THE CULTIVATOR. 
101 
■what evils may arise from them. It is sufficient to have mentioned 
them here, and to urge them upon abler advocates, as topics on which 
they should enlighten our citizens. I know not but I might show you 
that our government has a tendency to give a hot-bed stimulus to some 
of the bad passions of the heart, and especially to the excessive love 
of power. If a Cataline chooses to use the principle of universal suf¬ 
frage, we have given him full opportunity to play on the people, and in 
fact, have rather tempted him to do it.” 
OFFICES OF THE SKIN. 
As an incitement to cleanliness, and to exercise in the sedentary and studious 
—as a precaution against sudden changes of temperature, close heated rooms 
and thin clothing—and with a general view of preserving health, we give 
the following extract from Combe on Health: 
Besides performing the mechanical office of a shield to the parts be¬ 
neath, the skin is admirably fitted, by the great supply of blood which 
it receives, for its use as a secreting and excreting organ. The whole 
animal system is in a state of constant decay and renovation; and 
while the stomach and alimentary canal take in new materials, the skin 
forms one of the principal cutlets or channels by which the old, alter¬ 
ed, or useless particles' are eliminated from the body. Every one 
knows that the skin perspires, and that checked perspiration is a pow¬ 
erful cause of disease and of death; but few haveany just notion of the 
real extent and influence of this exhalation, such as we shall attempt 
to exhibit it. When the body is over-heated by exercise in warm wea¬ 
ther, a copious sweat soon breaks out, which, by carrying of the su¬ 
perfluous heat, produces an agreeable feeling of coolness and refresh¬ 
ment. This is the higher and more obvious degree of the function of 
exhalation; but, in the ordinary slate, the skin is constantly giving out 
a large quantity of waste materials by what is called insensible perspi¬ 
ration, a process which is of great importance to the preservation 
of health, and which is called insensible, because the exhalation, be¬ 
ing in the form of vapor, and carried off by the surrounding air, is in¬ 
visible to the eye; but its presence may often be made manifest even 
to sight by the near approach of a dry cool mirror, on the surface of 
which it will soon be condensed so as to become visible. * * * 
The largest quantity of insensible perspiration from the lungs and 
skin together amounted to thirty-two grains per minute; three ounces 
and a quarter per hour; or five pounds per day. Of this the cutaneous 
constituted two-thirds, or sixty ounces in twenty-four hours. The 
smallest quantity observed amounted to eleven grains per minute, or 
one pound eleven and a half ounces in twenty-four hours, of which the 
skin furnished about twenty ounces. The medium or average amount 
was eighteen grains a minute, of which eleven were from the skin, ma¬ 
king in twenty-four hours about thirty-three ounces. When the extent 
of surface which the skin presents is considered, these results do not 
seem extravagant. But even admitting that there may be some unper¬ 
ceived source of fallacy in the experiments, and that the quantity is 
not so great as is here stated, still, after making every allowance, 
enough remains to demonstrate that exhalation is a very important 
function of the skin. And although the precise amount of perspira¬ 
tion may be disputed, still the greater number of observers agree that 
the cutaneous exhalation is more abundant than the united excretions 
of both bowels and kidneys; and that, according as the weather be¬ 
comes warmer or colder, the skin and kidneys alternate in the propor¬ 
tions of work which they severally perform; most passing off by the 
skin in warm weather, and by the kidneys in cold, and vice versa. 
The quantity exhaled increases after meals, during sleep, in dry warm 
weather, and by friction or whatever stimulates the skin; and diminish¬ 
es when digestion is impaired, and in a moist atmosphere. 
What we have considered relates only to the insensible perspiration. 
That which is caused by great heat or severe exercise is evolved in 
much greater quantity; • and by accumulation at the surface, it becomes 
visible, and forms sweat. In this way, a robust man may lose two or 
three pounds’ weight in the course of one hour’s severe exertion; and 
if this be suddenly checked, the consequences in certain states of the 
system are often of the most serious description. When the surface of 
the body is chilled by cold, the blood-vessels of the skin become con¬ 
tracted in their diameter, and hinder the free entrance of the red par¬ 
ticles of the blood, which are therefore of necessity collected and re¬ 
tained in greater quantity in the internal organs, where the heat va¬ 
ries very little. The skin consequently becomes pale, and its papillae 
contract, forming by their erection what is called the goose’s skin. In 
this state it becomes less fit for its uses; the sense of touch can no 
longer nicely discriminate the qualities of bodies, and a cut or bruise 
may be received with comparatively little pain. From the oppression 
of too much blood, the internal organs, on the other hand, work heavi¬ 
ly: the mental faculties are weakened, sleepiness is induced, respira¬ 
tion is oppressed, the circulation languishes, and digestion ceases; 
and if the cold be very intense, the vital functions are at last extin. 
guished without pain, and without a struggle. This is a picture of the 
extremes; hut the same causes which in an aggravated form occasion 
death, produce, when applied in a minor degree, effects equally cer¬ 
tain, although not equally marked or speedy in their appearance. 
