234 VARIETIES OF COLOUR 



more or less dense membrane covering the surface, and 

 generally proportioned in thickness to the volume of the 

 body; serving the purpose of binding together and protect- 

 ing the subjacent organs, of separating, under the form of 

 sensible and insensible perspiration, a large quantity of ex- 

 cretory matter, the residue of digestion and nutrition, and 

 of establishing the relations between the living frame and 

 surrounding objects. It is the sensitive limit of the body, 

 placed at the extremity of the organs, incessantly exposed 

 to external influences, and thus forming one great con- 

 nexion between animal existence and that of surrounding 

 substances. 



Anatomical analysis resolves this apparently single enve- 

 lope of our organs, commonly called skin, into two or more 

 strata, technically termed the common integuments. 



The most considerable and important of these, making up, 

 indeed, the chief bulk of the skin, is the cutis vera, or true 

 skin, dermis, corium, le corion Fr.; — the part which, when 

 prepared by the chemical process of tanning, constitutes 

 leather. It is a compact and strong areolar tissue, com- 

 posed of a dense fibrous substance, with numerous vacuities 

 or intervals. The intertexture of the fibrous or cellular 

 tissue is close and compact on its external surface, so as to 

 resemble the smooth continuity of a membrane 3 more loose, 

 with larger areolae on the opposite or adhering aspect, where 

 the fibrous threads are lost in those of the subjacent cellular 

 or adipous tissue. Immersion in water softens the skin, by 

 separating the fibres of its corion, and rendering their inter- 

 vals more distinct : we then find that the areolae are not 

 confined to the external surface, but are prolonged into its 

 substance, which is penetrated by them in its whole thick- 

 ness. They serve for the passage of hairs, exhalants, and 

 absorbents, as they come to the surface. 



The areolar tissue of the cutis is permeated in every di- 

 rection by countless myriads of arterial and venous ramifi- 

 cations, of which the ultimate capillary divisions occupy the 

 external or compact surface of the organ, and form a vascu- 

 lar network over the whole body, eluding our inquiries, and 



