CARE OF THE SKIN | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 14, 1889

CARE OF THE SKIN.

PEOPLE do not generally understand that the skin shares in the function of respiration, and that if this is interfered with death is apt to ensue; though this is due not so much to asphyxia as to some form of blood-poisoning caused by the constituents of the perspiration being re-absorbed into the blood. A striking illustration of the necessity of leaving the skin open to some extent to the action of air is afforded by the fact that a child who was coated with gum and then covered with gold-leaf, to represent a cherub at the coronation of Pope Leo X., died a few hours after the operation. A similiar fate nearly befell Gustave Doré in the days of his youth, when a passing caprice made him go to a fancy ball as "Un Monsieur Doré;" but as in his case the gilding was only partial, he survived, though he did not escape a sharp illness.—Hospital.