490 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



subcutaneous shrinkage takes place, resulting in the 

 production of a marked longitudinal skin "creasing," 

 with less obvious transverse cavo-relief marking, after, to 

 some extent, the fashion of the washerwoman's fingers 

 when long immersed in soap and water. 



All these changes may be regarded as involutionary, 

 and the outcome of nutritive shrinkage of the episkeletal, 

 or soft, tissues surrounding mainly the terminal phalanges, 

 but likewise also of those of the whole limbs, and trunk 

 especially, or those innervated and fed by the systemic 

 nervous system. 



