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Meissner's corpuscles

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The tactile corpuscles of the skin. Encapsulated end-organs sensitive to light touch found in dermal papillae close to epidermis. Each is an ovoid body containing endings of myelinated and unmyelinated nerve fibres. Most numerous in hairless portion of skin, especially in palmar and volar surfaces of hands and feet. Also present in lips, eyelids, tip of tongue, and nipple.

Bibliography

  • R. Wagner and G. Meissner:
    Ueber das Vorhandensein bisher unbekannter eigenthümlicher Tastkörperchen (Corpuscula tactus) in den Gefühlswärzchen der mensclichen Haut und über die Endausbreitung sensitiver Nerven.
    Nachrichten von der Georg-Augusts-Universität und der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Heft No. 2 of February 2, 1852: 17-30. Göttingen, 1852.
  • G. Meissner:
    Beiträge zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Haut. Leipzig, 1853.
We thank Rudolf Kleinert, Bad Reichenhall, Germany, for information submitted.

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