DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4812#0055
NERVOUS SYSTEM. 4^
by Window, which, after supplying various muscles, terminates in the
thumb and three next singers, instead of finding the same number of subor-
dinate cords at the lower end of the nerve, which I found at its upper part,
and, instead of finding that these were placed parallel and contiguous to
each other, but unconnected, and that the outermost of them ended in the
thumb, the next in the fore-finger, and so on, I found a very disferent
number of subordinate cords at the upper and under ends; and the fibres
of these cords were, in their whole course, so often separated from each o-^
ther, then blended together, and afterwards combined into other cords,
that each of the cords, at the lower end, seemed to have received fibrils
from all the cords at the upper end *«
In like manner, I have discovered, in the ear, that the branches of the
portio mollis form, upon the membrane and scala of the cochlea, a molt e-
legant plexus ; in which the nervous filaments are so intermixed as to form
new combinations, so far as they can be traced with glasles, and seem at lasl
to terminate in a retina or web, somewhat resembling that formed in the
eye by the optic nerve f.
SECT It
The chief intention of Nature, in this very sollicitous intermixture of the
nervous fibrils, is, I apprehend, to lessen the danger with which accidents
or diseases, asfecting the trunks of the nerves, would, without these com-
binations, have been attended.
Thus, let us suppose that two nerves are sufficient to supply the ssexors
M and
* See Tab. XVIII.
f I first traced the portio mollis on the membrane of the cochlea os an adult at Berlin, in the end
of the year 1756. In Table XXX. see very accurate figures of this first preparation, which I have
nually, smce that time, demonstrated in my anatomical courses, and which several good judges hav
had the curiosity to examine with glasses, particularly Dr Soemmering, Dr Meckel junior, Mr Luther,
Dr Smith from Oxford, Dr Rutherford, Dr Black, Dr Hutton.
an-
e
by Window, which, after supplying various muscles, terminates in the
thumb and three next singers, instead of finding the same number of subor-
dinate cords at the lower end of the nerve, which I found at its upper part,
and, instead of finding that these were placed parallel and contiguous to
each other, but unconnected, and that the outermost of them ended in the
thumb, the next in the fore-finger, and so on, I found a very disferent
number of subordinate cords at the upper and under ends; and the fibres
of these cords were, in their whole course, so often separated from each o-^
ther, then blended together, and afterwards combined into other cords,
that each of the cords, at the lower end, seemed to have received fibrils
from all the cords at the upper end *«
In like manner, I have discovered, in the ear, that the branches of the
portio mollis form, upon the membrane and scala of the cochlea, a molt e-
legant plexus ; in which the nervous filaments are so intermixed as to form
new combinations, so far as they can be traced with glasles, and seem at lasl
to terminate in a retina or web, somewhat resembling that formed in the
eye by the optic nerve f.
SECT It
The chief intention of Nature, in this very sollicitous intermixture of the
nervous fibrils, is, I apprehend, to lessen the danger with which accidents
or diseases, asfecting the trunks of the nerves, would, without these com-
binations, have been attended.
Thus, let us suppose that two nerves are sufficient to supply the ssexors
M and
* See Tab. XVIII.
f I first traced the portio mollis on the membrane of the cochlea os an adult at Berlin, in the end
of the year 1756. In Table XXX. see very accurate figures of this first preparation, which I have
nually, smce that time, demonstrated in my anatomical courses, and which several good judges hav
had the curiosity to examine with glasses, particularly Dr Soemmering, Dr Meckel junior, Mr Luther,
Dr Smith from Oxford, Dr Rutherford, Dr Black, Dr Hutton.
an-
e