STRUCTURE OF THE SKIN. 31 



both intelligible and of direct practical utility to 

 every one. I shall commence with an explanation 

 of the structure and functions of the skin. 



The skin is that membranous covering which is 

 spread over the whole surface of the body, and 

 which serves to bind together, and to protect from 

 injury, the subjacent and more delicate textures. In 

 different animals, and at different parts of the body, 

 it assumes different appearances. It is smooth, soft, 

 and delicate in youth, and in females ; firmer and 

 more resisting in middle age, and in males ; flabby and 

 wrinkled in old age, and after disease ; puckered or 

 disposed in folds in places that admit of extensive 

 flexion, as over the finger-joints, and in the palm of 

 the hand; and thick and horny where it is subjected 

 to the influence of pressure, as in the soles of the 

 feet. 



The structure of the skin, like that of every other 

 part of the animal frame, displays the most striking 

 proofs of the transcendent wisdom and beneficence 

 of its great Creator. Though simple in appearance 

 and in design, it is a compound of many elements, 

 and the seat of as great a variety of functions. It is 

 composed of three layers of membrane, viz. the thin 

 scarf-skin or cuticle, the mucous coat, and the thick 

 true skin, as it is called, which immediately encom- 

 passes the body. These distinctions should be kept 

 in view, for, as it is a general law of the animal 

 economy that every part has a use or function 

 peculiar to itself, the various uses of the compound 

 can be understood only by attending to those of the 

 simple elements. 



The epidermis, cuticle, or scarf-skin, is the outer- 

 most of the three layers, and is that which is raised 

 in blisters. It is a thin continuous and insensible 

 membrane, has no perceptible blood-vessels or nerves, 

 and consequently neither bleeds nor feels pain when 

 cut or abraded. Being homogeneous in structure, 



