Skin

SKIN

  • The skin or the common integument is the protective covering of the body and is continuous at the natural orifices with the mucous membranes of digestive, respiratory and urinogential tracts.
  • It acts as a sense organ concerned with the reception of pain, temperature (warmth and cold), touch (coarse touch and tactile) and pressure sensations.
  • There are various types of nerve endings in the skin, some in the epidermis, others in the dermis, around roots of hairs etc., which serve as the receptors for the above sensations. These include
    • Free nerve endings in the epidermis for plain.
    • Merkel’s discs, Meissner’s corpuscles, Peritrichial plexus etc, for touch and tactile sensations.
    • Ruffini’s corpuscles for warmth and Krause’s corpuscles for cold.
    • Pacinian corpuscles for pressure sensation.  

Last modified: Wednesday, 2 May 2012, 7:40 AM