The structure of the nerve as I conceive it is given in Figs. 47 and 48.
The former represents a cross-section, and shows, as others have pointed
out, that the layer of circular muscle fibres (_cm_) is interrupted
by the nerve. It is evident that the tissues which elsewhere on the
subumbrella were differentiated into muscle epithelium and muscle fibre
have here become nerve epithelium and nerve fibre, a point that has not
been remarked upon before, so far as I remember, and that may be of
interest in connection with the neuro-muscular theory. The epithelium
of the nerve (_scn_) is seen to be made up of cells whose inner ends
narrow down into a kind of stalk or process that runs to the gelatine
of the supporting lamella (_gs_) and there joins a little cone of the
gelatine that juts out to meet it. The cells are smaller in general
than those that overlie the muscle layer, especially on the two lateral
margins of the nerve, where they are more crowded together and overarch
the nerve-fibres. The fibres are seen in cross-section between the
processes of the cells. They apparently must lie imbedded in some
clear, watery fluid that does not show in the preserved material. The
processes of the epithelial cells give the fibres the appearance of lying
in alveoli, or being divided into strands, and one of these strands
(_ax_) is always discernible among the others by reason of its more
numerous or finer or more compactly massed fibres. This is the “axis” of
Claus. Here and there in its course appear ganglion cells having their
long axis in the longitudinal direction of the nerve. Elsewhere, in
the nerve as well, and usually nearer to the surface, are found other
ganglion cells, mostly bipolar, some multipolar, which are readily
distinguishable from those of the axis by the fact that their long axis
lies across the nerve. One of these cells is shown in the figure (_gc_).
Here and there in the epithelium alongside the nerve are found mucous
cells (_mc_), distinguished by their clear contents and by the small
exhausted-appearing nucleus at the base with a few threads of protoplasm.
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