THE SKIN. 215 



merely relative to the previous sensations. If, after we have 

 been handling snow, we take a piece of iron heated to 50, 

 it feels to us warm. But if another, who had been holding 

 his hands in warm water, at 98, should take up the same 

 iron at 50, it would seem to him cold. If one should come 

 from the outer air of a cold day in winter, where the ther- 

 mometer is at 0, and enter a cellar where the temperature is 

 at 50 or 60, he would feel a pleasant sensation of heat, and 

 call the cellar warm. But if, at the same time, another 

 should descend from his parlor, heated to 70, into the same 

 cellar, he would complain of cold. 



515. It is no uncommon circumstance for two travellers 

 to meet midway on the side of a high mountain. One is 

 coming from the top, where snow covers the ground and the 

 air is wintry ; the other is going up from fhe valley below, 

 where summer reigns. The descending traveller, coming 

 from the cold region, and finding the air warmer than that 

 which he has just left, complains of the oppressive heat, and 

 throws off his woollen clothes and puts on his summer gar- 

 ments ; while the ascending traveller, coming from another 

 atmosphere, much warmer than the present, complains of 

 the cold, and changes his summer for his winter clothing. 

 Both these men are exposed to the same temperature, but 

 have very opposite sensations. 



516. Every thing which depresses the power and energies 

 of life diminishes the production of internal heat, ( 434, 

 p. 186,) and also lessens the protective power of the skin 

 against the external cold. Under the influence of hunger 

 and fatigue, and the consequences of exhausting disease, 

 and when overborne by the depressing passions and emo- 

 tions grief, despondency, anxiety, and fear, the skin has 

 less power to defend us from the extremes of heat and cold, 

 and we are then more uncomfortably hot in high tempera- 

 ture, and suffer more from the low. But the contrary hap- 

 pens when we are well-fed and fresh, when we are vigorous 

 and cheerful, and when we are animated with hope or ex- 

 hilarated with confidence. 



