Page:Structure and functions of the body; a hand-book of anatomy and physiology for nurses and others desiring a practical knowledge of the subject (IA structurefunctio00fiskrich).pdf/43

 they form the nerve fibers and carry impulses away from the nerve cells. The cells of the processes are elongated in shape, have a nucleus, and are placed end to end, with a definite constriction between them.

Each axis-cylinder process is surrounded by a sheath called the medullary sheath, while each nerve fiber consists of a central axis-cylinder process surrounded by the white substance of Schwann and enclosed in a sheath. A bundle of these fibers invested in a fibro-areolar membrane called the neurilemma constitutes a nerve, and of these the white matter is formed. The blood supply is brought by minute vessels, the vasa nervorum.

—Longitudinal nerve fiber (diagrammatic): a, Axis-cylinder; b, medullary sheath; c, neurilemma; d, nucleus; e, node of Ranvier. (Leroy.)

The nerves of the cerebro-spinal system preside over animal life and have to do with voluntary acts, while those from the sympathetic system regulate organic life and are quite independent of the will. Both sensory and motor nerves extend all over the body, accompanying the arteries in a general way. The sensory nerves end on the surface in plexuses, in end bulbs situated in the papillæ of the skin, or in tactile corpuscles, these last occurring more especially where there is no hair. The motor nerves end peripherally in plexuses or by end plates. The central terminations of the motor nerves and the terminations of sensory nerves in special organs, except where they end in a cell, are not well understood.

Like muscles, nerves are probably never at rest, for through them the muscles get their tone. When a nerve acts, no heat is produced and there is no change in the nerve afterward, as there is in muscle. Probably nerve impulse is the transmission of physical rather than chemical changes along the fiber, the atoms of the nerve being