Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/97

Rh world, which it incloses, viz. by admitting from the air and æther the purer and more wholesome elements which are suited to the natural state of the body; and on the other hand, by letting out, and dispersing into the contiguous atmosphere, collections of effluvia no longer serviceable to the body, together with perspirable matter formed from useless lymph, &c. Fifthly, it compacts the most singular modes of sensation of the little fibres and papillæ into a certain general sensation, which is called the sense of touch, which it moderates, rendering it acute and obtuse, in every respect as nature requires it, with perpetual variation. The reticular body of Malpighius, again, in the first place, serves as a basis, or support, to the cuticle; also for connection and union with the papillary substance, glands, vessels, &c. lying underneath: thus for a mediating organ, and to transfer the modes, acts, senses, and changes of these parts to the scales of the epidermis, and from these latter again to the former. In the second place, it sustains, secures, and balances the parts of the cutis which also lie underneath. Thirdly, it collects, conveys, distinguishes, and reduces to form, those scattered parts: thus it provides that every thing shall refer itself to what is general; shall proceed to successive series; shall flow and re-flow into a kind of circle; and shall perpetually conspire