214 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



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

 were atrophied 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 abnormal perspirations, is not known. 

 In a remarkable case of Ichthyosis 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'", were partly disposed as usual, 

 partly they were placed, as in the sole of the foot, with their 

 outer portions almost completely horizontal, and ran in some 

 places for as much as 1|'" 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"'. 

 The contents of the ducts were very peculiar, consisting 

 invariably of a multitude of white oil drops. I observed sudori- 

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

 cavity containing hairs, in the lung ('Berlin Med., Central- 

 zeitung/ 1839, No. 13), they were about - 24/" in diameter, and 

 were contained in apanniadus adiposus, with common fat-cells ; 

 and it may be remarked that the wall of the cavity besides the 

 panniculus also presented a corium with papillae, and an epi- 

 dermis like the external integument. 



Method of investigation. — To examine the position of the 

 sudoriparous glands and their excretory ducts, fine sections of 

 fresh or slightly-dried skin of the palm or sole should be pre- 

 pared, and made transparent by acetic acid or caustic soda. 

 Gurlt used for this purpose skin hardened and rendered trans- 

 parent in a solution of carbonate of potass [liquor kali car- 

 bonici). Giraldes macerates the skin for twenty-four hours in 

 dilute nitric acid (1 part acid, 2 parts water) and for twenty- 

 four hours in water, — a process which, according to Krause, is 

 very useful, as the glands become yellow, and are readily 

 distinguished. In macerated pieces of the skin, the cellular 

 liniug of the sweat-ducts may be drawn out of the corium, 

 in the form of long tubes, with the epidermis; in delicate 

 parts of the skin I have, not unfrequently, succeeded in 

 doing this after treatment with concentrated acetic acid. 



