420 STRUCTURE OF THE SKIN. 



till M. Gaultier,* a mere student of medicine, full of zeal and 

 candor published in 1813 his researches on the skin, which, 

 though imperfect in some respects, went far towards establishing 

 its real structure. 



The rete mucosum, which Malpighi considered a simple 

 coating of mucous, between the cutis vera and cuticle, a sort of 

 varnish covering the papillae, was considered by Bichat as 

 essentially formed of vessels, and divided by him into two 

 vascular layers, one over the other, in the outermost of which 

 was placed the coloring matter or pigment. But Gaultier, 

 from his observation of the skin of the negro, and Dutrochet 

 from that of quadrupeds, consider it composed of many distinct 

 parts. Gaultier selected for observation the skin of the heel of 

 a negro. where the cuticle is thickest, but which he thought 

 differed in no other respect from the skin in other parts of the 

 body. 



This figure is a magnified representation of a section of 



the skin cut obliquely in regard 

 to its thickness, and transversely 

 to the lines formed by the 

 papillae. In this, according to 

 Gaultier, we see at 1 the lower 

 surface of the derm, or cutis vera. 2, The prominences or as- 

 perities of the derm, forming the papillae, each one with a 

 slight depression upon the top. 3, Immediately above these 

 and continuous with them we see a series of vascular fasci- 

 culi surmounting these prominences, called bloody pirn- 



* Gaultier, whose opinions have been adopted in the main by Beclard, Blan- 

 din, Cloquet and others, would, if he had lived, most probably done much 

 towards simplifying and perfecting his views. Appointed army surgeon imme- 

 diately after his graduation, he fell a victim to the disasters of the Russian, 

 campaign. The investigation has, however, been taken up by Dutrochet who 

 extended it to the skins of quadrupeds, by several of the German and Italian 

 anatomists, and lastly by Breschet and Roussel de Vauzeme. The last have 

 made it a subject of elaborate microscopical research, not only in man, but in 

 the whale and many of the larger animals. The views of Gaultier thus modi- 

 fied and improved, are well deserving of study as the most satisfactory yet 

 given, though, from the doubt which is always attached to microscopical 

 observations, they must be looked upon rather as the probable than the proven 

 structure. r. 



