194 PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



new apprentice in a blacksmith shop or a foundery burns his 

 hands in doing the very work which the older workmen do 

 without any suffering. 



456. When the feet are pinched by new and very tight 

 shoes, painful pressure is made upon the skin, and sometimes 

 blisters are raised in walking. But, if this pressure be more 

 gently and gradually made, and long continued, the cuticle 

 becomes thickened on the prominent joints of some of the 

 toes, by the formation of new underlayers. These layers are 

 broad at the top and narrow at the bottom, and the whole 

 thickening is somewhat wedge-shaped or conical, with its 

 point inward. This is a corn ; and the shoe, bearing upon it, 

 presses upon the tender flesh beneath, often producing acute 

 distress. 



CHAPTER II. 



Cuticle defends true Skin^from external Injury. Nails, Hoof, and 

 Horn. Seat of Color. True Skin has many Blood- Vessels and 

 Nerves. 



457. THE cuticle, placed between external objects and the 

 true skin, protects it from their contact. It bears their hard 

 usage, but suffers no pain. By means of this protection, we 

 are enabled to handle, not only rough, and hard substances, 

 but many matters which would be poisonous to the more deli- 

 cate skin beneath. The dyer or the chemist holds his hands, 

 if the outer skin is unbroken, in strong mixtures, without 

 pain or irritation ; but if the cuticle is broken and the inner 

 skin bare, great pain and sometimes disease are the conse- 

 quence. Physicians often examine the bodies of those who 

 have died of putrid diseases, and, if the scarf-skin of Ihe 

 operator is entire, no bad consequence follows ; but, if there 

 be the least cut or scratch of this cuticle, through which the 

 poison can gain access to the under skin, very severe disorder, 

 and sometimes death, ensue. Some, who thought themselves 



