138 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. 



though I have known an old man, who was 

 intemperate, to have a sore and lame leg al- 

 most a year, in consequence of a slight wound 

 that would have healed in a week, had he 

 been temperate. 



The most surprising fact in regard to the 

 cuticle is, its power of being reproduced, or 

 growing again. If grazed off, or if it peels 

 off, after a blister or swelling, a new cuticle 

 appears with so much rapidity that one would 

 be tempted to think it was already formed un- 

 der the old one, as the new teeth are under 

 the old ones, which they push out. But it -is 

 not so. The new cuticle never grows till the 

 old one is either separated or dead. 



The coloring matter, if destroyed, grows 

 again, or appears again, almost as soon as the 

 cuticle does. But the real skin, which I de- 

 scribed just now, if once destroyed, never grows 

 again. This is the reason why scars are pro- 

 duced on us. The loss of the cuticle or the 

 paint never causes scars ; but that of the real 

 skin always does. It is true the place is some- 

 times filled up with a substance which strongly 

 resembles skin, and which answers the purpose, 



