The skin in health and disease.

Date:
[1888?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The skin in health and disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    when its coil is unravelled, would measure about T\ of an inch, their entire length amounts to not less than 153,000 inches, or about two and a half miles. We can readily understand, therefore, the very Fig. 3- Openings of the Sweat Glands on the Palm of the Hand. Magni- fied four times. 1. Openings of glands. 2. Furrows be- tween the lines of openings. great importance of the skin as a secre- tory organ, when we consider the vast surface thus present- ed ; and direct ex- periments fully con- firm the judgment thus formed. The action of these minute glands is not intermittent, but continuous; and during the entire time sweat is ex- haled in the form of vapor, or insen- sible perspiration ; and only when the body becomes much heated, as by exercise or otherwise, does the perspira- tion manifest itself to the eye or touch. The total quantity of fluid thus given off by the skin is subject to the greatest variations, according to temperature, moisture, exercise, quantity and quality of food and drink taken, etc. In the average person in health, however, careful experimenters agree in placing the amount at about two pounds, or pints, daily, a quan- tity almost equal to that excreted by the kidneys. The office of this cutaneous perspiration is largely