TACTILE CORPUSCLES 



349 



the nerve-fibre ; in the middle of the swelling the nerve- 

 fibre itself ends abruptly in a peculiar manner. These 

 bodies are especially found in the papillte of those 

 localities wliich are endowed with a very delicate sense of 

 touch, as in the tips of 

 the fingers, the point of 

 the tongue, «S:c. ; and the 

 papillae which contain tac- 

 tile corpuscles generally 

 contain few or no blood- 

 vessels. 



Tactile corpuscles 

 occur most numerously 

 in the papillse of the skin 

 of the palmar surface of 

 the hand, especially of 

 the finger-tips ; they are 

 also present, but much 

 less numerously, on the 

 plantar surfaces of the 

 skin of the toes, and are 

 commonest on parts of 

 the skin where there is 

 no hair. Each corpuscle 

 forms an elongated, bulb- 

 ous swelling about 75/x 

 (;5^y inch) in length at 

 the end of the nerve-fibre 

 to which it is attached, 



and lies with its long axis pointing to the top of the 

 papilla. The corpuscle consists of a .sheath or capsule of 

 connective tissue inside of which are some nucleated cells 

 intermixed with connective tissue derived from the outer 

 sheath. The ners'e which supplies the corpuscle ap- 

 proaches ^it at its side, winds once or twice round it and 

 then enters the body of the corpuscle, where it divides 



Fig. 109. — Tactile Corpuscle with- 

 in A Papilla of the Skin ok 



THE BaKD (RaNVIKR), 



n.n, two nerve fibres passing to 

 the corjiuscle ; ".«. varicose termina- 

 tions of the nerve fibres inside the 

 corpuscle. 



