12 
coming from the extreme left of the papilla, for example, may 
be situated a very short distance from a fibre coming from 
the opposite side. Any object, therefore, which connects the 
exposed projections would produce a temporary disturbance 
in the nerve-currents which are traversing these fibres, aud 
this alteration in the current would, of course, produce a 
change in the cell or cells which form part of the same circuit 
in the nerve-centre. Any strong pressure would influence all 
the fibres distributed to this delicate nervous ors:an. 
The supposed mode of action is explained by the plan 
(PI. II, fig. 4). 
Nerve-fibres ramifying upon the capillary vessels, in the con- 
nective tissue, and upon the muscular fibres. 
Many of the so-called connective-tissue corpuscles, with 
their anastomosing processes or “ tubes,” are really nerve- 
nuclei and very fine pale nerve-fibres, as has already been 
shown in observations upon the frog’s bladder. In the tongue 
I have followed these fine fibres in very many specimens. 
They can only be seen and traced in specimens prepared in 
syrup, glycerine, or other viscid medium miscible in all pro- 
portions with water. 
In PI. I, fig. 1,/, and in fig. 8, one of these fine branches, 
coming oft' from a bundle of dark-bordered fibres, is repre- 
sented. Now, if examined by a low power, this might be 
mistaken for a fibre of connective tissue ; but it really con- 
sists of several very fine fibres, which in their arrangement 
exhibit the same peculiarities observed in nerves ramifying 
in larger trunks (PL IV, figs. 20, 23). Tbe fine branches 
divide and subdivide, and the delicate fibres resulting from 
their division can be followed for a very long distance. The 
finest are composed of several finer fibres, and they form net- 
works or plexuses, the meshes of which vary much in size. 
The branches which are distributed around the capillaries, 
in the connective tissue, and to the muscular fibres, seem to 
result from the division and subdivision of the same fibres 
(PL I, fig. 1). 
Nerves which are constantly distributed external to the 
capillary vessels and in the connective tissue have been 
demonstrated by me (PL III, fig. 15) (see ‘ Archives,’ vol. iv, 
p. 19). I consider these fibres as the afferent fibres through 
which an impression conveyed from the surface or from the 
tissues around capillaries influences the motor nerves distri- 
buted to the small arteries from which the capillaries are 
derived. It is probable that these nerve-fibres pass to the 
