(From the Amer. Journ. of Psych., vol I, 1888, p. 705.) 
Sulla riproduzione degli Organi Gustatorii. Luigi Griffini. Rendiconti 
Reale Istituto Lombardo, ser. n, vol. xx, 1887, pp. 667-683, 2 tavole. 
Dr. Luigi Griffini, of Modena, has quite lately published {Rendiconti del 
Reale Istituto Lombardo, xx, 1887) an interesting memoir containing the 
results of his experimental study of the reproduction of the gustatory papillae 
and regeneration of the taste-bulbs in the rabbit and dog. It appears from 
his experiments that destruction (partial or complete) of the organs of taste 
is effected in two ways : First, by direct removal from the animal of the 
papillae themselves; and secondly, by division of the glosso-pharyngeal 
nerves. After excision of the whole or a part of a papilla foliata of the rab- 
bit, the area corresponding to the part removed becomes slightly depressed, 
and between the 5th and 8th day is revested with pavement epithelium. Later, 
from the 16th to the 20th day, a few small hemispherical elevations make 
their appearance, and these subsequently increase in size and number. 
During this period also many of the injured gland ducts undergo repair and 
become continuous with the free surface of the epithelium. Other ducts are 
found in the submucosa with their external opening closed, and greatly 
dilated by retained glandular secretion. The nuclei of the cells of the newly 
formed epithelium, both of the papilla and ducts, exhibit varied karyokinetic 
phases. Within the secondary papillary processes of the elevations above 
referred to, taste-bulbs, lying partly in the mucosa (and in process of forma- 
tion), first make their appearance. Ten days after the complete excision of 
a papilla circumvallata of the dog, the area of removal is reclothed with 
epithelium, and the ducts communicate with the free surface. •. Twenty to 
thirty days later, a slightly raised and more or less rounded elevation of the 
mucosa is decernible, anal gous to the reproduced elevations of the foliate 
organ. At the 40th day, (in a single instance only) a few taste-bulbs, situated 
at the lateral margin of an elevation, were seen. The outer enclosing wall 
of the trench is not reproduced, the newly formed papilla having the char- 
acters of the fungiform type. Following section of the glosso-pharyngeals, 
the papillag are changed but slightly, but the taste-bulbs begin to degenerate 
within 23 hours. The taste-cells are first destroyed, disappearing completely 
by the 5th day; the supporting cells soon after undergo atrophy, and by the 
28th day no bulbs are visible. At the 76th day after the division of the nerves, 
bulbs, in various stages of formation, were seen; but by the 209th day their 
development was still incomplete. Griffini rejects the theory of direct con- 
tinuity between nerve-fibres and epithelial cells. He asserts that reproduc- 
tion of the papillae after their partial or complete removal always takes place. 
The reproduction of the taste-bulbs, following the removal of a papilla or 
after section of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve, is effected in the following 
way: The axis cylinders of the divided nucleated nerve-fibres are regene- 
rated and penetrate the epithelium; active prolification of the adjacent 
epithelial cells then occurs, the latter arranging themselves around the 
interepithelial nerve-fibrils and forming the supporting cells of the bulbs. 
This research of Griffini, although still incomplete, is a valuable contribu- 
tion, not only to our knowledge of the taste organs, but also from its bearing 
upon certain histogenetic and morphological questions. The results attained 
by him, respecting the origin of the taste-bulbs, are in the main very differ- 
ent from those reached by such observers as Ranvier, v. Vintschgau and 
Honigschmied. Griffini has likt wise made a similar experimental study of the 
organ of smell, the motorial end-plate of the muscle-fibre, and the retina of 
the lower animals, the results of which have not yet, I belieye, been 
published. s' 
F. Tuckerman.