CUTIS VERA. 331 



of small wrinkles or ridges at the ends of the fingers and toes ; 

 and the transverse oblique, and curved ones, on other parts of 

 the soles and palms. The small, triangular, lozenge-shape, and 

 multangular elevations of the cutis vera, seen elsewhere on it* 

 external surface, are caused rather by its contraction than by 

 the papillae. 



These papillary projections resemble very much small conoi- 

 dal, cotton-like filaments, standing up the twelfth of a line, or 

 thereabouts, from the surface of the skin: they are by no means 

 so long as the villi generally of the intestines, and, like them, 

 consist in very delicate ramifications of nerves and blood ves- 

 sels, united by cellular tissue. In places where these papillae 

 are less abundant, the cutis vera is not so vascular or sensitive. 

 They readily receive a fine injection, and, if the cuticle be 

 afterwards separated by maceration, their vascularity is very 

 distinct. Their nerves are destitute of neurileme.* 



The texture of the true skin is fibrous; the fibres which com- 

 pose it, by their irregular intermixture, resolve it into a mass 

 of net-work or areolae, the meshes of which are sufficiently 

 large in some parts to permit the introduction of the he-ad of a 

 small pin. The meshes, though they are larger and more dis- 

 tinct on the internal fhan on the external surface of the true 

 skin, open, however, upon the latter surface; having passed 

 through the skin obliquely, after the manner of the ureters 

 through the coats of the bladder. Those intervals between 

 the fibres of the skin are rendered very obvious after mace- 

 ration of a month or two, or after skin has been tanned. 

 They serve to transmit hairs, bloodvessels, nerves, absorbents, 

 and exhalent vessels also if such exist. These interstices com- 

 municate freely with the cellular substance, for in many cases 

 of anasarca, blisters, when made upon a depending part, 

 empty the cellular membrane of water almost as quickly as 

 scarifications;! but if the blisters inflame, they discharge incon- 

 siderably, owing to the porosities being shut up by the tume- 

 faction and fulness of the parts. The same is observable in 

 scarifications. 



A fine injection, when forcibly driven into the extremities of 



* Beclard, Anat. Gen. t \V. Hunter, loc. cit. 



