Abstract
In the substantia corneae in the human adult there are seen nerve elements, which are mostly composed of fine vegetative, but partly of thick sensory fibres.
Also in the cornea the termination of the vegetative fibres are repre-sented as the terminalreticulum, as Reiser pointed out. The development of this terminalreticulum is very strong. It distributes widely in the sub-stantia and innervate the corneal cells not only by contact, but also through their protoplasm. Then it might be thought that the lymph stream in the fluid canaliculi will be regulated by this terminalreticulum, as it is so in the blood capillaries.
Against Reiser's report, the terminalreticulum does not enter the epithelium.
The terminations of the sensory nerve fibres in the cornea are not the corpusclar endings described by many authorities. They are seen mostly in the anterior part of the substantia propria especially in its cir-cumference and divided into two kinds of the non-ramified and the rami-fied, which terminate chiefly sharply. Besides, they enter often the epi-thelium and pass into the intraepithelial fibres.
The intraepithelial fibres originate, however, generally in the plexus infraepithelialis, which is formed under the epithelium. They are repre-sented as relatively thick independent fibres, run forward not only between the epithelial cells, but also through their cell bodies and terminate finally with their free sharp end.
