OF THE SKIN. L23 



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 ; aud 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. However, I am by no means disinclined to agree with 

 Wagner thus 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 remarkable that in these papilla? 

 the nerves are so readily and satisfactorily 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 

 opiuion. With regard to the vessels, it is incorrect, uncondi- 

 tionally 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 i3 still more frequently the case in 

 the simple papillae with nerves. In the lip, the papillae con- 

 taining nerves, whether they possess axile corpuscles or not, 

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

 relatively very few papillae in which no nerves are visible. 

 The tongue possesses 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 disposed 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 per- 

 ceived in the papillae, while in many situations they cannot be 

 found at all. 



Further investigations are required to determine to what ex- 

 tent 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 papilke 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 



