u8 



ELEMENTS OF HISTOLOGY. [Chap. xv. 



peripheral capsules, and supplies them with a few 

 capillary vessels. 



153. The corpuscles of Herbst are similar to 

 the Pacinian corpuscles, with this difference, that they 

 are smaller and more elongated, that the axis cylinder 

 of the central space is bordered by 

 a continuous row of nuclei, and 

 that the capsules are thinner and 

 more closely placed (Fig. 72). 

 This applies especially to those 

 near the central space, and here 

 between these central capsules we 

 miss the nuclei indicating the en- 

 dothelial plates. Such is the nature 

 of Herbst's corpuscles in the mucous 

 membrane of the tongue of the 

 duck, and to a certain degree also 

 in those of the rabbit, and in 

 tendons. 



154. The tactile corpus- 

 cles, or corpuscles of Meiss- 

 ner, occur in the papillae of the 

 corium of the volar side of the 

 fingers and toes in man and ape ; 

 they are oblong, straight, or 

 slightly folded. In man they are 

 about ^i-Q to 3^-5- of an inch long, 

 and -^ to ^IJo of an inch 

 broad. They are connected 

 with a medullated nerve fibre generally one, occa- 

 sionally, but rarely, two with a sheath of Henle. 

 The nerve-fibre enters the corpuscle, but usually 

 before doing so it winds round the corpuscle as a 

 medullated fibre once or twice or oftener, and its 

 Henle's sheath becomes fused with the fibrous capsule 

 or sheath of the tactile corpuscle. The nerve-fibre 

 ultimately loses its medullary sheath and penetrates 



Fig. 72. A Herbst's 

 Corpuscle, from the 

 Tongue of Duck. 



a, The medullated nerve- 

 fibre cut away. 



