TACTILE BODIES. 277 



point is so far of importance, that we have, by means of 

 these observations, been made acquainted with a new 

 nerveless structure. In the other kind of papillae we very 

 frequently find no vessels at all, but on the other hand 

 nerves, and those peculiar structures which have been 

 designated tactile bodies. 



A tactile body manifests itself as an oblong-oval struc- 

 ture, tolerably distinctly marked off from the remainder 

 of the papilla, and has, with some degree of boldness in- 

 deed, been compared by Wagner to a fir-cone. It is 

 generally rounded off at the upper and lower end, and 

 does not exhibit a longitudinal striation, as the Pacinian 

 bodies do, but on the contrary transverse nuclei. Now a 

 nerve runs up to every one of these bodies, and from 

 every one of them a nerve returns, or more correctly, 

 we usually see two nervous filaments, generally pretty 



Fig. 83. Nervous and vascular papillae from the skin of the end of a finger, after 

 the separation of the epidermis and rete Malpighii. A. Nervous papilla with a tac- 

 tile body, up to which ascend two primitive nerve-fibres n; at the base of the pa- 

 pilla fine elastic networks e, from which fine fibres radiate, between and on which 

 connective-tissue-corpuscles are to be seen. B, C, D. Vascular papillae, with, at C, 

 simple, at B and D, branching vascular loops, and in addition fine elastic fibres and 

 connective-tissue-corpuscles ; p. the papillary body running its horizontal course, at 

 c fine stellate cells belonging to the cutis proper. 300 diameters. 



