368 ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
by a very extensive wound, the nerve is not restored to its 
anatomical or physiological continuity. 
2. The more evident signs of the solution of continuity of 
a nerve are the termination of the upper end in a club-like 
mass ; the persistence in this part of all the physical cha- 
racters the nerve has had in a normal state ; the atrophy of 
the lower end ; and by the absence of a mass or tissue of 
any thickness between the two extremities of the nerve. 
3. The muscles to which the nerve is distributed become 
inactive, then atrophied, without any chance of returning to 
their normal condition, unless the function of the nerve is 
re-established after some time, or in some way or another.* 
4. Anastomoses between large nervous trunks exist, though 
they are rare. They may bestow sensation and movement 
on a part, but only in a partial manner. 
5. Anastomoses between the nerves of sensation of different 
regions are frequently met with, especially in the cutaneous 
surface, where this variety of nerves is chiefly distributed. 
These anastomoses only re-establish the functions of a nerve 
in an imperfect manner. 
6. The superior end of the nerve remains atrophied to the 
first collateral branch, or the first anastomosis with some ad- 
jacent nerve. From this point it has all its normal charac- 
teristics, and its function is carried on in such a manner that 
the connection between the two nerves increases in dimen- 
sions. 
7. The communications already existing between the 
nerves are those only which are developed ; no new connec- 
tions are created. 
8. The connection by anastomoses existing between the 
sentient nerves in the different regions of the body is demon- 
strated by anatomical facts, clinical observations, and those 
furnished by pathological anatomy. 
9- The direct anastomoses of the median nerve, — that is, 
the nervous ramuscules which pass from the upper to the 
lower ends — may re-establish, in a normal manner, the func- 
tions of the divided nerve. 
10. It is by the reproduction of the nerve substance that 
Nature most frequently establishes the relations between the 
periphery and the centre, and vice versa. 
11. The upper end appears to be that in which the greatest 
reproductive activity should exist, since, though isolated, it 
* This fact is due to the anatomical disposition proper to the fibres of 
motor nerves, which do not anastomose at their free extremities, but termi- 
nate directly in the muscle, each entering into the constitution of a muscular 
fibre. 
