It is named for Italian anatomist Antonio Scarpa. His description of the membranous superficial fascia is vague in his 1809 hernia monograph. Life-size illustrations included by Scarpa do not identify the layer even though some show all the other anatomical layers of the abdominal wall in the inguinal region. A probable description of the fascia is in the text which discusses femoral (called crural) hernia in the male. Scarpa describes that 'below the skin' we find 'a layer of condensed substance forming the second covering of the hernia' which adheres to 'the aponeurosis of the fascia lata'. A little later he describes