46 THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT. 



burnt ; and whether this estimate be correc* or not 

 the facts from which it is drawn clearly demon- 

 strate the importance of the relation subsisting be- 

 tween the skin and the other excreting organs. 



In some constitutions, a singular enough sym- 

 pathy subsists between the skin and the bowels. 

 Dr. A. T. Thomson, in his work on Materia Medica 

 (p. 42), mentions, that he is acquainted with a cler- 

 gyman who cannot bear the skin to be sponged with 

 vinegar and water, or any diluted acid, without suf- 

 fering spasm and violent griping of the bowels. 

 The reverse operation of this sympathy is exem- 

 plified in the frequent production of nettle-rush and 

 other eruptions on the skin, by shell-fish and other 

 substances taken into the stomach. Dr. Thomson 

 tells us, that the late Dr. Gregory could not eat the 

 smallest portion of the white of an egg, without ex- 

 periencing an attack of an eruption like nettle-rush. 

 According to the same author, even strawberries 

 have been known to cause fainting, followed by a 

 petechial efflorescence of the skin. 



We have seen that the insensible perspiration re- 

 moves from the system, without trouble and without 

 consciousness, a large quantity of useless materials, 

 and at the same time keeps the skin soft and moist, 

 and thereby fits it for the performance of its func- 

 tions as the organ of an external sense. In addition to 

 these purposes, the Creator has, in his omniscience 

 and foresight, and with that regard to simplicity 

 of means which betokens a profoundness of thought 

 inconceivable to us, superadded another purpose 

 scarcely less important, and which is in some degree 

 implied in the former ; I mean the proper regulation 

 of the bodily herat. It is well known, that in the 

 polar regions and in the torrid zone, under every 

 variety of circumstances, the human body retains 

 nearly the same temperature, however different that 

 of the air may be by which it is surrounded. This 

 \& a property peculiar to life, and, in consequence of 



