the purpose of being transmitted, or rather decanted, from the arteries to the veins, that it may go back to its fountain, the heart, and thence to the lungs, to be renewed with a fresh supply of oxygen; and so numerous are the operations of the skin that, besides affording protection and giving beauty to the body, it exudes above thirty different substances, which have become effete and noxious in consequence of the almost infinite number of vital and chemical changes which are constantly taking place within.
Again, the skin has a direct and important influence on several of the vital organs, but more particularly on the lungs, the digestive organs, the kidneys, and the brain: on the lungs, if it does not throw off its proper quantity of carbon, because in this case the blood returns through the veins darker than it should appear, and these organs have a double task to perform; on the digestive organs, because when the perspiration is checked, the action of the pneumo-gastric nerves becomes feeble; on the kidneys, because they have double duty to perform when the skin ceases to exhale its proper quantity of fluid, and throws this with all the noxious particles associated with it upon the renal organs; and lastly, upon the brain, by obstructing the action of
