Henry Gray (18251861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
the lines on the tips of the fingers and thumbs form distinct patterns unlike those of any other person. A method of determining the identity of a criminal is based on this fact, impressions (finger-prints) of these lines being made on paper covered with soot, or on white paper after first covering the fingers with ink. The deep surface of the epidermis is accurately moulded upon the papillary layer of the corium, the papillæ being covered by a basement membrane; so that when the epidermis is removed by maceration, it presents on its under surface a number of pits or depressions corresponding to the papillæ, and ridges corresponding to the intervals between them. Fine tubular prolongations are continued from this layer into the ducts of the sudoriferous and sebaceous glands.
The epidermis consists of stratified epithelium which is arranged in four layers from within outward as follows: (a) stratum mucosum, (b) stratum granulosum, (c) stratum lucidum, and (d) stratum corneum.
The stratum mucosum (mucous layer) is composed of several layers of cells; those of the deepest layer are columnar in shape and placed perpendicularly on the surface of the basement membrane, to which they are attached by toothed extremities; this deepest layer is sometimes termed the stratum germinativum; the succeeding strata consist of cells of a more rounded or polyhedral form, the contents of