PRIMITIVE NERVE FIBRES AFTER SECTION. 
429 
the nerves are in reality owing to certain organic and physical changes in the 
tubular fibre, which it will be the province of the microscope to ascertain. If a few 
days’ inactivity of a nervous trunk, such as is produced by ligature or section, is suf- 
ficient to cause such disorganization of the medulla, how can we refuse to admit of 
its being altered in cases of prolonged paralysis ? 
Kensington, October 27, 1849. 
Description of the Plate. 
PLATE XXXI. 
Fig. 1 . Papillary nerve of frog, six days after ligature. 
Fig. 2. Papillary nerve, three weeks after section, with muscular fibres in the interior 
of the capillary coil at the summit of the fungiform papilla. 
Fig. 3. Disorganized muscular nerve, from the inferior surface of the tongue, five 
days after section. The muscular fibre has been omitted in this drawing. 
