OR, A TREATISE ON PILE. 93 
CHAP Tun eV. 
Pitre Betones to THE Dermis.—Pile belongs to the dermis and generally will persist 
in growing upon it. We are assured by one of the most eminent surgeons of this city 
that he has frequently, in different operations, turned flaps of skin in various cavities, to 
supply the place of the mucous membrane, and has observed that unless the piliferous 
bulbs (follicles) have been destroyed by a desquamating inflammation, or subsequently 
removed by excision, the hair natural to the skin continues to develope itself and some- 
times becomes a source of considerable irritation. 
On the other hand pile does not belong to the mucous membrane, and will not, generally, 
grow therein. We have often examined with admiration the minute line of demarcation, 
on the lips, between the skin of the mucous membrane, the former being covered with 
hair, while the latter will not produce a single filament. 
But for the production of pile the dermis must be perfect; hence we find that where 
wounds heal by granulation, the cicatrix being an imperfect skin, no hair will grow upon 
it. It has been said, however, that where the mucous membrane has been left for a long 
time exposed, as in descents of the rectum and uterus, that hair will grow upon it.* 
The notion of Oken, (in Elem. of Physiol., p. 394,) that hairs are dried bronchial fila- 
ments, and that, therefore, they continue to occupy in man those situations only where, 
in the lower animals, bronchia and tentacule are found, for example around the mouth, 
upon the head, in the axille and around the sexual organs, is chimerical.t 
Some of the lower animals are entirely covered with hair, while others have so few, 
that they are called naked. Some are covered with a mantle and a few hairs, while others 
have scales in place of the mantle. All these different coverings might be made use of in 
their classification. 
WHEN PILE NoT USUALLY FOUND EVEN IN THE Dermuis.—Hair is not usually found in the 
superior eye-lids, palm of the hand, the soles of the feet,{ nor the dorsal face of the last 
phalanges of the fingers and of the great toe. 
On the head§ hair is found-- pon the scalp—in the auditory passage—upon the eye- 
brows, (supercilium)—along the margin of the eye-lids, (cilium)—in the nares 
on the 
* Telle est analogies entre ces deux membranes, que la peau, soumise au contact prolongé des matiere qui baignent la 
muqueuse, des larmes par example, prend bient6t Vaspect et les caractéres de la muqueuse, de méme que celle-ci, exposee 
au frottement des vétements et a l’action desséchante de l’air, se transforme bient6t en peau. (Un Mil. de fait, p. 513.) 
+ The mammalia are composed of, 1, a skeleton; 2, splanchnic cavities, of which there are three; 3, limbs; 4, 
vessels and nerves. All these are enclosed in an outer envelope, called “the skin.’ It is to this latter that pile belongs. 
{ Goldsmith says that the Hare has hair upon the sole of the foot. (Nat Hist. of Man, v. 2, 137.) 
2 Dr. Gross proposes to call the hair of the head “rin,” from crinis, hair. The French have conferred this name upon 
the mane and tail of the pachydermata. 
