in their dilatations." 



The proper tubular fibres enter the divisions of the gan- 

 glion in bundles, subsequently separate from each other, 



G G 2 



