THE SKIN. 239 



stroyed, while the rest of the body remains sound ; but a 

 burn upon the skin certainly one that covers the entire 

 surface, though not deep, and even slight is fatal. 



578. If this great extent of skin is covered with the gath- 

 ered excretions of days, and months, and years, if its pores 

 and its excretory apertures become filled, and the surface 

 agglutinated with the compound of perspiration, and oil, and 

 dust, the sensibility of the nervous extremities must be 

 blunted, and the power of receiving impressions materially 

 diminished. But when the skin is cleansed and unburdened 

 of its load of impurities, these nervous points are more free 

 to receive impressions, and are more easily acted upon by 

 external objects ; the skin has then a more lively sensibility 

 to pleasure and pain, to heat and cold, an(J a keener sense 

 of touch. The blind would not attempt to read his raised 

 letters, nor the draper to discriminate the qualities of cloth, 

 with soiled fingers ; nor would the accomplished performer 

 play on his violin with unwashed hands. 



579. Laura Bridgman, whose senses of sight and hearing 

 are lost, has a most delicate sense of touch. The increased 

 sensibility of her skin compensates, in good measure, for her 

 other privations, and enables her to maintain a fastidious neat- 

 ness of person and dress. Nothing of the kind can exceed 

 the purity of her skin, or the acuteness and liveliness of her 

 cutaneous sensations. She has, therefore, the nicest power 

 of discerning and comparing minute objects. She can, with 

 unusual correctness, discriminate the various textures of 

 cloths, and distinguish the different degrees of fineness of 

 dresses. She enjoys the delicacy of workmanship upon 

 wood and metals, and discovers the cleanness and uncleanness 

 of her clothing. Few detect more readily any blemish upon 

 her garments, or seem to be more averse to wear unwashed 

 linen, or more desirous to enjoy the change of the worn for 

 the fresh dresses from the laundry. 



580. Some produce the greatest effect on the nervous sys- 

 tem through this avenue of the skin. Esquirol, one of t!ie 

 ablest writers upon insanity, and the physician in a very large 



