THE FARMER AT HOME. 381 



many of the latter, "belonging to the province of Cevennes, were sub- 

 jected to the martyrdom of being tickled to death, or the necessity of 

 abjuring their creed. In certain diseases of the skin, the itching is so 

 intolerable, as to drive the sufferers into actual madness. 



Sensations of a very different and pleasurable character are expe- 

 rienced, when polished bodies or soft and elastic ones of a mild temper- 

 ature, are applied to the skin. These effects are produced, by rubbing 

 slowly in the same direction with the hand of another person. The 

 influence of this operation is not confined to the skin, but is diffused 

 throughout the whole animal economy ; as is evinced in general lan- 

 guor ; disinclination to motion, and indolence of thought ; a mild and 

 diffused warmth of the skin itself; languid circulation of the blood, 

 and subsidence or removal of former pain. Such are often the effects 

 of the touching and frictions of the magnetisers, to which they are 

 mainly indebted for the favorable belief in their powers, and by which 

 they sometimes obtain undoubted success in irritations and spasms of 

 persons possessed of great delicacy and sensibility of frame. 



The tepid and warm baths produce nearly analogous effects. It 

 is more especially in southern climates, the inhabitants of which have 

 such exquisite sensibility, that the highest enjoyments of the sense of 

 touch are experienced. All travellers in Turkey, Persia, and Egypt, 

 unite in praising the luxury and ornaments of the bathing establish- 

 ments in those countries ; and all concur in describing the luxurious 

 languor, the pleasurable sensations pervading the whole nervous 

 system, when the bather after coming out of the bath, reclines on a 

 couch, and has the entire surface of the body gently rubbed, by attend- 

 ants in waiting for the purpose. The women in particular are lulled 

 to a soft repose, of hours' duration, by this means. 



SKINS. In Commerce, the membranous coverings of animals, 

 which are converted to several uses. When employed with the hair 

 remaining on them, they are distinguished by the names of peltry and 

 fur ; when dressed for writing, painting, and other purposes, by those 

 of parchment and vellum ; and when tanned, by the general name of 

 leather, or the particular name of the leather manufactured, or of the 

 animal from which it was obtained ; as morocco and calf skin. 



SKY. The blue expanse, otherwise called heaven, and the firm- 

 ament. With respect to its color, Leonardo da Vinci, and M. de la 

 Hire, have explained it as resulting from the mixture of white and 

 black, which is produced when we see the dark regions of the atmos- 

 phere through the light of the sun ; but Sir Isaac Newton attributes 

 it to the vapors, which, beginning to condense, have had time suffi- 

 cient to reflect the most reflexible rays, that is, the violet ones, but 

 not enough to reflect the rest. One thing is certain, that, whatever 

 be the cause of the blue color of that space in which the stars move, 

 and which bounds all the visual prospects of this globe, the color that 

 we see by night, and that which we see by day, are the same ; and 



