Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
Ruf·fi·ni's corpuscle Pronunciation:
ru-'fE-nEz- Variant:
or Ruf·fi·ni corpuscle /-nE-/ Function:
noun : any of numerous oval sensory end organs occurring in the subcutaneous tissue of the fingers called also
Ruffini's brush, Ruffini's end organRufáfiáni /rüf-'fE-nE,/ Angelo (1864–1929), Italian histologist and embryologist. Ruffini served as director of a small hospital in Lucignano, Italy,where he set up his own laboratory for histological research. Concurrently, at the University of Siena he was instructor of histology and later professor of embryology. From 1912 until his death heheld the post of professor of histology and general physiology at the University of Bologna. From 1890 to 1906 Ruffini worked on proprioceptive sensibility. In 1888 he had begun research on nervereceptors. In 1891 he discovered a new form of human sensory nerve ending now known as Ruffini's corpuscle; he published his discovery in 1894.
[roo-fee-neez] 
