LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 39 
case, by which means we shall be not only entertained, but profited. 
—Carried unanimously. 
W. J. Challinor was then called upon by the President to read 
his paper upon the “ Disease of the Skin,” which elicited a very 
animated and interesting discussion, in which Messrs. Cartwright, 
Brooks, Howel, Lawson, Haycock, Greaves, Thos. Greaves, Owles, 
the President, and in fact every member, took a part, 
A vote of thanks to the essayist, for his able paper, was carried 
by acclamation. The meeting then separated. 
Alfred Challinor, Hon. Sec. 
ON THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES. 
The skin is the exterior investment of the body, which it serves 
to cover and protect. It is continuous at the orifices of the internal 
cavities, with the lining mucous membrane. It is essentially formed 
of two layers, the derma and epidermis, or cutis and cuticle. The 
derma or cutis is chiefiy composed of areolar tissue, elastic tissue, 
and smooth muscular fibre, together with blood vessels, lymphatic 
vessels, and nerves. The areolar tissue exists in its most charac¬ 
teristic form in the deeper stratum of the derma, which is con¬ 
sequently dense, white, and coarse, while the superficial stratum is 
fine ill texture, reddish in colour, soft, raised in minute papillae, 
supplied with numerous vessels and nerves. This arrangement of 
structure has given rise to the division of the true skin into two 
layers, the superficial, or papillary layer, and the deep stratum, or 
corium. 
The epidermis, cuticle, or scarfskin, is a product of the vessels of 
the derma, which it serves to envelop and defend. That surface of 
the epidermis which is exposed to the atmosphere and its infiuences, 
and exterior sources of injury, is hard and horny in texture, while 
that which lies in contact with the papillary layer of the derma is 
soft, and composed of newly-formed cells; hence this membrane, 
like the derma, offers two strata for our observation, the outermost 
stratum, commonly spoken of as the epidermis, and the innermost 
stratum, or rete rnucosum. The latter was considered by Malpighi 
as a distinct membrane. 
Besides the derma and epidermis, the skin includes certain 
important secreting organs, and certain appendages which call for 
separate notice. The secreting organs are the sudoriparous and 
sebiparous glands, and the appendages in our subjects, the horn, 
hair, hoof, and nails. 
The derma varies considerably in thickness in different parts of 
the body, being thickest where most exposed; on protected parts, 
as inside the limbs, it is comparatively thin ; on the eyelids, penis, 
and scrotum, it is peculiarly delicate. The thickness of the corium 
varies accordino- to the breed of the animal; the finer the breed the 
o • 
thinner the corium. 
The areolar tissue of the derma is constructed of fibres of two 
kinds, viz. of minute cylindrical fibres, which are identical in their 
