OF PERSPIRATION. 119 



enamel of the teeth. For this reason, the internal cavi- 

 ties and the canals which communicate with the surface 

 for the purpose of admitting air, especially the respi- 

 ratory passages and the whole of the alimentary canal, 

 the tongue, the inside of the cheeks, the fauces, and the 

 organ of smell, are covered by a fine epithelium, origi- 

 nating from the epidermis.* 



177. The texture of the epidermis is extremely simple, 

 destitute of vessels, nerves, and of true mucous web, 

 and consequently but little organised; very peculiar, 

 however,f remarkably strong, considering its pelluci- 

 dity and delicacy, so that it resists for a great length of 

 time maceration, suppuration, and other modes of 

 1 



* Abr. Kaau, Perspiratio dicta Hippocrati. p. 7. 



Lieberkiihn, De fabricu Villor. Intestin. Tenuium. p. 16. 



Cruikshank, Expts. on the Insensible Perspiration, p. 5. 



Rudolphi, Reisebemerhungen. T. i. p. 29. 140. 



Jens. W. Neergaard, Vcrgleichende Anat. der Verdauungswerkseuge, p. 21, 

 & alibi. 



f The very dense epidermis of some immense animals consists of vertical 

 fibres which, in arrangement, somewhat resemble the structure of the Boletus 

 igniarius. Its internal surface is porous and penetrated by the silky filaments 

 of the subjacent coriuui. This is remarkably exemplified in a preparation now 

 before me, taken from the skin of the bahena mysticete. The human cuticle, in 

 certain diseased states, exhibits the same appearance as in the Englishman 

 called the Porcupine Man, who laboured under a cuticular complaint which he 

 transmitted to his children and grand-children. Vide W. G. Tilesius, Be- 

 schreibung und Abbildung der beiden sogenannten Stachelschwein-Menschen 

 (Porcupine Men). Alteub. 1802. fol. 



The innumerable polyedrical papillae and horny warts which I witnessed upon 

 every part of the skin of these brothers, excepting the head, the palms of the 

 hands, and the soles of the feet, bore some resemblance to the skin of the 

 elephant, especially about the vertex and forehead of the animal. (A) 



Similar also are corns and the brawny cuticle of the feet in those who walk 

 barefooted. Vide Carlisle on the Production and Nature of Corns, Med. Facts 

 and Observation*. Vol. vii. p. 29. 



