Presumed Sensory Cells in Fish Epidermis

Abstract

METHYLENE blue, injected subcutaneously, will stain particular elongated cells, spindle-shaped or flask-shaped, in the epidermis of various teleost fish. Such cells were found by Whitear¹ in the minnow (Phoxinus laevis), and afterwards in several other species, both freshwater and marine; that paper should be consulted for references to the scanty earlier literature on the subject. It was suggested that these cells are receptors for the common chemical sense, but as it seems preferable to describe them by a term not indicative of a supposed function, they will be called ‘spindle cells’ here. For technical reasons, the exact relationship of the spindle cells to the surface of the skin, and to nerve fibres, could not be ascertained by means of the light microscope.