LECTURE VL ggl 



pours forth. It is therefore necessary that 

 it should be defended by an outer garment 

 impermeable to moisture. The cuticle, 

 which seems a compact, though thin sub- 

 stance, through which the water effused 

 beneath it, when we are blistered, does not 

 even transude, appears well calculated for 

 this purpose. It is most exactly fitted to 

 the surface of the true skin, descending into 

 every groove, and rising over every emi- 

 nence. Yet however neatly fitted this 

 water-proof garment may be, it would be 

 liable to be wrinkled or displaced by fric- 

 tion, were it not firmly connected to the 

 skin by a net-work of very minute, soft, and 

 seemingly mucaginous fibres, which are 

 therefore denominated the rete mucosum. 

 This part is variously coloured in different 

 persons ; it is tawny in some, freckled in 

 others, and black in the African. These 

 investments of the skin do not appear to be 

 sensible, and doubts have been entertained 

 whether they are in any degree vascular. 



We must however, I think, admit that 

 t vessels arrive at the surface of the cuticle. 



