Meissner's Corpuscles


Meissner’s Corpuscles

 

tactile corpuscles, in some mammals and man, nerve endings sensitive to tactile stimuli; discovered by the German scientist G. Meissner (1829–1905) and studied in detail by the Russian histologist A. S. Dogel’ in 1892.

Meissner’s corpuscles are oval bodies, 40 to 180 microns (jit) long and 30–60 μ, wide. They consist of tactile cells of neuroglial nature and branchings of nearby neural fibers. In man, Meissner’s corpuscles’are most numerous on the palmar and plantar surfaces of the skin of the fingers and toes, respectively.