CERUMEN. 69 



caseosa is necessary to facilitate the passage of the child into 

 the world, for the parts of the mother are always sufficiently 

 lubricated with mucous secretion. 



Cerumen. A peculiar substance of a waxy consistence 

 is secreted by the glands that have been described, in the 

 external meatus, under the name of ceruminous glands, 

 mixed with the secretion of sebaceous glands connected with 

 the short hairs in this situation. It is difficult to ascertain 

 what share these two sets of glands have in the formation of 

 the cerumen. Robin is of the opinion that the waxy portion 

 of the secretion is produced entirely by the sebaceous glands, 

 and that the convoluted glands, commonly known as the 

 ceruminous glands, produce a secretion like the perspiration. 

 He calls the latter, indeed, the sudoriparous glands of the 

 meatus. 1 This view is, to a certain extent, reasonable ; for 

 the sebaceous matter is not removed from the meatus by fric- 

 tion, as in other, situations, and would have a natural tenden- 

 cy to accumulate. But the contents of the ducts of the ceru- 

 minous glands differ materially from the fluid found in the 

 ducts of the ordinary sudoriparous glands, containing gran- 

 ules and fatty globules, such as exist in the cerumen. Al- 

 though the glands of the ear are analogous in their structure, 

 and, to a certain extent, in their secretion, to the perspira- 

 tory glands, the fluid which they produce is peculiar. "We 

 shall see, also, that the perspiratory glands of the axilla and of 

 some other parts produce secretions differing somewhat from 

 ordinary perspiration. As far as can be ascertained, the 

 cerumen is produced by both sets of glands. The sebaceous 

 glands attached to the hair-follicles probably secrete most 

 of the oleaginous and waxy matter, while the so-called 

 ceruminous glands produce a secretion of much greater 

 fluidity, but containing a certain amount of granular and 

 fatty matter. 



1 ROBIN, Lefons sur les humeurs, Paris, 1867, p. 591. 



