A quantitative study of the development of the nerves in the hind-limb ofEleutherodactylus martinicensis

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Abstract
The present study is part of an attempt to collect information by different methods of approach to the development of the peripheral nervous system in the Caribbean Bufonid Eleutherodactylus martinicensis. Because of the small size and the rapidity of development of this animal, particular problems can be attempted with special and, in some instances, with unique facility. The present study is mainly concerned with changes in the number of constituent fibres in the nerves of the hind-limb during development. Here, where the number of fibres in any nerve never much exceeds a thousand, quantitative study is a less formidable task than in larger creatures. In other Anura, for instance, numbers would be at least five times greater. Although the fibres at particular sites of the adult nervous system have been counted, as for instance by Häggqvist (1936) in the spinal cord of man, and by Dunn (1902) in the limb nerves of the Frog, it does not seem that comparable studies on any developing animal have been undertaken.