Not Too Hot To Handle 53 



face where it can evaporate and thus absorb heat; on cold days 

 it keeps your sweat glands closed but opens your oil glands 

 so that they can secrete an oily substance which forms an in- 

 sulating film over your goose pimples; and it forms a protect- 

 ing barrier between your muscles and fat and the outside 

 world that swarms with bacteria, fungi, and inseas. If bac- 

 teria light on your unbroken skin they lead neither a merry 

 life nor a long one. But just let them find an opening where 

 the skin has been punaured by a bite, a cut, or a broken 

 blister from your too-loose shoes, and then their ugly faces — 

 if they have any — light up with smiles of triumph as they 

 find an environment that is very conducive to bringing up a 

 large family. 



So the skin is porous! Your perspiration — or shall we 

 just say sweat? — originates within the body and passes out- 

 ward, evaporating on the surface of the body or being ab- 

 sorbed by your clothing; in either case, spoiling your most 

 romantic moments as you wonder if you, too, have B. O. 

 But don't take it too hard; maybe it is your healthy human 

 smell that is responsible for your lover's passionate insistence, 

 and not the few drops of essence of musk deer — at $40 per 

 ounce — masquerading under a name which grandma sure 

 would consider carnal. 



Now don't get the idea that just because some substances 

 can pass through the skin from the inside of the body out- 

 ward that the reverse journey is as readily negotiated. You 

 may kid yourself that you look years younger after you "feed" 

 your skin by plastering on some of Lady X's perfumed axle 

 grease, but even if the stuff was any good, the quantity that 

 could possibly get through the very outer layers of your epi- 

 dermis would be much too insignificant to convert you from 

 an old hag — who wouldn't even be whistled at by a marine 



