The Monthly Mlcroscoptcall 
Journal, January 1, 1869. J 
Fungiform PapiUse. 
7 
find, in direct continuity with these httle germinal masses, a beautiful 
plexus of delicate nerve-fibres distributed through or lying on its 
summit, which can be traced on or within the fungiform cushion of 
soft viscid substance, and continuous into the filamentary division 
of the bundle of sensuous dark-bordered nerve-fibres, though 
Engelmann, I believe, regarded these fibres as terminating or lost 
in the connective tissue of the cushion.* 
Conspicuous beyond the capillary ring is the granular mass of 
soft substance, which is extremely viscid, and with difficulty, when 
once attached to the surface of the glass support, permits of being 
moved or slid from its position without altering its general shape ; 
hence giving rise under varied conditions of pressure to difierent 
appearances. Some project beyond the ring of capillaries, as pear- 
shaped expansions, the stem being formed by the bundle of sensuous 
nerve-fibres ; others are more or less rectangular in outline and less 
adhesive, these I regard as denser and older, subject also to being 
contracted by various media in which they may be placed for 
examination (Fig. 7). Of the nature of this expansion I am entirely 
ignorant : whether it should be regarded as belonging to the nerve, 
developed as a substance for protecting the fine plexus and ofiering 
a soft support ; or whether it has properties of its own in retaining 
more or Jess the sapid qualities of the materials presented for taste, 
it is difficult to answer. I regard it as something more than a 
mere mass of connective tissue, although adherent at its general 
surface with the fine membrane of connective tissue which surrounds 
the whole of the contents of the papilla, as I find it stained of the 
same tint as the nerves by my method, whilst the latter often 
remains pale. I cannot detect any particular intimate structure 
beyond very delicate granulation. Tracing the dark-bordered 
bundle of nerve-fibres inwards from the papillary mass, we find 
them divide at the base of the papilla or near to it, as remarked by 
Dr. Beale, into two divisions, by which means the action of the 
papillae may be harmonized as far as regards the sensuous 
impression. 
Outside the nerve expansion in the summit of the fungiform 
papillae we find a large capillary hoop or ring, the attachment to 
the two leading branches being often much dilated, and the whole 
accompanied by a surrounding plexus of fine nucleated nerves. 
Some of these fine fibres pass from them to the bundle of sensuous 
dark-bordered nerve-fibres and run in the same sheath of connective 
tissue, but in trying various media in examining these papillae, I 
have often been enabled to see them crossing it and emerging on 
the opposite side ; so that although bound up in the same bundle, 
* Engelmann says that, althoiigli lie cannot assert with absolute certainty, yet 
he can do so with the utmost probability, that the finest nerve-fibres are connected 
with the central processes of the Gabel-zellen. P. 157. 
