96 THE STOCK owner's ADVISER. 



most important fimctions is to protect the parts beneath. There 

 is at all times a change taking place in the outer covering of the 

 animal — a constant alteration and renewal of every part of it. 

 The scarf skin is constantly throwing off dry scales. In pro- 

 ducing a blister, the scarf skin is raised from the skin beneath 

 and thrown off, and in mange it is thrown off in dry, hard scales. 

 The dermis or true skin lies beneath the rete mucosum. It is 

 made up of an interlacing network of connective tissues, formed 

 of white fibrous tissue, yellow elastic tissue, corpuscles, vessels 

 and nerves. It is very vascular and highly sensitive, being the 

 seat of touch. It is attached to the underlying parts by a layer 

 of areolar tissue, which usually contains fat. The dennis con- 

 sists of fibro-areolar tissue and vessels of supply; it is divided into 

 two layers — the deep and true corium and the upper and papil- 

 liary. The skin everywhere clothes the external surface of the 

 body, protecting the underlying parts from injury. It affords 

 support and protection to the termination of the sensory ner\^es, 

 which render it an important sense organ. It is a bad conductor 

 of heat, and thus serves to preserve the heat of the body. It is 

 supplied with a large extent of capillary blood vessels, and thus, 

 by its means, a large surface of blood is exposed to the cooling 

 influence of the air. The dilation or contraction of the blood 

 vessels supplying the skin helps to regulate the heat of the body. 

 The sweat glands, which it contains, make it an important excre- 

 tory organ. It plays a subsidiary part as an organ of respiration. 

 Under exceptional circumstances, absorption takes place from its 

 surface. The sebaceous glands lodged in the corium are most 

 abundant in parts exposed to friction. They generally open into 

 the hair follicles, and occasionally on the surface of the skin. 

 The sudoriferous or sweat glands are situated in the subcutane- 

 ous areolar tissue, surrounded by a quantity of fat. They are 

 small, round, reddish bodies, each of which consists of one or 

 more fine tubes coiled into a ball, the free end of the tube being 

 continued up through the true skin and cuticle and opening on 

 the surface by a funnel-shaped orifice. 



