Abstract
The earliest general references are Eberth and Bunge (1893) and Ecker and Wiedersheim (1904), who described myelinated and unmyelinated axons entering the dermis and forming a deep and a superficial plexus. Axons emerging from these plexuses branched profusely, losing their myelin and terminating as free nerve endings in both dermal and epidermal layers. Eberth and Bunge described “Endzellen” lying close under the epidermis, from which many epidermal endings were derived. Only one kind of epidermal ending has been discerned, the so-called “tactile corpuscle” (Merkel, 1880), which showed a rudimentary lamellation. Neither this nor the Endzellen have been mentioned in later work (e.g. Whitear, 1955), although literature on the innervation of amphibian skin is scanty. Thus one appears to be dealing very largely with a population of free nerve endings, subserving all modes of cutaneous sensation.
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Catton, W.T. (1976). Cutaneous Mechanoreceptors. In: Frog Neurobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66316-1_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66316-1_21
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