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TWENTY-FIVE FIGURESHistologists have been able for many years to investigate fine nervous plexuses and nerve endings with techniques as varied as k t r a vitnm methylene blue staining, different kinds of silver impregnation and the reduced osmium-iodide method of Champy-Coujard. Nevertheless, current interpretations of the structure of the peripheral components of the autonomic nervous system, and the precise relationship which nervons terminals in this system bear to the effector cells and tissues, are confused and controversial to a degree which is embarrassing to physiologists and antomists alike. In general it is true to say that when the processes of neurones become very small in diameter and when they lack a myelin sheath, the specificity of these staining methods becomes uncertain. Also, the limits of optical resolution are soon reached either1 because the staining is insufficiently sharp or because the structures themselves are indeed so attenuated.The aim of this investigation was to select a region of the body in which all the components of the autonomic nervous system (neurones in gangJia, major nerve bundles, fine