THE THICK CUTIS VERA. 427 



would aid the contraction of the muscle. In specimens where 

 the muscle is found in a state of contraction, the hair-follicle 

 is bent like a bow, the root being drawn through the arc of a 

 circle. The presence of fat near the hair-bulb is made possible 

 by this structure, a condition which is constant with all hairs. 

 That the fat is not an incidental feature of their structure, 

 which might be considered merely a cleft for the transmission 

 of vessels, is rendered probable by the observation of rows of 

 fat-cells beneath each hair in the lip of the rat, where no special 

 channels exist, and, also, by the fact that such columns of fat 

 do not accompany the nutrient vessels of the skin, in those 

 parts where the hairs are not found. It seems, therefore, 

 probable, that this structure has some bearing upon the nu- 

 trition of the hair. 



Sweat-glands are found not only in these canals, but else- 

 where in the thick cutis ; the coil of the gland is then usually 

 situated at a level a little below the middle of the cutis vera, 

 and not in the subcutaneous adipose tissue, as in thin skin. 



