THE CUTANEOUS PAPILLA. 357 



from which fine looped vessels project and enter the papillae, Fig. 67, 

 5. The lymphatics also form a close network on the surface. The 

 nerves pass upwards from the subcutaneous cellular tissue, and form, 

 as they approach the surface, minute plexuses, from which nerve-fibres 

 are given off. Some of these fibres are lost in the compact tissue of 

 the cutis ; others end, perhaps, in loops ; whilst, lastly, many of them 

 pass into certain of the papillae only, for it is said that some of these 

 do not receive nerve-fibres. In the papillae, the fibres end in loops, 



Fig. 67. 



Fig. 67. a, a larger view of the cutaneous papillae, showing the secondary papillae into which they are 

 often divided. Magnified about 60 diameters, ft, still larger diagrammatic view of two simple cutaneous 

 papillae, with their epidermic covering. 1, dry scaly part of epidermis. 2, soft part, or rete mucosum, 

 consisting of compressed cells. 3, cntis, or true skin. 4, papilla. 5, vascular capillary loop in one papilla. 

 6, tactile corpuscle, with two nerve-fibres winding up, and becoming lost upon it. (Kolliker.) 



or, as in the fingers, the sole of the foot, and, according to Kolliker, 

 on the red margin of the lip and the point of the tongue, they appear 

 to terminate on, or in, small oval condensed bodies, called tactile cor- 

 puscles or axile bodies, Fig. 67, 6 (Wagner), situated in the centre of 

 the papillae ; or they become lost in the central part of those papillae 

 which are unprovided with distinct tactile corpuscles. In any case, it 

 has been supposed that the nerve-fibre turns back to rejoin some nerve- 

 cell in the nervous centres. (Beale.) The tactile corpuscle fills up 

 the greater portion of the papilla, and according to some is surrounded 

 by the ends of the nerves ; by Gerlach, it is also said to be perforated 

 by them. According to Wagner, these bodies have altogether a spe- 

 cial structure ; but, by Kolliker, they are said to consist of condensed 

 homogeneous connective tissue, covered by imperfectly developed elas- 

 tic fibres, resembling the interlacing bundles of areolar tissue and 

 elastic fibres of the true skin. Huxley considers the axile bodies to 

 be formed by the continuation of the neurilemma or sheath of the 

 nerve, which is much developed in this situation. In the conjunctiva, 

 lips, and other parts, the axile body sometimes presents a knob-like 

 form, and consists of a fine nucleated sheath, containing a granular 

 plasma, within which the axis-cylinder of the nerve ends in a simple 

 blunt point. (Krause.) Their number varies in different parts ; on 



