118 



SMELL, TASTE, ALLIED SENSES 



Fio. 30. A compound taste- 

 bud from a foliate papilla of the 

 rabbit. After Heidenhain 1914, Plate 

 23, Fig. 27. 



cell to which he gave the name of "Stabzelle" or rod cell. 

 This type of cell was said to differ from the ordinary 

 taste cell in that it was without a taste hair. It has not been 

 identified with certainty by subsequent investigators. 



The supporting cells of the taste-buds have been the 

 occasion of much difference of opinion. The older 



workers believed that these 

 cells were limited to the exte- 

 rior of the buds, but Merkel 

 (1880) showed that they also 

 occurred in the interior and 

 Ranvier (1888) . definitely 

 described both inner and outer 

 supporting cells. Hermann 

 (1889) concluded that these 

 two classes of supporting cells 

 differed not only in position but also in structure. 

 The outer cells, which he called pier cells (Pfeilerzellen), 

 were relatively large pyramidal elements whose 

 nuclei were proximal in location and whose distal 

 ends terminated in a zone marked with fine vertical 

 stripings. For the inner supporting cells Hermann used 

 Schwalbe's term of rod cells (Stabzellen) without, how- 

 ever, wishing thereby to imply that they were of a sensory 

 nature. They were said to differ from the pier cells 

 in that they were devoid of the peripheral striped zone. 

 Hermann also described basal supporting cells which to 

 the number of two to four were found in the proximal 

 part of the taste-buds. Von Lenhossek (1893b) doubted 

 the existence of basal cells and described four not very 

 sharply separate types of supporting cells. Graberg 

 (1899) reidentified in human material the basal cells dis- 



