OF THE SKIN IN GENERAL. 



presents, as \ve have already seen [292], little wrinkles and 

 eminences variously arranged, and very visible to the naked 

 eye. Moreover, if we examine this surface with a magnify- 

 ing instrument, and even with a simple lens, the parts of the 

 epidermis between the little wrinkles, and which to the.naked 

 eye seem united, then appears very unequal, rugous, and pre- 

 sent little depressions, which bear the greater resemblance to 

 pores, because we see the sweat oozing from them. 



The deep face of the epidermis is adherent, and can not be 

 separated from the rest of the skin by dissection, but putre- 

 faction, maceration, the action of dry and humid heat, epis- 

 pastics, and various diseases, produce this separation. When 

 it is caused by incipient putrefaction, a process preferable to 

 all others, by cautiously raising the epidermis, we perceive a 

 multitude of very fine, transparent, colourless filaments, which 

 break after being extended to a certain degree. These fila- 

 ments, well described and represented by W. Hunter, who 

 considered them as the vessels of the sweat, had been previ- 

 ously noticed by Kaau, who was of a similar opinion. Bichat 

 and M. Chaussier, also, believed them to be exhalent and 

 absorbing vessels. But we have not yet been able to inject 

 them, and inflammation, which renders the skin so vascular, 

 does not, sensibly, colour them. Cruikshank, on the other 

 hand, thinks they are not vessels, but excessively fine pro- 

 longations of the epidermis, which line the smallest pores of 

 the dermis. Seiler seems to adopt this hypothesis, and accord- 

 ing to him, they are rudiments of sebaceous follicles and 

 bulbs of hairs. It is not certain, however, that these pro- 

 longations exist when the epidermis adheres to the dermis, 

 and we may consider them as mucous threads formed by the 

 intermediate substance of the dermis, and epidermis rendered 

 fluid and viscid by incipient decomposition. 



The epidermis penetrates, as it becomes attenuated, into 

 the sebaceous follicles. It penetrates, in like manner, into the 

 openings of the bulbs of the hairs. 



305. It has been said that the epidermis was composed of 

 imbricated scales; but this is a deceitful appearance, it is a flat 



and continuous membrane. Nunberger admits that it is fur- 

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