FACIAL TIC IN RELATION TO INJURY OF THE FACIAL NERVE

Abstract

Kuhne's much cited demonstration of bifurcating axons to the gracilis muscle of the frog has not been successfully repeated in mammals. In fact, it remains to be shown that a single axon can normally supply fibers to two distinct muscles or to spatially separate portions of the same muscle. On the other hand, there is abundant evidence that under pathologic conditions one axis-cylinder may arborize over a wide area. Langley and Anderson¹and, almost contemporaneously, Kilvington²demonstrated the branching of axons by mechanical and electrical stimulation of motor nerves regenerated after being severed and reanastomosed in various combinations. The histologic studies of Ramón y Cajal³also exhibited regenerating axons greatly distorted and frequently branching in the neighborhood of the injury. However, these physiologic and anatomic observations have never been correlated in a single experiment in which both the axon reflex and its morphologic raison d'être, the branched