SECT. 4I-] CUTIS. 85 



in layers, and in whose interstices there is a very small quan- 

 tity of fluid, arc, like elastic cushions, or a bladder rilled with 

 fluid, very well adapted to receive impressions from the epider- 

 mis at their point which is directed towards the surface, and to 

 propagate them to the nervous extremities which lie in and upon 

 these bodies. 



In ray opinion, Weber's view of the greater sensibility of the 

 terminations of the nerves can scarcely be doubted ; on the other 

 hand, there is no reason to be perceived, a priori, why, in order to 

 render it available, peculiar and as yet unknown organs should be 

 required ; nor why the conditions already mentioned by me, the 

 more isolated course of the nerve tubules in the papilla? and ter- 

 minal plexuses, their fineness, superficial position, and the delicacy 

 or absence of the neurilemma, do not completely suffice as an ex- 

 planation. At all events, it is easy to show that the tactile bodies 

 of Meissner and Wagner are not tactile organs, in the sense in- 

 tended by Weber. Apart from the circumstance, that Wagner's 

 account of their structure is incorrect, we find that all the essential 

 functions of the skin can also be fulfilled without such bodies. The 

 sensation of warmth and cold, of tickling, of pressure, of pricking, 

 of burning, or of pain, takes place in the entire extent of the 

 skin, and in parts where such bodies are decidedly wanting, 

 which sufficiently shows that they have not, in the remotest degree, 

 the importance which has been ascribed to them by Wagner. 

 Nevertheless, it is plainly not without some reason that they are 

 situated in places in which the sensibility to pressure is the most 

 delicate, and which we use pi minently as organs of touch, as on 

 the extremities of the finge , the tip of the tongue, and the 

 margins of the lips ; and I rej rd them as parts, which, by virtue 

 of their composition, which cor* ists jirincijially of dense, immature 

 connective and elastic tissue, impart a certain firmness to the apices 

 of the papilla; , and serve as a firmer support to the nerves ; whence 

 it arises, that a pressure, which in other places is not sufficient to 

 compress the nerves, here operates. They are, accordingly, to be 

 regarded as organs like the phalangeal bones and the nails, not 

 essential and absolutely necessary to the sensation of pressure and 

 touch, but only capable of rendering the function more acute 

 than in other parts. If, in this sense, they are designated tactile 

 bodies, I have nothing to object, only then the phalanges and the 

 nails, and the ' whiskers ' of quadrupeds, may be with the same 

 propriety ealled tactile organs. 



The contractility of the skin shows itself in the wrinkling of the 



