30 THE SKIN. 



hope that the method followed of connecting details 

 with practical applications may be found useful to 

 the student, and help to direct him in his future in- 

 quiries. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Skin Composed of three Layers The Cuticle Its Struc 

 ture and Uses The mucous Coat The Seat of Colour The 

 true Skin Its Structure The Seat of Perspiration Its Na- 

 ture Consequences of suppressed Perspiration Sympathy 

 between the Skin and other Organs The Skin a Regulator of 

 Animal Heat The Seat of Absorption Touch and Sensation 

 -Connextion between the Skin and Nervous System. 



IN selecting the subjects of the following essays, 

 I shall be guided partly by the intrinsic importance 

 of the functions of which they treat to the well-being 

 of the animal economy ; and partly by the compara- 

 tive ignorance which prevails in regard to them. 

 Hitherto the digestive functions have formed the 

 most prominent topic of popular disquisition, and a 

 great mass of information has, from time to time, 

 been laid before the public, with a view to induce 

 greater attention to the regulation of diet and regi- 

 men; and the action of digestive order in deranging 

 the general health and modifying the progress of 

 disease has also been sedulously pointed out. But 

 there are other organs and functions, of nearly 

 equal interest, which have been much less attended 

 to than they deserve, and with which the general 

 reader is very little familiar. Among these the 

 skin, the muscles, the bones, the lungs, and the 

 nervous system may be mentioned as most worthy 

 of notice, and I shall accordingly endeavour to give 

 such an account of them in succession as will be 



