In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a virtual cottage industry classifying axons according to their conduction velocity. Three main categories were discerned, called A, B, and C. A comprises the largest and fastest axons, C the smallest and slowest. Mechanoreceptor axons generally fall into category A. The A group is further broken down into subgroups designated α (the fastest), β, and δ (the slowest). To make matters even more confusing, muscle afferent axons are usually classified into four additional groups—I (the fastest), II, III, and IV (the slowest)—with subgroups designated by lowercase roman letters!