OF THE SKIN IN GENERAL. 209 



internal face, which is that of the skin, presents, in general, 

 conical alveolar openings, directed ohliquely into the thickness 

 of the membrane. These areolae, which are very large in the 

 dermis of the hand, of the sole of the foot, of the back, of the 

 abdomen, of the limbs; narrower in the neck, breast, and face 

 particularly, are nearly invisible in the back of the hand and 

 foot, forehead, scrotum and labia pudendi. The edges of these 

 areolae are continued, the first and largest along with the sub- 

 cutaneous fibrous tissue; the second with the more or less dense 

 cellular tissue; the last or narrowest, with the very loose tissue 

 that is found in the regions where they are observed; the areola 

 themselves are filled with an adipose cellular tissue, and are 

 traversed by the nerves and vessels of the skin. The bottom 

 of these alveolar cavities is perforated by very small holes, 

 which correspond to the superficial face of the dermis. This 

 face tolerably smooth, in general, presents, in various places, 

 little papillary eminences, that are much more apparent on the 

 denuded dermis, than when seen through the epidermis. 



298. The papillary body, and the vascular net-work of the 

 skin, which have been unhappily described as being distinct 

 layers of this membrane, belong to the superficial face of the 

 dermis. The papillae* discovered by Malpighi, and since ac- 

 knowledged, figured, and described by Ruysch, Albinus, and 

 many other anatomists; lately described by Gautier, under the 

 name of buds: and doubted by Cheselden and others, are very 

 diminutive projections or eminences, generally conoid on the 

 surface of the dermis ; perfectly visible on the tongue, ar- 

 ranged in double lines, and very distinct in the palms of the 

 hands, soles of the feet, and pulp of the fingers; still distinct, 

 but irregularly distributed in the nipple and lips; but so ex- 

 tremely small and undistinguishable in the rest of the skin, that 

 they have been admitted to exist there more from analogy, 

 than from actual observation, and that they are confounded in 

 the surface of the dermis in a vascular and nervous net-work. 

 These papillae, in those places where they are very distinct, 



* Hintze, de papillis cutis tadui inservientibus. L. B. 1747 Albinus. JLcad. 

 annot, lib. iii. cap, ix. et xii. 



