90 TISSUES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



Pacinian corpuscles in which the nerve fibre, instead of termi- 

 nating, passed out at the end opposite to that at which it 

 entered, eventually ending in another Pacinian body. In this 

 case the relation of the nerve fibre to the concentric capsules, 

 and of these to each other, in the neighborhood of the point 

 of exit of the nerve, was the same as in the neck. In the 

 most superficial of the concentric capsules, endothelial mark- 

 ing can be seen after treatment with nitrate of silver. 



In connection with the Pacinian corpuscles we must mention 

 the so-called " Endkolberi" (club-shaped endings), which are 

 described in the papillae of certain mucous membranes, and 

 are said to consist of an axis-cylinder, ending in an enlarge- 

 ment, surrounded by a thickened sheath. 



Meissner's Bodies, or Tactile Corpuscles. These 

 bodies occur in certain broad papillae of the skin of the volar 

 side of the fingers and of the palm in man. They can be best 

 demonstrated in vertical sections of portions of skin, made 

 across the parallel furrows, and either hardened in chromic 

 acid or in alcohol after treatment with gold. They are oblong 

 bodies, each occupying the axis of a papilla. Their outline is 

 often broken by deep notches. In each corpuscle numerous 

 cross markings are to be seen, which depend partly on the 

 existence of fine fibres, partly on the arrangement of spindle- 

 shaped nuclei. Into each body a medullated nerve fibre, pro- 

 vided with a nucleated Schwann's sheath, finds its way, and 

 then twines once or twice round it : the nerve may often be 

 followed to its upper extremity. Sometimes the fibre appears 

 to enter the corpuscle from one side, in which case it cannot 

 be traced further. 



Peripheral Nerve Cells. Fresh thin portions of human 

 skin (e. (jr., skin of the prepuce or of amputated extremities), or 

 small portions of the shaven skin of the rabbit's abdomen, are 

 placed for a few minutes in half per cent, acetic acid, and then, 

 after immersion for one or two hours in solution of chloride 

 of gold, are treated in the usual way. In sections of such skin, 

 fine nerve fibres present themselves, which, after penetrating 

 the rete malpighianum, are seen to be connected with bodies of 

 an oblong or stellate form, which are strongly stained b3*gold, 

 and often contain each a distinct, clear, nucleus-like structure. 

 These nerve cells are not really, as has been supposed, terminal 

 organs, for fine fibres are seen not only to reach them, but to 

 pass beyond them, towards the surface. Similar nerve cells 

 exist in the epithelium of the mucous membrane of the mouth 

 and of the vagina. Again, in the network of delicate non-ine- 

 dullated fibres which branch under the epithelium of the tad- 

 pole's tail, the nerve fibres are continuous with the processes 

 of branched nerve-cells. 



Recently, terminal bodies have been discovered by certain 



