Eccrine sweat glandAlso called merocrine; found almost everywhere, most on the palms and soles. Its watery sweat cools the body.
Sweat ductIt spirals up through the dermis and epidermis.
Sweat poreWhere the duct of an eccrine gland opens onto the skin.
Apocrine sweat glandFound in the armpits and groin. Its duct opens into a hair follicle, not onto the skin.
The oil gland 2
Sebaceous glandAn oil gland; it opens into the hair follicle.
SebumIt keeps the skin and hair soft and waterproof.
How this list was compiled: Every name and detail checked on 2026-09-29 against OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology 2e, section 5.2 Accessory Structures of the Skin (eccrine or merocrine sweat glands, coiled in the dermis, their ducts and pores, most numerous on the palms and soles; apocrine sweat glands in the armpits and groin opening into hair follicles; sebaceous glands and sebum), https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/5-2-accessory-structures-of-the-skin, and against Wikipedia, Sweat gland and Sebaceous gland, text only. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-05 by script. Our own drawing, nothing traced. The layers of the skin, the knot of the sweat gland and its winding duct are laid out by eye after one public domain plate in Henry Gray, Anatomy of the Human Body (20th US edition, 1918), fig. 940, a diagrammatic sectional view of the skin (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gray940.png), and the slanting hair follicle with the sebaceous gland and the small muscle beside it after fig. 944 of the same book (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gray944.png). A plan, not to scale: the three glands are set side by side in one block of skin so that each can be told apart. Licence: own work
How it works
The skin has two kinds of sweat gland and an oil gland. This block of skin shows all three: the small eccrine gland opening onto the surface, the larger apocrine gland and the sebaceous gland both opening into a hair follicle.
Read the full guide
Where each one opens
Numbers 1 to 3 are the eccrine gland: its coil deep in the dermis, the duct that spirals up, and the pore on the surface. Number 4 is the apocrine gland, whose duct opens into the hair follicle. Numbers 5 and 6 are the sebaceous gland and the sebum it pours into the follicle.
Eccrine opens onto the skin; apocrine and sebaceous open into a hair follicle.
Questions and answers
What is the difference between eccrine and apocrine sweat glands?
Eccrine (merocrine) glands are found almost everywhere, most on the palms and soles, and open onto the skin through a pore; their watery sweat cools the body. Apocrine glands are in the armpits and groin and open into hair follicles.
What does a sebaceous gland do?
It makes sebum, an oily substance that flows into the hair follicle and onto the skin, keeping the skin and hair soft and waterproof.
Where are sweat glands found?
In the dermis. The coil of each gland sits deep in the dermis, and its duct carries the sweat up to the surface or into a hair follicle.