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All are formed on essentially the same plan; a fibrous capsule invests a group of epithelial cells amongst which a nerve ramifies. The simplest form is known as a Grandry’s corpuscle-a nerve ending in one or two plates between two or three epithelial cells. These organs are found in great numbers in the bills of aquatic birds. If a duck is watched whilst it is gobbling mud at the margin of a pond, it will be seen to have a remarkable capacity for discriminating between the shells of small snails, which it can crush, and stones, which it needs to drop from its bill. Its bill is also provided with small Pacinian corpuscles.

Author

The Body at Work
by Alexander Hill
Published 1908
Available from gutenberg.org

Posted on

Tuesday 1 September 2020

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900*538

Tags

human

Albums

• Natural History / Anatomy
• People / Physiology

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