INFLAMMATION OF TILE CORIUM. 375 



mediate apparatus of nutrition. 'Nov are ^ve doomed to disap- 

 pointment. With the exception of mihary tubercle and 

 enchondroma, there is hardly any product of the conjoint 

 vascular and connective-tissue system Avhich does not attain to 

 its fullest perfection in the corium ; some of these, particularly 

 the specific products of leprosy, glanders, and syphilis, even 

 exhibit a marked predilection for the skin. Lupus is exclu- 

 sively confined to the skin ; but recent observations compel me 

 to regard this as a growth which originates in the sebaceous and 

 sudoriparous glands, and therefore to refuse it that place among 

 the diseases of the corium to wdiicli most authorities consider it 

 entitled. 



a. Inflammation. 



§ 318. The corium proper, according to a very noteworthy 

 investigation by Rollett^ is built up of thick bundles of fibres (of 

 connective tissue) which traverse it obliquely, starting from the 

 subcutaneous areolar tissue ; these break up as they advance 

 towards the surface, and interweave with neighbouring fibres to 

 form a web of extraordinary density. Moreover, the individual 

 fibrillar are of exceedino; toughness, offerino- an obstinate resist- 

 ance to softening and liquefaction. Owing therefore to the 

 closeness of texture, as well as the toughness of its constituent 

 fibres, the corium proper is little suited for the exhibition of 

 such processes as claim much space in short periods of time, and 

 in particular, of suppurative inflammations. When we come to 

 consider those inflammations which start from the hair-sacs — acne 

 and furunculi — we shall see how cumbersome an attitude is 

 taken up by the corium towards each acute inflammation in 

 turn. The behaviour of the subcutaneous areolar tissue is very 

 different. It offers no obstacle to the spread of suppuration. 

 The fibres of the areolar connective tissue are soft and readily 

 dissolved ; between them are meshes and lacuna) (the " cells " 

 of the '^ cellular " tissue) smooth internally, and occupied by 

 fluid or clusters of fat-cells. In these meshes, around the fatty 

 clusters, there is enough space to accommodate three times the 

 amount of fluid which is usually present. Add to this that here, 

 between the muscles and the skin, an extremely free communi- 

 cation between neighboui'ing pai'ts is kept up by the lymphatics 



