CUTANEOUS SENSIBILITY 



25 



where there are hairs, representing, according to v. Frey, about 

 95 per cent of the total cutaneous area, the 

 various corpuscles we have referred to are not 

 absent, but become less frequent, .and are 

 further apart in proportion as cutaneous sensi- 

 bility in its different forms is less acute. To 

 compensate for this the hairy parts of the skin 

 contain a specially important form of nerve- 

 ending, which is absent in other regions this 

 is the nerve -plexus, which can be seen round 

 the hair follicles beneath the mouth of the 

 sebaceous glands. Arnstein (1876) with the 

 gold chloride method first successfully demon- 

 strated the nerve - endings around ordinary 

 hairs. He saw that after reaching the hair- 

 follicle the medullated fibres lose their medul- 

 lary sheath, divide, and give rise to a series of 

 annular and longitudinal fibrils. The latter 



Fio. 15. Rare variety of 

 Pacinian corpuscle. 

 (Riiffini and Sfameni.) 



Pio. 16. Ruffini's corpuscle, showing nerve-fibres entering from the side. (Rufflni.) fc.c., blood 

 capillaries ; n.e., nerve endings ; C., capsule ; c.t., connective tissue. 



are highly varicose and more external ; they rise along the hyaline 

 layer towards the surface of the skin, and terminate in wide disc- 



