426 THE SOLIDS. 



The following calculations by Mr. Wilson will serve to 

 convey some idea of the extent and importance of the sudori- 

 ferous system : 



" To arrive at something like an estimate of the value of the perspira- 

 tory system in relation to the reft of the organism, I counted the per- 

 spiratory pores on the palm of the hand, and found 3528 in a square 

 inch. Now, each of these pores being the aperture of a little tube of 

 about a quarter of an inch long, it follows, that, in a square inch 

 of skin on the palm of the hand, there exists a length of tube equal 

 to 882 inches, or 73^ feet. On the pulps of the fingers, where the 

 ridges of the sensitive layer of the true skin are somewhat finer than 

 in the palm of the hand, the number of pores on a square inch a 

 little exceed that of the palm ; and on the heel, where the ridges are 

 coarser, the number of pores on the square inch is 2268, and the length 

 of the tube, 567 inches, or 47 feet. To obtain an estimate of the length 

 of tube of the perspiratory system of the whole surface of the body, I 

 think that 2800 might be taken as a fair average of the number of pores 

 in the square inch ; and 700, consequently, of the number of inches in 

 length. Now, the number of square inches of surface in a man of ordi- 

 nary height and bulk is 2500 ; the number of pores, therefore, 7,000,000 ; 

 and the number of inches of perspiratory tube, 1,750,000, that is 145,833 

 feet, or 48,600 yards, or nearly twenty-eight miles." * 



AXILLARY GLANDS. 



These glands, first described by Professor Horner and M. 

 Robin, are probably but a variety of the ordinary sudoriferous 

 glands. 



They are situated in the axillae, are similar in organisation 

 to the sudoriferous glands, but are much larger than these. 



They doubtless furnish the peculiar and odorous secretion, 

 which characterises the region of the axilla?. 



This odorous principle, it is said, exists in the blood 

 ready formed, and the glandule merely separate it from that 

 fluid. It is also stated that its presence may be detected, 

 in dried blood, on the addition of sulphuric acid, and that 

 its odour is different in the male and female, also that even 

 the blood of different animals may be distinguished by means 

 of it ; assertions which are very doubtful, f 



* Diseases of the Skin, p. 18. 



f Annales d'llygiene, vol. i. ii. x. &c. 



