OF THE SKIN. 133 



the view referred to. As for myself, having again made long-continued 

 investigations into the skin of the palm of the hand, I find that those 

 points of the papillae, or those independent papilla, which contain axile 

 corpuscles, do generally exhibit dark-bordered nerve-tubules very dis- 

 tinctly ; but from this I should, for the present at any rate, by no means be 

 led to conclude that the other papillae contain no nerves, but only vessels. 



If it be considered that dark-bordered nerve-tubules, though indeed 

 rarely in proportion, are contained in vascular papillae without axile 

 corpuscles, in the hand ; furthermore that in other places, as in the sole 

 of the foot and the lips, such papillae are found ;*and finally, that the 

 investigation of the cutaneous nerves is very difficult, it seems more 

 judicious to suspend one's judgment upon this question, especially as it 

 is possible, that pale, non-medullated, nerve-tubules, similar to those 

 which I discovered in the skin of the Mouse, exist in man also. How- 

 ever, I am by no means disinclined to agree with Wagner this far, 

 that in the palm it is almost exclusively the papillae with axile corpuscles 

 which contain dark-bordered nerves, for to say the least, it is very re- 

 markable that in these papillae the nerves are so readily and satisfac- 

 torily displayed. As to the possible existence of non-medullated fibres 

 in the papillae without axile corpuscles, it is certainly too soon to express 

 any definite opinion. With regard to the vessels, it is incorrect, uncon- 

 ditionally to deny their existence in those papillae which contain nerves. 

 In the compound papillae it is unquestionably true, that the cusps with 

 axile corpuscles and nerves frequently contain no vessels ; at other times, 

 however, even these contain a capillary loop, and this is still more fre- 

 quently the case in the simple papillae with nerves. In the lip, the 

 papillae containing nerves, whether they possess axile corpuscles or not 

 contain vessels for the most part, if not always, and there are rela- 

 tively very few papillae in which no nerves are visible. The tongue pos- 

 sesses vessels and nerves in all the larger papillae ; on the other hand, 

 I have as yet been unable to discover nerves in the simple papillae 

 buried in the epithelium. It is yet to be ascertained how the nerves are dis- 

 posed in other parts of the skin. It is surprising to me, that even in the 

 sole of the foot, dark-bordered nerve-tubules can so rarely be perceived 

 in the papillae, while in many situations they cannot be found at all. 



Further investigations are required to determine to what extent dark- 

 bordered nerves are distributed in the papillae of the skin ; whether, 

 perhaps, non-medullated fibres occur instead of them ; or whether, in 

 certain situations, the nerves do not enter the papillae at all, but end in, 

 the well-known superficial plexus at their base. 



With respect to the dark-bordered nerves in the papillae of the hand, 

 Wagner is wrong in asserting that the nervous loops which I have 

 figured are bloodvessels. He has only imperfectly seen the nerves of the 

 papillae in question, perhaps on account of his having preferred the use 

 of caustic soda, which more easily destroys them. Latterly, in making 



