throughout the cell body and larger dendrites, but never in the axone or the axone hillock. These subdivisions are shown in Fig. 22. In the embryonic or developing nervous system the cell body which is called a neuroblast, first appears. If one were to watch the neuroblast develop into a partially complete neurone (as has actually been done), he would see the axone hillock first form and from it would develop the slender axone process, and later the dendrites. The axone, ax, Fig. 21, is a slender outgrowth from the cell body varying in length from a fraction of a mm. to more than a meter. Under the high power microscope it is seen to be made up of elementary neuro- fibrils. There is usually only one axone to a cell body. It is to be distinguished from the dendrites by its straighter course, its uniform diameter and smooth outline, Fig. 24. Shortly after leaving the cell day the axone may become myeli- nated, i.e., covered by a fatty sheath whose function may be insulating or nutritive. It may possibly also be concerned with conduction. In addition to the medullary sheath, many of the axones are covered also with the more primitive sheath of Schwann or neurilemma. The sheath of Schwann is probably not found in the central nervous system. Cer- tain axones, for example, those of the sympathetic neurones and of the FIG. 21.--Scheme of peripheral motor neurone. The cell body, dendrites, axone, collaterals, and terminal arborisations in the muscle are seen to be parts of a single cell the neurone. c, cytoplasm of cell body containing chromophilic bodies, neurofibrils and perifibrillar sub- stance; n, nucleus; n', nucleolus: d, dendrites; ah, axone hillock, free from chromophilic bodies; ax, axone; sf, collateral; m, medullary sheath; nR, node of Ravier where branch is given off: sl, neurilemma (not present in central nervous system); m', striated muscle fiber; tel, motor end plate. (From Bailey's Text-Book of Histology.) Courtesy Wm. Wood & Co. -114- |