Chap, xv.] PERIPHERAL NERVE-ENDINGS. 



119 



into the interior of the corpuscle, where the axis 



cylinder 'branches ; its branches re- 



tain a coiled course all along the 



tactile corpuscle (Fig. 73), anastomose 



with one another, and terminate in 



slight enlargements, pear-shaped or 



cylindrical. These enlargements, ac- 



cording to Merkel, are touch cells. 



The matrix, or main part of the 



tactile corpuscle consists, besides the 



fibrous sheath with nuclei and numer- 



ous elastic fibres, of fine bundles of 



connective tissue, and of a number 



of nucleated small cells. 



155. The end-bulbs of 

 Krause. These occur in the con- 

 junctiva of the calf and of man, and 

 are oblong or cylindrical minute cor- 

 puscles situated in the deeper layers of 



the 



Fig. 73. A Tactile 

 Corpuscle of Meiss- 

 ner from the Skin of 

 tlie Human Hand. 



Slewing the convolu- 

 tions of the nerve- 

 fibre. (E. Fischer and 

 W. Flemming.) 



Fig. 74. An End-bulb of Krause. 

 , Medullatednerve^hre^, the capsule of the 



conjunctiva, 

 near the corneal 

 margin. A medul- 

 lated nerve - fibre, 

 with Henle's sheath, 

 enters the corpuscle 

 (Fig. 74). This 

 possesses a nu- 

 cleated capsule, and 

 is a more or less 

 laminated (in man 

 more granular- 

 looking) structure, 

 numerous nuclei be- 

 ing scattered be- 

 tween the laminae. 



Of the nerve-fibre, 

 as a m l e> on l v tne 



