TONGUE AND GUSTATORY ORGANS OF MEPHITIS MEPHITICA. 161 



Kolliker. Neither serous nor mucous glands were observed 

 near the fungiform papillae. 



The tactile and mechanical papillae are very numerous, 

 covering the upper surface of the tongue from the base to the 

 apex. They are largest at the posterior part of the dorsum 

 (behind the gustatory structures), and diminish in size, but 

 increase in number and density, as they approach the anterior 

 extremity. One that I measured, from the posterior part of 

 the dorsum, was 1*8 mm. in height. About the middle of the 

 tongue I counted twenty-five on a square millimetre of surface. 

 Here they are 0*25 mm. in height. They present considerable 

 variation in shape. Anteriorly they are flattened, or slightly 

 convex on the top, with their sides vertical, forming either a 

 right angle with the upper surface, or having their upper edges 

 slightly rounded. Occasionally the sides are prolonged 

 upwards for a short distance, terminating in spiniform pro- 

 cesses. Interspersed among these papilla?, but chiefly confined 

 to the gustatory area and posterior surface, are a few cone- 

 shaped ones, the points of which are directed backwards and 

 inwards. Each papilla is usually seated upon two papillary 

 upgrowths of the mucosa. The free surface is covered with a 

 thick layer of cornified epithelium, which, in the cone-shaped, 

 papillae, presents an imbricated arrangement. In their internal 

 structure these papillae do not differ materially from ordinary 

 conical papillae. 



It is probable that the cone-shaped papillae of the anterior 

 and middle dorsal surface of the tongue are mechanical rather 

 than tactile in function. 



On the posterior surface of the epiglottis, near the line of 

 union of the first and second fourth, I noticed in the stratified 

 pavement epithelium a few isolated bulb-like structures. I 

 did not, however, meet with them below this point. In the 

 same region, on the right side, I found the bulb-like structure 

 shown in figure 7. It will be seen at once that it is entirely 

 subepithelial in position and structure. It occupies a cavity 

 of the mucosa, with its apex resting against the base of the 

 deep layer of columnar cells of the epithelium. Its length is 



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