276 ELEMENTS OF HISTOLOGY. [Chap, xxxiv. 



and interlacing in a complex manner. Numerous 

 elastic fibres are attached to these trabeculse. It con- 

 tains groups of fat cells, in many places arranged as 

 more or less continuous lobules of fat tissue, forming 

 the stratum adiposum. These lobules are separated 

 by septa of fibrous connective tissue ; their structure 

 and development, and the distribution of the blood- 

 vessels amongst the fat cells, have been described 

 in par. 45. The deep part of the subcutaneous tissue 

 is loose in texture, and contains the large vascular 

 trunks and the big nerve branches. 



373. The superficial part of the subcutaneous 

 tissue, or, as some have it, the deep part of the 

 corium, contains the sudoriparous or sweat glands. 

 I^ach gland is a single tube coiled up into a dense 

 clump of about -^ of an inch in diameter in some 

 places, as in the axilla, reaching as much as six times 

 this size. From each gland a duct the sudori- 

 ferous canal passes through the corium in a slightly 

 wavy and vertical direction towards the epidermis ; 

 it penetrates more or less spirally through the inter- 

 papillary process of the stratum Malpighii and the 

 rest of the epidermis, and appears with an open mouth 

 on the free surface of the skin. 



The total number of sweat glands in the human 

 skin has been computed by Krause to be over two 

 millions ; but it varies greatly in different parts of the 

 body, the largest number occurring in the palm of 

 the hand, the next in the sole of the foot, the next 

 on the dorsum of the hand and foot, and the smallest 

 in the skin of the dorsum of the trunk. 



374. The sudoriferous canal and the coiled tube 

 possess a distinct lumen \ this is lined with a delicate 

 cuticle, especially marked in the sudoriferous canal 

 and in the commencement of the coiled tube. In the 

 epidermis the lumen bordered by this cuticle is all 

 that is present of the sudoriferous canal. It receives 



