25 



which it is also tied by the vessels that feed it ; it con- 

 sists of several layers of exceeding small scales, whiclt 

 cover one another where it is thick, but in the lips, 

 where it is extremely thin, they little more than touch 

 one another. 



In some creatures (as fishes) these scales are only 

 the excretory ducts of the glands of the skin; in others, 

 those glands have their proper ducts, opening between 

 the scales. 



It is supposed there are in one scale 500 excretory 

 ducts, and that a grain of sand will cover 250 scales* 

 If so, a grain of sand will cover 125,000 of our pores. 



The cuticle serves to defend the nerves of the skin, 

 both from the air, which would dry and make them 

 less sensible, and from rough and hard bodies, which 

 would make a painful impression on the naked nerves. 



Negroes have a skin between the cuticle and the 

 true skin. They are born white, but the middle skin, 

 in a little time, turns black, and gives that colour to 

 the whole body. 



But who can account for the following case? Sir C. 

 Wager had a boy about eleven years old, who was 

 born in Virginia, of negro parents : till he was three 

 years old he was like other black children ; he then, 

 without any distemper, began la have little white 

 specks upon his neck and breast ; these increased with 

 his years, both in number and bigness, so that from 

 the upper part of his neck, quite down to his knees, 

 he was dappled with white spots, some of them broad. 

 er than the palm of a man's hand. They were won- 

 derfully white, equal to the skin of the fairest lady, 

 only somewhat paler. His face, arms, and legs, were 

 perfectly black ; he was exceeding active, sprightly, 

 and more ingenious than is common among that gene- 

 ration. 



Perhaps the following fact is no less difficult to be 

 accounted for. A negro woman, cook to Colonel 

 Barnes, in Maryland, about forty years of age, re. 

 markably healthy, had her skin as dark as that of the 



VOL. j, c 



