264 THE HUMAN SKIN. 



What deduction is to be drawn from the above statement, shown 

 to be a fact by such gross proofs? We claim it in confirmation of 

 the existence of a manifold nervous fluid ; for the subtle exhalations 

 we have been acknowledging, pass through space, and from body to 

 body; nay, take up a location, and keep it, which would be impos- 

 sible were they not bodily themselves. We have therefore traced 

 the sensible perspiration to the red blood, and this influential radia- 

 tion to the nervous system; and grasping these extremes, we may 

 put the mean into its place, and assign the insensible perspiration to 

 the lymphs and colorless fluids pervading the body. Here is a 

 trinity of exhalations, given off by the nervous fluid, the lymph or 

 white blood, and the red blood respectively; and which are esta- 

 blished by huge facts not to be gainsayed. 



This gives new import to the transpirations of the skin, for parti- 

 cles constitute volumes, and volumes are groups according to laws. 

 It flows from the previous conclusions, that there is round each man 

 an atmosphere which has a formal existence equally with the inte- 

 riors of his body. If the organs underneath the skin be different in 

 every part, and if the blood be similarly various, then the emana- 

 tions from different tracts will exhibit the variety of their sources, 

 and the image of the body be stamped on its circumambient sphere. 

 This spheral man environing the skin is not without a witness in 

 ordinary sense. Observe the phenomena of sympathy and antipathy 

 manifested when certain persons come together, and referred by com- 

 mon observation to the feelings, and very rightly, for the matter 

 touches us nearly; and although sight accounts for impressions, yet 

 a residue of influence is experienced which all will say is not seen, 

 but felt. And mark the fear which animals know when they come 

 for the first time into the presence of their natural enemies. Im- 

 pressed by such events and appearances, we recall the doctrine of 

 the microcosm, nor slight the influences of the sky, but recognize in 

 the sympathetic friend some benign planet of our destiny; or in the 

 repulsive presence of others, the malignant rays of an evil star. For 

 as there is no vacuum in the outward world, so there is none in the 

 human world, but all mankind touch each other, and form again a 

 globe; the grand sphere of all individual spheres. One use there- 

 fore, and perhaps the greatest use of the emanations of the skin, is, 



