Observations on the anatomy of the skin of a species of muraena / by Andrew Clark.

  • Clark, Andrew, 1826-1893.
Date:
[between 1850 and 1859?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the anatomy of the skin of a species of muraena / by Andrew Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    in tlie recent state, filled with small epithelial cells in various stages of development. When the latter are removed, the interior of the gland is seen to be lined by a layer of small, flattened, nucleated corpuscles, which, by pressure, ihay be forced out into the field and broken into irregular patches. These corpuscles are not completely flattened; are more or less regular- ly hexagonal, granular, and furnished with a nucleus which is imbedded in a number of elementary granules. It is seen also that these corpuscles rest on, and are attached to, a very delicate, almost homogeneous mem- brane, which on the addition of ammonia, becomes distinctly granular. Lining the cavity of the follicle this membrane may be traced towards the free surface of the skin, in which it becomes lost to view between the epithelial and pigmentary layers. This membrane is the analogue of the primary membrane of the mu- cous and serous tissues; it is the basement or germinal membrane of that modification of the former termed skin, and though it cannot be distinctly demonstrated in the interfollicular portions of the integument, no reasonable doubt can, in this case, be entertained of its continuity throughout. In the present case, the pigment of the skin appears to occupy a somewhat anomalous position. In the higher animals it is said to occur in the inferior or young layer of epithelium cells, and is situated externally, therefore, to the sup- posed seat of the germinal membrane. In the tribe of animals under consideration, it would seem to be the reverse; for although numerous pigmentary granules are found in the epithelial cells, by far the greatest part of the cutaneous pigment is placed beneath the