80 DR. BEALE, ON THE TISSUES. 



to eiglit liuudred diameters. In favorable specimens an 

 arrangement of nerve fibres so wonderful is brought into 

 view, that the observer will examine the specimen again and 

 again before he can convince himself that what he seems to 

 see, is real. Flattened bands, composed of from two to five or 

 six nerve fibres, are seen crossing the field in every direction, 

 and in the small intervals between them, finer and still finer 

 branches are brought into view by careful focusing. Some 

 of the fibres are of veiy large size, but others, in their 

 general appearance, veiy closely resemble the gray, or gela- 

 tinous, nerve fibres. It is possible that some few of the 

 fibres observed may be muscular fibres of the mucous mem- 

 brane, but there cannot be the least doubt, that by far the 

 majority are nerve fibres, which form a most intricate inter- 

 lacement immediately beneath the epithelium. Moreover, it 

 is to be noticed that there are at least two kinds of nerve 

 fibres in this situation. Although many of the finest fibres 

 are probably the terminal ramifications of branches which 

 are thicker at a distance from their termination, there 

 can be no doubt that the widest fibres are distinct from 

 these altogether, and are not in any way connected with 

 them. 



Here and there the nerve fibres may be seen to divide, but 

 from the great number present it is often difficult to isolate 

 an individual fibre in which the division may be seen very 

 distinctly. Dr. Beale believes the diAasions of dark-bordered 

 nerve fibres occur pretty frequently. In the palate of the 

 frog, however, where the nerves are very numerous, but not 

 nearly so abundant as in the human subject, this point is 

 demonstrated without great difficulty. 



In specimens from which the epithelium has been re- 

 moved by gentle scraping instead of by section, little papillae 

 may be seen, and into these nerve fibres may be traced. 

 The branches are seen to be bent upon each other in several 

 places, and may be said to form a loop, the fibres of which 

 are bent sharply at short intervals, so that the body of the 

 papilla is twice or three times as wide as its neck where the 

 nerve fibres pass into it. Several of these papillae, as far as 

 could be ascertained, were destitute of capillary vessels, but 

 it is possible that very fine capillaries may have existed, 

 which, from not having been injected, were not demonstrable. 

 The papillae above described may be regarded as a more 

 simple form of the tactile corpuscle present in the papillae of 

 the fingers, toes, lips, &c. Beneath the plexus, above 

 described, are larger bundles of nerve fibres, with vessels and 

 much yellow elastic tissue. Connected with these nerve 



