102 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE COMMON CRAYFISH. 



(fig. 23). The nerve bundle which passes to a muscle 

 breaks uj) into smaller bundles and, finally, into separate 

 fibres, each of which ultimately' terminates by becoming 

 continuous with the substance of a muscular fibre fig. 19, 

 F.) Now the peculiarity of a muscle nerve, or motor 

 nerve, as it is called, is that irritation of the nerve fibre at 

 any part of its length, however distant from the muscle. 



Fiu. 23. — Astncnx JtuviafiJis. — Three nerve i5bres, with the connective 

 tissue in which tliey are imbedded. (Magnified abojit 250 dia- 

 meters.) 11, nuclei. 



brings about muscular contraction, just as if the muscle 

 itself were irritated. A change is produced in the mole- 

 cular condition of the nerve at the point of ii'ritation ; 

 and this change is propagated along the nerve, until it 

 reaches the muscle, in which it gives rise to that change 

 in the arrangement of its molecules, the most obvious 

 efi^ect of which is the sudden alteration of form which we 

 call muscular contraction. 



If we follow the course of the motor nerves in a 



