134: EXCRETION. 



order to represent an angel in the ceremonies attending the 

 coronation of Pope Leo X. This child died a few hours after 

 the coating had been applied. 1 



Sudoriparous Glands. The most numerous and the 

 most important glands of the skin are those which secrete 

 the perspiration. The other glands, which have been already 

 considered, have rather a mechanical function, serving to 

 keep the skin and its appendages in a proper condition for 

 the protection of the subjacent parts ; but it is the perspira 

 tory apparatus alone which is concerned in the great func- 

 tion of elimination. 



With few exceptions, every portion of the skin is pro- 

 vided with sudoriparous glands. They are not found, how- 

 ever, in the skin covering the concave surface of the concha 

 of the ear, the glans penis, the inner lamella of the prepuce, 

 and, unless the ceruminous glands be regarded as sudo- 

 riparous organs, the external auditory meatus. Kolliker 

 states that some other portions of the skin are deprived 

 of sweat-glands, but he does not indicate their situation. 2 



On examining the surface of the skin with a low magni- 

 fying power, especially on the palms of the hands and the 

 soles of the feet, the orifices of the sudoriferous ducts may 

 be seen in the middle of the papillary ridges, forming a reg- 

 ular line in the shallow groove between the two rows of 

 papillae. The tubes always open upon the surface obliquely. 

 If a thin section of the skin be carefully made and examined 

 microscopically, the ducts are seen passing through the dif- 

 ferent layers and terminating in rounded, convoluted coils 

 in the subcutaneous structure. These little rounded, or 

 ovoid bodies, which constitute the sudoriparous, or sweat- 

 producing apparatus, may be seen attached to the under 

 surface of the skin, when it is removed from the subjacent 

 parts by maceration. The perspiratory apparatus consists, 



1 LA.SCHKEWITSCH, loc. cit. 



2 KOLLIKER, Handbuch der Gewebelehre des Menschen, Leipzig, 1867, S. 139. 



