278 LECTURE XL 



close to one another, which can be readily traced up to 

 the side or base of the body. After this point their 

 course is very doubtful, and in different cases the condi- 

 tions vary so much that we have not yet succeeded in 

 making out with certainty the relation of the nerves to 

 these bodies. In many cases, namely, the nerve is very 

 distinctly seen to ascend and also to entwine itself 

 around the body. Sometimes it seems as if the body 

 really lay in a nervous loop, and thus the possibility of a 

 more concentrated action on the part of external agen- 

 cies upon the surface of the nerve was provided for. At 

 other times again it looks as if the nerve came to a ter- 

 mination much sooner, and buried itself in the body. 

 Some have assumed, with Meissner, that the body itself 

 belongs to the nerve which resolves itself into it. This 

 I do not hold to be correct, and the only point which 

 seems to me to be doubtful is, whether the nerve ends 

 in the body or forms a loop around it. 



Apart from anatomical and physiological considera- 

 tions, this example is of great value in the interpreta- 

 tion of pathological phenomena, because we here find 

 two complete contrasts in parts which in themselves are 

 quite analogous ; for, on the one hand, we have nerve- 

 less but vascular, on the other, non-vascular, papillae, 

 yet provided with nerves. The peculiar relations which 

 the layers of the rete mucosum and epidermis bear to 

 the two kinds of papillae, do not appear to present 

 any essential differences. They are nourished just as 

 perfectly over- the one sort as over the other, and seem 

 to be just as little provided with nerves over the one as 

 over the other. 



These are facts which indicate a certain independence 

 in individual parts and furnish distinct evidence that 

 parts of considerable size and even richly provided with 

 nerves can subsist, maintain their existence and perform 



