CUTANEOUS AND MUCOUS FOLLICLES. 



661 



it has an alkaline reaction, and contains albumen, with a peculiar animal prin- 

 ciple termed Spermatine ; and also saline matter, consisting chiefly of muriates 

 and phosphates, especially the latter, which form crystals when the fluid has 

 stood for some little time. 



8. Cutaneous and Mucous Follicles, 



868. Having now described the structure F ' 1 S- 262. 



and functions of the principal Glands, which 

 are composed of aggregated masses of secret- 

 ing cells or tubes, we may proceed to those in 

 which the glandulse are more scattered, but 

 are still, in their aggregate amount, of sufficient 

 importance to claim particular notice. This 

 is especially the case in the Skin, and its in- 

 ternal prolongations, forming Mucous Mem- 

 branes. The Skin is the seat of various secre- 

 tions ; for each of which it is provided with 

 special organs. Of these the most important 

 is the Perspiration; which is formed in small 

 glandular organs seated just beneath the cutis, 

 and diffused over the whole surface of the 

 body. The efferent ducts of these Glandulse 

 open by minute pores in the Epidermis, which 

 are seen in elevated lines on the skin of the 

 palm of the hand and the sole of the foot ; they 

 penetrate the epidermis rather obliquely, so 

 that a sort of little valve is formed by it, which 

 is lifted up by the excreted fluid as it issues. 

 The ducts pass through the Epidermis and 

 Cutis in a spiral direction; and then enter the 

 glands, which consist of the convolutions of 

 the ducts, more or less subdivided, on which 

 blood-vessels are distributed. Where the 

 Epidermis is thin, the canal is straighter. On 

 the palm of the hand, the sole of the foot, and 

 the extremities of the fingers, the apertures of 

 the perspiratory ducts are visible to the naked 

 eye ; being situated at regular distances along 

 the little ridges of sensory papillae, and giving 

 to the latter the appearance of being crossed 

 by transverse lines. According to Mr. Eras- 

 mus Wilson,* as many as 3528 of these 

 elandulae exist in a square inch of surface on 



- , , . , Sudoriferous Gland from the palm ol 



the palm of the hand ; and as every tube, when the hand) magnified 40 diameters; 1,1, 

 straightened out, is about a quarter of an inch contorted tubes, composing the gland. 



in length, it follows that, in a Square inch Of and uniting into two excretory ducts, 2, 



skin from the palm of the hand, there exists a 2, which unite into one spiral canal, that 

 length of tube equal to 883 inches, or 73g feet. P erforate ^ the e pi de is at 3, and open- 



rr,, ^ on its surface at 4; the gland is imbedded 



The number of glandule in other parts of the i n fat-vesicles, which are seen at 5, 5. 

 skin, is sometimes greater, but generally less 



than this ; and according to Mr. Wilson, about 2800 may be taken as the 

 average number of pores in each square inch throughout the body. Now the 



56 



Practical Treatise on Healtby Skin, p. 42. 



