VIII. A contribution to our knowledge of the enteric plexuses

Abstract
The constitution of the enteric plexuses (the plexus myentericus or plexus of Auerbach and the plexus submucosus or plexus of Meissner) and their rôle in the initiation and regulation of the gut-movements are problems which have been discussed by numerous investigators, and the literature relating to them is voluminous. Nevertheless, it can hardly be said that there is even to-day any general consensus of opinion in regard to them. The work detailed in the present paper arose out of an endeavour to provide demonstration reparations of the gut-plexuses for teaching purposes. Eventually, with the generous and unstinted help of the late Prof. N. Kulchitsky, a method of partially isolating the plexuses and of staining them with a modified Bielchowsky silver technique was evolved, which yielded preparations of such excellence that I was induced to make the attempt to work out their histological constitution. I propose to give first of all a very brief summary of the purely histological results obtained by previous workers in this field, and later, when setting forth my own observations, to deal more in detail with the related literature.

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