Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/96

76 The general organ of this sense, in almost all animals, is the skin, and more particularly that part of it on which the nerves terminate, called the papillary portion. But what human pen can describe all the wonders of this organ, whether viewed as a whole or in all its parts, consisting, 1st, of a scaly cuticle, or epidermis, or outermost skin; 2dly, of the reticular body of Malpighius, or cutaneous network; and 3dly, of the cutis, or inmost skin? Yet the natural uses of all these parts are as remarkable and astonishing as the parts themselves; of which truth you will be fully convinced when you are informed, that the scaly cuticle, in the first place, collects, or binds together, the proper uses and functions of all the coats and subjacent strata, represents them generally in itself, and renders them complete. In the second place, it holds together in connection the parts which lie underneath, supports their changes, and impels them to perform their offices aright. In the third place, as a coat of mail, surrounded with wonderful scales, folds, and knots, it protects and defends the sensible, soft, and supple coats, which it covers, from injuries resulting from the surrounding air, its heat, cold, wind, and various temperature, not suited to the state of the body. In the fourth place, it regulates the proximate communications between the surrounding world and its own corporeal