The hygiene of the skin / by J.L. Milton.

  • Milton, J. L. (John Laws), 1820-1898.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hygiene of the skin / by J.L. Milton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    skin, unless these are closed by disease or imprudence, have been the source of the most erroneous views, often enough by no means harmless. The human skin is an extremely composite organ, which might almost be compared .to a piece of elaborate tapestry, the threads of it being however harder to trace and isolate than those of any product worked by human hands; consequently anatomists have had great difficulty in satis- fying themselves as to the exact structure of certain of its components, which some of them have described very differently from others. The following summary will perhaps fairly represent the most trustworthy views on the subject. The skin then, consists of the derma, or true .skin, and the epidermis, or scarf-skin; the first being an organized growth, the other a secretion of more or less active cells. The derma may be compared to a network, varying in thickness from a ninety-sixth to an eighth of an inch. Examined by itself it is always of a pale, or dull white tinge, its varying degrees of redness being due to the different amount of blood contained at times in the vessels which traverse its substance. This network consists, on the inner side or that nearest to the fat and muscles, of extremely fine meshes, whence it derives its name of reticular; on the outer surface it is much finer and more compact. It is here raised up into minute and fine, but yet flexible, cones or papillse, varying in height from the hundred and twentieth to little more than the thousandth part of an inch; so minute are these papilla? that as many as eighty will stand on a square line on some parts of the hand and,