NERVE FIBERS 



227 



nerve fibrillse form a plexus beneath the true skin and send 

 branches thence to the follicles, though the exact mode of 

 termination is a question of 

 some obscurity. 



Terminations between epi- 

 thelial cells are probably more 

 common than any other meth- 

 od of sensory distribution. 

 The fibers, having passed to 

 the surface of the skin or mu- 

 cous membrane, lose every- 

 thing excepting the axis cylin- 

 der, which, dividing into mi- 

 nute ramifications, passes, by 

 means of these fibrillae, 

 among the epithelial cells. 

 This mode of termination is 

 held by some to prevail in the 

 glands. It certainly prevails 

 in parts other than the skin 

 and mucous membranes. 



Sensory nerves further ter- 

 minate in (a) the corpuscles 

 of P acini or Vater, (b) the end 

 bulbs, or tactile corpuscles of 

 Krause, (c) the tactile corpus- 

 cles of Meissner, (d) the 

 tactile menisques, and (e) the 

 corpuscles of Golgi. 



(a) The Pacinian Corpus- 

 cles are oval elongated bodies- 

 Each corpuscular body has a 



FIG. 70. Vater's or Pacini's 

 corpuscle. 



a, stalk; b. nerve fiber entering it; 



- P " , , -,, r~ i c, d., connective-tissue envelope; e, 

 length of about 1 /12 of an inch, axis-cylinder with its end divided 



and is about half as broad. It 



at /. (Landois.) 



is made up of a number of concentric layers of connective 

 tissue in a hyaline ground substance and is attached by a 