Every thing tends to show that perspiration is a direct product of a 
vital process, and not a mere exudation of watery particles through the 
pores of the skin. 
Taking even the lowest estimate of Lavoisier, we find the skin en¬ 
dowed with the important charge of removing from the system about 
twenty ounces of waste matter every twenty-four hours; and when we 
consider that the quantity not only is great, but is sent forth in so di¬ 
vided a state as to be invisible to the eye, and that the whole of it is 
given out by the very minute ramifications of the blood vessels of the 
skin, we perceive at once why these are so extremely numerous that a 
pin’s point cannot touch any spot without piercing them; and we see an 
ample reason why checked perspiration should prove so detrimental to 
health,—because for every twenty-four hours during which such a 
state continues we must either have twenty ounces of useless and hurt¬ 
ful matter accumulating in the body, or have some of the other organs 
of excretion grievously overtasked, which obviously cannot happen 
without disturbing their regularity and well-being. People know the 
fact, and wonder that it should be so, that cold applied to the skin, or 
continued exposure in a cold day, often produces a bowel complaint, a 
severe cold in the chest, or inflammation of some internal organ; but 
were they taught, as they ought to be, the structure and uses of then- 
own bodies, they would rather wonder that it did not always produce 
one of these effects. 
THE CULTIVATOR—OCT. 1836. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
importance of education to farmers and mechanics. 
We suggested some considerations, in our August number, with the 
view of showing, that all classes of the community, the professional, 
the commercial, and the manufacturing, have a deep interest in the in¬ 
crease of the products of our agriculture, and in a more general diffu¬ 
sion of scientific and other useful knowledge, among the cultivators of 
the soil. As affording additional motives for providing a better system 
of education, and of rendering agricultural and mechanical labor more 
honorable, more inviting, and more useful, we now submit a fourth 
proposition, to wit:— 
The moral and political health of the state , depend, in a high degree, 
upon the intelligence and industry of the country. 
Land and labor are the legitimate sources of public wealth. The 
first, to be productive, must be cultivated ; and the labor of doing this 
is abridged by the culture of the mind, which is to guide its operations. 
But labor not only procures wealth, and the comforts and elegancies 
of life, but it induces, when aided by an intelligent mind, sober moral 
habits, and begets independence of mind as well as of fortune. Idle¬ 
ness, not industry, is the parent of vice and of riot. This seeks to 
bring merit down to its own level. Industry looks for fortune in the 
profits of its labor; and for the enjoyment of it in the peace and quiet 
of society, and the general prosperity of the state; and tends, by its 
example, to elevate and reform. Neither an intelligent individual nor 
a well informed industrious community, are prone to mingle in the vices 
and tumults of the day. Hence the more intelligence we infuse into 
labor, the more abundant will be its products—the more honorable its 
calling—the more numerous its subjects—and the sounder the condition 
of public morals. Knowledge and industry combined, if not synony¬ 
mous with virtue, areatleast a pretty good indication of worth and use¬ 
fulness. Should not, then, the public mind be more enlightened, that 
virtue may more abound. 
In a government constituted like ours, which confers on all the same 
political rights—the same facilities for public instruction should be ex¬ 
tended to all, that all may alike participate in these advantages, and 
become qualified to execute the public trusts. And the propriety of 
this rule derives particular force, whqn applied to the yeomanry and 
mechanics of our country, who, from their numercial force, must be 
the arbiters of our political destinies, and our shield from every dan¬ 
ger. They are emphatically the sovereigns of the land. Their will 
must control, be it for good or be it for evil. The character of the go¬ 
vernment must receive its impress from them, and its prosperity and 
happiness be ever graduated by the measure of their intelligence, their 
industry and their virtue. Attempts to establish republican forms of 
government, have failed in Europe, and on our own continent, by rea¬ 
son of the ignorance, and consequent impotence, of the great mid- 
dling classes—-of the rank and file of population. Learning there has 
been restricted to the privileged few—while the many have too often 
been debased to a servile condition, or have resorted to crime for a 
living. Power and wealth have a tendency to corrupt the highest or¬ 
ders ; ignorance and poverty, to debase the lower classes; which have 
jointly contributed to annihilate, or to render impotent, the great 
