The philosophy of eating / by Albert J. Bellows.

  • Bellows, Albert J. (Albert Jones), 1804-1869.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of eating / by Albert J. Bellows. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    microscope, and clearly delineating the different parts of this complicated and important organ, and showing the necessity of cleanliness in order to the perfect per- formance of its functions. 1. The Cuticle or Scarf skin is the dry, membranous outside covering of the body, consisting of laminae of hardened mucus, or albuminous matter, without nerves or blood vessels, and therefore w^ithout feeling or life, except a kind of vegetable life. It is, when kept clean and fresh, as it may be by daily ablution or friction, spongy and porous, so as to admit through it freely the perspiration, cfec, which exudes from beneath, but when neglected becomes hard, and filled with concreted impurities, which obstruct the natural secretions, and become the source of much derangement of the system, and of many diseases both of the skin and other organs. It constantly exfoliates in scales, as we can see at any time by applying friction or a moist cloth to any part of it, and is separated in blisters on the application of heat or irritating substances, as Spanish flies, mus- tard, &c. 2. The Rete Mucosum, or Mucous Web, in which resides the coloring matter which constitutes the com- plexion, and which, in the Ethiopian, is black. Like the cuticle, it is not organized with nerves and blood vessels, and therefore not absorbed, and being covered with the cuticle, is not exfoliated. It therefore remains almost permanent, and letters and figures inserted with coloring matter like India ink, remain during life. It is this inertness that renders diseases of the skin so