THE SOCIAL AND SEXUAL SKINS. 275 



the common sense of the skin proclaims the existence of sex in the 

 soul, where the laws of diversity and union become also extended. 



Again the single skin is suited in constitution and color to the 

 part that it covers, and to its function in every place. Where great 

 resistance is demanded, as on the heel, or in the palm, the cuticle, 

 no longer thin, becomes a dense and almost horny pad; and in short, 

 it sympathizes with our occupations and habits, presenting an open 

 declaration of the statesmanship of the body ; for if there be this 

 power of wise change in the scurf of the skin, what is there not in 

 the depth of the system and in the senate of the brain ! So also 

 the reticulum varies with the latitudes and longitudes of the person, 

 being greatest where the sensibility is greatest, as over the hands, 

 and upon the tongue. The papillae also are various everywhere, and 

 peculiarly grouped; multitudinous where feeling is quick and fre- 

 quent; almost indiscernible in other parts. The corium too is thick 

 and thin, and differently woven, as utility desires. In short the in- 

 dividual skin brings us back again to the social and geographical; 

 it too runs from coarseness to fineness, from whiteness to shadow, 

 from life to dullness ; representing on one person the skins of all 

 ranks' and conditions, all seasons and zones; kingly face-skin and 

 peasant foot-skins; swart patches of Ethiopian dusk, and tracts of 

 open fairness, as it were temperate climes. 



Turning from the general map of the body to the head, chest and 

 abdomen, we observe that their great divisions of skin modulate 

 through successive functions. Over the belly, receptivity is the 

 leading oface; it sustains material distention for periods short and 

 long, and recovers itself more or less. In the skin covering the 

 chest there is a higher elasticity, fitting it for its lifelong reciproca- 

 tions; active strength is the gift of the thoracic covering, and it 

 easily recedes before the filling breath, and then as easily runs for- 

 ward after the retreating lungs. In the head, all the other functions 

 of the skin are present, and capital functions superadded. Besides 

 that the head-skin is mechanically yielding and elastic, it is also 

 intellectually expressive; it runs after the changes of the brain, 

 faster than the skin of the chest follows up the alternations of the 

 lungs. But in robing the sovereign brain, the beauty of the organ- 

 ism, such as it is ; dwells in its natural folds, and harmony and love 



