THE STRUCTURE OF THE ELEMENTARY TISSUES. 



105 



ment commonly found at the end of the fibre is said by Pacini to re- 

 semble a ganglion corpuscle; but this observation hasnot been confirmed. 

 In some cases two nerves have been seen entering one Pacini an body, 

 and in others a nerve after passing unaltered through one has been ob- 



Fig. 110. Summit of a Pacinian corpuscle of the human finger, showing the endothelial membranes 

 lining the capsules. X 220. (Klein and Noble Smith.) 



served to terminate in a second Pacinian corpuscle. The physiological 

 import of these bodies is still obscure. 



2. The tactile corpuscles of Meissner (figs. Ill, 112) are found in the 



Fig. 111. A touch-corpuscle of Meissner, from the skin of the human hand. 



papilla of the skin of the fingers and toes, or among its epithelium. They 

 may be simple or compound. When simple they are small, slightly flat- 

 tened transparent bodies composed of nucleated cells enclosed in a cap- 

 sule. When compound, the capsule contains several small cells. The 

 corpuscles are about -g^-g- of an inch long to -5^-3- of an inch wide. The 

 nerve-fibre penetrates the corpuscle, loses its myeline sheath, and divides 



