206 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



mis; they are salient lines separated by depressed ones, various- 

 ly directly and formed, and which are made by series of pa- 

 pillae On the back of the hand, and on the forehead they are 

 polygons; on the cheeks and breast, mere points and rudiments 

 of stars, &c. We also find on the free surface of the skin, 

 small round openings that are every where distributed, and 

 particularly abundant in the face: they are the orifices of the 

 sebaceous follicles. There are others still smaller, microsco- 

 pic openings or apparent pores of the epidermis, but in 

 reality, infundibuliform depressions, terminating in a cul-de- 

 sac. This surface is in general tolerably smooth; it is slight- 

 ly moistened by the transpiratory fluid and the sebaceous 

 matter. 



293. The deep or adhering surface of the skin is con- 

 nected, in general, with the subjacent parts by loose cellular 

 tissue, which permits a mutual sliding between the skin and 

 the parts it invests. Sub-cutaneous bursae mucosse, in some 

 places, interrupt the continuity of the cellular tissue, and 

 greatly increase the motility of the skin and parts beneath. 

 In other places, on the contrary, the cellular tissue is dense, 

 firm and scarcely distinguishable from the skin: it is soon 

 the head, back of the neck, back, and abdomen. In others 

 again, it is by fibrous or ligamentous tissue that the skin ad- 

 heres to parts beneath; this is the case at the wrist, instep, 

 palm of the hands, sole of the foot, and particularly under the 

 heel. Adhesion is effected in some places by means of a 

 reddish, cellular, semi-muscular tissue, if I may be allowed 

 so to call it; such is the dartos in the scrotum and the labia pu- 

 dendi. Finally, in some places it is the muscles that line 

 the skin attached to them; such are the sub-cutaneous mus- 

 cles of the cranium, of the face, of the neck and of the hand. 

 The fleshy panicle of the mammiferous animals, more high- 

 ly developed than that of man, in the face excepted, is analo- 

 gous to the sub-cutaneous muscles of the latter. . The anato- 

 mists of the middle ages have strongly doubted or denied its 

 existence in man; that it does exist, is evident, but its extent 

 is but small. In many places the sub-cutaneous cellular tissue 

 is mixed with adipose tissue, and these two penetrate into the 



