CFTAlfEOTTS NERVE-TEBMINATTONS IN" MAMMALS. 555 



Directing now our attention to the nerve-termination, our first 

 proposition is, tliat as a principle (hitherto apparently overlooked) 

 there is no difference in the character of the various nerve-ele- 

 ments supplied to all kinds of hairs, or in the respective position 

 of these elements upon the hair-follicle, although the number, 

 or even the shape, of the elements may vary considerably 

 upon different hairs and between different categories of hairs, 

 e. cj. between feelers and ordinary hairs as they exist upon the 

 same animal, but more especially as they exist in different classes 

 of animals. Enumerating these nerve-elements in the order in 

 which they come (from below upwards) on the follicle, we 

 find:— 



1st. The medullated nerve-fibres passing from the great nerve-centres 

 towards the hairs. 



2nd. These fibres, on reaching the hair, losing their myeline sheath ot 

 medulla, and ending : — 



a. In branched ganglionic nerve-cells lying in the lower strata of 

 epidermic cellular sheath lining the follicle. 



h. In fork-shaped parallel fibrils, from one to four in number, par- 

 allel to the axis of the hair. 



c. In a coil of non-medullated fibrils surrounding the fork-shaped 

 terminations, and placed immediately underneath the opening of the 

 sebaceous gland into the follicle, 

 .""ird. Intraepithelial, non-medullated, but varicose nerve-fibrils ramifying 

 among the epidermic cells lining the follicle. 



The Medullated Nerves passing to Hairs. 



Of the medullated nerve-fibres passing to the hairs, little need 

 be said. They represent the main insulated telegraphic channels 

 along which nervous influence or influences pass between the cen- 

 tral nerve-centres in the brain and spinal cord and the nerve-ter- 

 minations, or it may be, as we shall show, the peripheral nerve- 

 centres on the hair-follicle. If, however, there be nervous influ- 

 ences of various kinds, such as the sense of touch, of tempe- 

 rature, &c., passing along separate nerve-fibres, there is no 

 differentiation iu the anatomical structure of these that allows 

 them to be recognized as the carriers of the one or the other 

 influence. 



In tlie feelers the number of these nerves varies consider- 

 ably according to the size of the hair ; and we have counted 

 between 300 and 400 nerves on several occasions on some of the 



