Prior to the year 1867 the nerves of the thyroid were usually described as vaso-motor for the supply of the numerous blood vessels.
Peremeschko ('67) examined thin teased preparations of thyroid that had been macerated in acetic acid and vi-ater, and found many more nerves than the gland was thought to contain. He described some of these as following the arteries, and others as leaving the vessels, dividing again and again, and finally losing themselves as fine varicosed branrhes in the iriterfollicular connective tissue.
PoincarC: ('75), after macerating the gland in dilute acetic acid colored wit,h fuchsin, found abundant nerves and nerve plexuses, which he considered to be a separate nerve supply for this organ, connected with the central system by the nerves entering the gland. He also described ganglion cells lying in groups or clumps either in the substance of the larger nerves, in the nerves at their places of branching, or alongside the nerve stems.
Anderson ('94) described the formation of very elaborate perivascular plexuses from which finc fibers penetrate between the follicles and form perifollicular plexuses in which the follicles seem to be imbedded. These nerves are very irregular in their course, do not anastomose, and, after repeated divisions, the terminal fibrilltte end in knobs on the bases of the cells. At no time do they enter the cells nor do they penetrate between theni.
Berkeley ('95) described pcrivaseular plexuses siniilar to those of dhderson, and a primary and secondary plexus surrounding 91