Vaccination impartially reviewed : being one of the prize essays sent in to the Ladies' Sanitary Association / by Ferdinand E. Jencken.

  • Jencken, Ferdinand Edward, 1823-1881.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vaccination impartially reviewed : being one of the prize essays sent in to the Ladies' Sanitary Association / by Ferdinand E. Jencken. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    double office of lining and secreting surfaces; but of all these, the cutis, or skin, properly so called, is of the greatest significance, not only as the outer integument of the body, constituting the boundary line between the organism and the surrounding ele- ments, but also as being the highest development of the membranous tissues, its exquisite sensitiveness and aptitude to convey the impressions from without to the mind being amongst others its most promi- nent features. From its perpetual exposure to the atmosphere, it is only too open to be assailed by a variety of the cruder elements that surround it, and these attacks are, of course, the more readily resented as, owing to its sensitive character, every rude assault from without is felt with greater keenness. Further, the skin, as the external covering of the body, stands as much in relation to the outer world as to the organism itself, and has thus imposed upon it a twofold office, the office of secreting what is unfit for the purposes of the economy (by the ex- halation of moisture, and the deposition of sebaceous matter, &c.), and receiving from without those ele- ments which are requisite for the carrying on of the manifold processes by which our vital existence is maintained; this, amongst others, it chiefly does in admitting the atmospheric air, by which a continual process of surface oxidation is kept up. It is ob-