Minute Anatomy of the ['^SoVrnTi-STS' 
I consider them as unconnected with the sensuous nerve of taste, 
and belonging to the afferent or efferent nerves of the cerebro- 
spinal system. Dr. Beale regards them as afferent fibres of the 
nerve centres, the efferent fibres being distributed to the muscular 
coat of the small arteries. They can occasionally be traced over 
the capillary ring, though generally at the level of this part all 
the structures are very adherent, and the granular matter with the 
numerous nerve nuclei much obscure them. The inosculations of 
these capillary nerve-fibres are exceedingly numerous, and though I 
have traced them as connected with dark-bordered fibres through 
very long distances, and often by apparently only single fibres, their 
true nature is difficult to establish (Fig. 8). 
On either side are the beautiful branched muscular fibres, the 
attenuated extremities of which, after having lost their muscular 
character, are inserted into the connective tissue near the summit 
of the papilla. In some of the fine branches, the sarcous elements 
seemed to dwindle down most gradually until, even with a high 
power, it was impossible to distinguish more than one sarcous 
element in the filament. The fine nucleated nerve-fibres which join 
dark-bordered nerve-fibres, or pass from or into the fine nucleated 
nerve-fibres of the capillaries course round their branches, often as 
a most delicate plexus, and intercommunicate amongst the other 
nerve-fibres which run in the connective tissue of the filiform 
papillae. The mode in which some of the nerve-fibres are seen to 
approach the muscles will be described under Fig. 9, 
Outside is the fine membrane of connective tissue inclosing the 
entire papillary organ as far as the neck, which I think can some- 
times be traced over the nerve expansion as far as the central tuft 
of nucleated cylinder rods, and where these are broken away, I 
have seen the fine membrane covering the bald summit ; but 
whether this may have been caused by unequal pressure forcing 
the fine membrane from below over the top, is uncertain, but I 
am disposed to regard it at this point, as a basement membrane 
common to the nucleated germinal masses and adjacent parts. It 
is continuous with the surrounding filiform papillae, and supports, 
besides the ciliated epithelial structures, two kinds of mucous 
crypts, the circular and elongated, to which, whether examined from 
without or from within, I have never been able to discover any 
aperture or duct. When the little circular masses are picked out 
or pressed away, there remain distinct sharp-edged apertures in the 
connective tissue, corresponding to the position they occupied ; 
whilst the elongated form I have not been able to set free in the 
same manner. Whether they, though so similar in their micro- 
scopic structural appearances, oflfer any diff'erence in their secretions, 
assuming them to be secreting organs, or whether the viscidity of 
the frog's tongue is secreted as such, or as a thinner fluid which, 
