TOUCH-CORPUSCLES ; 



427 



there are no blood-vessels. Since these peculiar bodies in 

 which the nerve-fibres end are only met with in the papillae 

 of highly sensitive parts, it may be inferred that they are 

 specially concerned in the sense of touch, yet their absence 

 from the papillae of other tactile parts shows that they are 

 not essential to this sense. 



Closely allied in structure to the Pacinian corpuscles 

 and touch- corpuscles are some little bodies about ^-^th of 

 an inch in diameter, first particularly described by Krause, 

 and somewhat awkwardly named by him " end-bulbs." 

 They are generally oval or spheroidal, and composed 

 externally of a coat of connective tissue enclosing a softer 

 matter, in which the extremity of a nerve terminates. 

 These bodies have been found chiefly in the lips, tongue, 

 palate, and the skin of the glans penis (fig. 107). 



Although destined especially for the sense of touch, the 

 papillae are not so placed as to come into direct contact 

 Fig. 107.* B 



* Fig. 107. End-bulbs in papillae (magnified) treated with acetic acid. 

 A. from the lips ; the white loops in one of them are capillaries. B, from 

 the tongue. Two end-bulbs seen in the midst of the simple papillse : 

 a, a, nerves (from Kolliker). 



