No. I.] THE VERTEBRATE EAR. 73 



aber erst als dickerer glanzender Faden hervortritt," These 

 observations show that Boettcher did not see the fibres as I 

 have found them, although on general grounds he thought the 

 single coarse fibre might be composed of finer ones drawn 

 together by the contracting action of the reagent, or swollen till 

 they coalesced into one large rod, as is more likely to be the 

 case when hydrochloric acid is used. My discovery of these 

 numerous moniliform threads was made entirely independently 

 of Boettcher's investigations, as I had not been able at that time 

 to consult his paper so rich in accurate observations. 



Boettcher's observations have not received their just recog- 

 nition at the hands of anatomists. Their full value for the 

 physiologist we may not now properly appreciate, but that we 

 shall in the near future in greater measure than in the past 

 I do not doubt. My own observations enable me to go much 

 further in theory than Boettcher dared to go, as they carry the 

 morphological basis much further and render the relations of 

 nerve and nerve-end cell much more intelligible than ever before, 

 and enable us to demonstrate a physically continuous protoplas- 

 mic path from the percipient element in the ear to the receiving 

 centres in the brain. That this is a gain for the experimental 

 physiologist, as well as the speculative physiologist, is apparent 

 enough. 



Other investigators have searched for these filaments, but 

 have not found them. Nuel (206, 1878) was not successful in 

 demonstrating their presence, and considered them artifacts. 



Paul Meyer (192, 1876) says: "Jamais nous n'avons pu con- 

 stater de liaison aucune entre cette cupule et le noyau de la 

 cellule. 



" Du reste, ainsi que le montrent les imbibitions par I'acide 

 osmique ou par des matieres colorantes, nous avons affaire ici 

 a un veritable corps solide, et c'est ne pas une simple illusion 

 d'optique, comme semble I'admettre Retzius, d'apres lequel ce 

 disque terminal ne serait du qu'a un jeu de lumiere sur la partie 

 superieure plane ou un peu excavee de la cellule. 



" Cette cupule solide porte les oils terminaux ; les deux ne 

 constituent qu'une meme masse." Meyer did not observe this 

 terminal body to be connected with the nucleus of the cell; 

 on the other hand, as he expressly says, "nous n'avons eu 

 sous les yeux une preparation nous permettant d'affirmer nette- 



