CHEMICAL QUALITIES OF THE CUTICLE. 437 



the tongue of the ox, and subsequently under the epidermis of 

 the human hand, from which he drew his description. By 

 ebullition he softened the outer covering of the cutis vera,>6nd 

 then tearing off the epidermis, he saw a layer of soft substance 

 with holes in it like the meshes of a net. This was owing to 

 a laceration of the mucous layer: the part covering the apices 

 of the villi going off with the cuticle, while that between the 

 villi and the bases of the papillae adhered to the cutis vera. 

 By maceration in water, which is the surest and most success- 

 ful method of effecting a dissection in delicate parts, FJourens, 

 found in the same organs the cuticle to come off, leaving the 

 whole of the mucous body attached, which then presented none 

 of the reticular appearance. The cuticle arid mucous body 

 were both continuous layers, covering the papillae and forming 

 their sheaths. The sheaths formed by the latter body were 

 broken in Malpighi's preparation. 



The cuticular sheaths in the ox, were thin and delicate over 

 the fungiform or smaller papillae, but formed thick horny layers 

 over the larger which assist in the action of mastication. 

 Albinus, repeating the experiments of Malpighi, corrected 

 his error, and in the beautiful designs of Ladmiral, has repre- 

 sented the mucous body as a continuous layer. Since then by 

 Bichat and others, the use of the term rete mucosum, has been 

 continued, not exactly in the original signification of Malpighi, 

 but under the belief that it contained a net-work of vessels. 

 Its foliated structure has been well established by Cruikshank, 

 Gaultier, and Flourens. It thus appears that the whole of 

 the anatomy of the skin, requires to be constructed anew. 

 Several of the German and French anatomists have applied 

 themselves to the task, among whom may especially be men- 

 tioned Weber* of Leipzig, and Breschet of Paris.f The views 

 of the latter, on account of his having treated the subject more 

 extensively than the rest, as well as from his high situation in 

 the school of Paris, have already been given. The physiology 



* Arch, fur die Physiologic. 



f Nouvelles Recherches sur la Structure de la Peau, par G. W. Breschet et 

 Roussel de Vauzeme. Paris, 1835. 



37* 



