382 MANUAL OF HISTOLOGY. 



three similarly formed cells. Sometimes the poms is formed 

 by a single- perforated cell. The short canal in the epithelial 

 cells is surrounded in like manner. In each taste-goblet two 

 varieties of cells may be distinguished the exterior or super- 

 ficial cells, called roof- or supporting-cells, and the interior, or 

 central cells, called taste- or rod-cells. The roof -cells, which 

 may be considered as modified epithelial cells, surround the 

 taste-goblets as petals envelop a bud. Their arrangement with 

 relation to one another is imbricated. The cells themselves 

 are long, narrow, spindle-shaped, arid curved, and each one 

 has a well-marked nucleus. The peripheral end of the cell is 

 pointed, while the central extremity is sometimes ramified. 

 The taste- or rod-cells are long, slender, and highly refractive. 

 A nucleus of unusual size almost entirely fills their bodies, while 

 their extremities pass into two distinct prolongations the pe- 

 ripheral or superior, and the central or inferior. The peripheral 

 prolongation is moderately broad, and has a short, delicate 

 extremity, which resembles a small rod or hair. Hence the 

 name rod-cell. These rods are located inside the short canal, 

 and rarely project above the porus. The inferior prolongation 

 is divided into several rootlets. The connection of nerve-fila- 

 ments with the taste-goblets has never yet been conclusively 

 demonstrated, although all authorities agree as to the proba- 

 bility of such connection. Many aggregations of ganglionic 

 cells, of greater or less size, are found in the course of the 

 nerve-bundles, near the circumvallate as well as near the fili- 

 form papillae. In the fungiform papillae the nerves enter the 

 axis of the papillae as small trunks, composed of fibres with 

 double contours. These divide into single nerve-filaments, 

 some of which terminate in bulbs, which are located in the lat- 

 eral surfaces of the fungiform papillae, under the secondary 

 papillae. The fibrils which run into the axis pass into pale ter- 

 minal filaments, and disappear in a brush-like extremity in a 

 granular mass composed of neurilemma its nuclei, and nu- 

 merous circular granules the gustatory granules. These last 

 consist of a globular nucleus, surrounded by a very small 

 amount of cell-protoplasm. The resemblance of the above to 

 the interior roof-cells of the acoustic terminal apparatus, and 

 to the rods and cones of the retina, is striking. 



The conical or secondary papillae are of the same general 

 construction us the fungiform throughout ; but they present 



