OF THE GLANDS OF THE SKIN. f 207 



much convoluted canals of 0-015-0-022 of a line, and traverse the epi- 

 dermis with their already twisted ducts (in the corium of 0-008, in the 

 rete MalpigUi of 0-022 of a line). 



It results from these facts that the sudoriparous glands are nothing 

 else than involutions of the skin, and do not begin as hollow structures, 

 but are at first a simple development of the stratum mucosum. By a 

 continual process of cell-multiplication, the original rudiments grow 

 deeper and deeper into the skin, acquire their peculiar spiral windings, 

 and divide into the glandular coil and the sweat-duct ; while at the same 

 time, either by liquefaction of their central part, which would thus, as 

 it were, represent a first secretion, or by the excretion of a fluid between 

 their cells, a cavity is produced. How the sweat-duct in the epidermis 

 and the pore are formed is doubtful ; probably by a formative process 

 in the epidermis itself. According to a few measurements which I have 

 instituted (" Mikroscop. Anat.," II. i. 171), a development of sudoripa- 

 rous glands appears to take place even after the fifth month, whilst 

 the whole number appears to exist at birth. 



Little is known as to the pathological conditions of the sweat-glands. 

 Kohlrausch (Muller's " Archiv," 1843, p. 866), -has found them of con- 

 siderable size (J a line) in an ovarian cyst, together with hairs and 

 sebaceous follicles. In Elephantiasis graecorum, G. Simon and Brii eke 

 (Simon, " Hautkrank.," p. 268), noticed an increase in size of the sudo- 

 riparous glands, and V. Barensprung observed the same thing in a kind 

 of wart (1. c., p. 81) ; the latter also found that these glands were atro- 

 phied in corns, and that the duct in the outer layers of the epidermis 

 had disappeared. The condition of the several glands in old age, in 

 cases where the secretion of sweat is altogether wanting, and in ab- 

 normal perspirations, is not known. In a remarkable case of Ichtliyosis 

 congenita (very similar to that mentioned by Steinhausen, only more 

 marked) in a new-born infant, which was examined by Dr. H. Muller 

 and myself, the sudoriparous glands were present ; their excretory ducts, 

 so far as regards their course through the epidermis, which was thickened 

 to 2 lines, were partly disposed as usual, partly they were placed, as 

 in the sole of the foot, with their outer portions almost completely hori- 

 zontal, and ran in some places for as much as 1J line in this manner, 

 so that in superficial sections of the epidermis they appeared as parallel, 

 at first sight altogether abnormal canals, with a cavity of 0-0025-0-003 

 of a line. The contents of the ducts were very peculiar, consisting in- 

 variably of -a multitude of white oil drops. I observed sudoriparous 

 glands also in the case described by Mohr, of a great cavity containing 

 hairs in the lung ( a Berlin Med., Central-zeitung," 1839, No. 13), they 

 were about 0-24 of a line in diameter, and were contained in- a panni- 

 culus adiposuSj with common fat-cells ; and it may be remarked that the 



