RETE MUCOSUM. 415 



(Cuticula and Rete Mucosum,) may be separated from it com- 

 pletely, after maceration or putrefaction, and the surface will 

 appear smooth ; but, in an inflamed skin, a net-work of vessels 

 has been injected, which is considered, by Mr. Cruikshank,* 

 as an additional lamen. In this lamen, the pustules of small- 

 pox originate. When the skin is injected, they appear to be 

 formed at first by very small vessels, arranged in a radiated 

 manner, with a white uninjected substance in the centre, 

 which is supposed to be a slough, occasioned by the irritation 

 of the variolous matter. Mr. Cruikshank, after removing this 

 lamella, was able, by continued maceration of the same skin, 

 to separate another, which was also vascular. It is to be 

 observed that this skin had been preserved for some time in 

 spirits, and was macerated in putrid water a week during the 

 heat of summer, before the first lamella was removed. 



The color of the healthy skin is invariably white, when all 

 the lamellae exterior to it are removed. This is the case not 

 only with the European, but with the blackest African, and the 

 people of all the intermediate colors. 



The variety of colors in the human species depends upon the 

 lamella next to the cutis, which is now to be described. 



Of the Rete Mucosum. 



Immediately in contact with the external surface of the cutis 

 vera is a thin stratum, of a pulpy or mucilaginous consistence, 

 which appears to be spread uniformly over it, but cannot be 

 detached without deranging its own texture.f 



It can be best examined after the cuticle is raised in a blister. 

 In this case it appears like a pulpy substance, spread upon a 

 membrane of a soft and delicate texture. This is the Rete or 

 Corpus Mucosum. 



In this pulpy substance resides the pigmentum or coloring 

 matter, which gives the peculiar complexion to the different 

 races of men. The cutis vera is white, and the cuticle is nearly 

 transparent in them all ; but this substance is black in the negro ; 



* See Experiment on Insensible Perspiration, &c. by "W". Cruikshank. 

 f It has been asserted that the rete mucosum of the scrotum can sometimes 

 be exhibited in a separate state. 



