2d. Below, the numerous foramina of the base of the skull effect communications between the face and the cerebral cellular texture, and between it and the top of the pharynx, the zygomatic furrow, &c. In many cases in which angina is attended with pain, and heaviness in the head, vertigo, &c. I am convinced that it is in a great measure owing to these communications, though oftentimes it may be wholly sympathetic.
3d. Above and behind, the cerebral texture is continued with that of the corresponding parts of the head, by the numerous but small openings in the sutures; it accompanies the vessels that go from the dura-mater to the pericranium, and it becomes probably sometimes the means of communication, that is so frequently observed between these two membranes, when one is inflamed; hence the sudden affection that frequently takes place of the dura mater, tunica arachnoides, &c. from a stroke of the sun upon the integuments of the cranium, &c.
The cellular texture, though more abundant on the outside of the cranium, is not found in great quantity there, no doubt because the muscles are so few and thin. Its communications with the face are evident, especially upon the forehead; as a consequence of erisypelas of the cranium, nothing is more common than to see the eye-lids receive the pus that is formed, and which often accumulates in these moveable veils, so as to occasion considerable deposits. It is by these communications also that serum is deposited there, and blood extravasated. Behind and upon the sides, the communications of the cellular texture of the cranium are also very evident.
Cellular texture of the face.
It is very abundant in every part. The orbits are filled with it; the excavation of the cheeks, that is bounded by the buccinator and masseter muscles, the zygomatic and malar bones, contain much of it: all the neighbouring parts of the tongue are furnished with it. The nasal cavities only and their sinuses, which a mucous surface covers, that is almost immediately attached to the bone, have but a small quantity of it.
The facial cellular texture contributes to the beauty and harmony of the countenance, the features of which, examined closely, show that the muscles draw in an unpleasant manner across the skin, when there is no fat, and consequently that there is too great a depression. In an opposite state, there is a kind of bloating that is disagreeable; a middle state is the most favourable to the beauty of the face. This texture is almost wholly disconnected with expression, which is effected by the muscles. Thus the different passions are delineated with nearly the same features upon a fat and a lean face. Only these features are less marked in the first than the second, because in the last more wrinkles are formed than in the other, by the contraction of the same muscles.
The cellular texture is in greater or less quantity in the face in different people. Every one knows that some are always thin in this part, who are fat in the rest of the body. From the dissection of the bodies of such persons, I have found that it arises from the small quantity of cellular texture it contains in proportion to the other parts. In other individuals, there is an opposite state, a fulness of the face with a lean body, a striking contrast, and which arises without doubt from a cause opposite to the first.
It is to the greater proportion of cellular texture, much more than to the development of the muscles, that must be attributed the evident thickness of certain parts of the face, in different species of the human race, that, for example, of the lips and the alæ of the nose in negroes, &c. From the same cause arises the variety in thickness in the great and small labia pudendi.
The principal communications of the facial cellular texture are made with the neck by the sub-cutaneous portion of this texture, by that which accompanies the vessels, and particularly in the triangular space at the superior part of which is situated the parotid gland. Thus, from deposits made upon the lateral parts of the face, effusions of pus take place that often extend to the neck. In emphysema, the air of which comes from the chest, after the neck is swelled, the air passes to the face principally by the sides. There are still great communications of cellular texture between the neck and the face, by the spaces between the muscles that are attached to the base of the tongue.