334 Observaiiofis on the Structure of Human Hair. 



generative organ of the hairs is sufficient to produce the first of 

 these symptoms ; and a diseased state of the bulb of the central 

 part, which produces the spongy matter of the hair, and which 

 grows as well as it, sufficiently accounts for the second. 



II. Observations on the Epidermis, the Sebaceous follicles, and their 

 augmentation in Cancerous Tumours, and on the Human Hair ; 

 by Professor Weber of Leipzig. {Archiv. sur die Physiologie, 

 1827.) 



Although the memoir refers, in a great measure to Dr Eich- 

 horn"*s work on the skin, it contains, besides, much curious infor- 

 mation. M. Weber first remarks, that the infundibuliform 

 fossae on the prominent lines of the palm of the hand, were de- 

 scribed and figured as being the pores of the sweat, by the cele- 

 brated Grew, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1684, p. BQQ. 

 M. Eichhorn cannot, therefore, claim to himself the merit of 

 their first discovery. 



On raising horizontally from the palm of the hand, with a 

 sharp razor, a layer of epidermis, more or less thick, we find the 

 inner surface of this layer, not smooth, but traversed by furrows 

 and elevated lines, resembling those of the outer surface, and 

 corresponding exactly to them, so that a prominent line at the 

 outer surface answers to a furrow on the inner, and vice versa ; 

 while to the infundibuliform pits of the outer surface there cor- 

 respond internally, small rounded oval or convex prominences, 

 arranged in rows along the furrows. As the same thing is ob- 

 served, whatever may be the thickness of the layer of epidermis 

 raised, the author concludes that the epidermis is composed of 

 an assemblage of thin layers, superimposed upon each other, 

 and agglutinated together, — a structure which many anatomists 

 have already admitted as the most probable. 



Passing to the examination of the Sebaceous follicles, the 

 author maintains, contrary to Dr Eichhorn's opinion, that these 

 follicles form organs distinct from the bulbs of the hairs, and 

 that they exist in the whole extent of the skin, with the excep- 

 tion of the palms and soles. The bulbs of large hairs have their 

 seat in the deepest layer of the dermis, and penetrate as far as 

 the subcutaneous adipose tissue. The sebaceous follicles, on the 

 contrary, are placed nearer the surface of the skin, and are ne- 



