NERVE E.VDTNGS IN CONNECTIVE TISSUE 



165 



FIG. 180. RUFFINI'S END 

 ORGAN. 



A single nerve fiber breaks 

 up to form the tangle of nerve 

 fibrils within the organ, gll, 

 medullary sheath; il, terminal 

 fibrils of the axis cylinder; L, 

 connective tissue capsule. (Af- 

 ter Ruffini.) 



ally at its end. X/o\\- and 

 tributed to several of 1 IK-SI- 



various subcutaneous endings mediate sub- 

 cutaneous sensibility to pressure and move- 

 ment. 



2. Ruffini 's End Organs. These 

 bodies, also known as terminal cylinders, 

 resemble the tactile corpuscles in structure 

 but possess a definite, though thin, connec- 

 tive tissue sheath within which the ter- 

 minal arborization of the nerve fiber is 

 embedded in a granular core. They occur 



FIG. 181. END BULB OF KRATJSE FROM THE MAR- 

 GIN OF THE OCULAR CONJUNCTIVA. 



The axon forms a dense skein within the en- 

 capsulated bulb. Methylene blue. Highly mag- 

 nified. (After Dogiel.) 



in the deeper part of the true skin near its 

 junction with the subcutaneous tissue and 

 in the connective tissue septa of the latter, 

 whereas the tactile corpuscles are found in 

 the papillary layer of the skin. Ruffini 

 (Arch. ital. de biol., 1894) states that they 

 occur in large numbers in the skin of the 

 finger tips, where they rival in number the 

 rather more deeply placed Pacinian cor- 

 puscles. 



The Ruffini organs are cylindrical in 

 shape and their nerve fibers usually enter 

 at the side of the organ, though occasion- 

 then a single branching nerve fiber is dis- 

 end organs. 



