the actual
contact of particles of matter, in the same manner as that of feeling.

The different organs of the animal body, though easily separated and
perfectly distinct, are loosely connected together by a kind of spongy
substance, in texture somewhat resembling net-work, called the cellular
membrane; and the whole is covered by the skin.

The _skin_, as well as the bark of vegetables, is formed of three coats.
The external one is called the _cuticle_ or _epidermis_; the second,
which is called the _mucous membrane_, is of a thin soft texture, and
consists of a mucous substance, which in negroes is black, and is the
cause of their skin appearing of that colour.

CAROLINE.

Is then the external skin of negroes white like ours?

MRS. B.

Yes; but as the cuticle is transparent, as well as porous, the blackness
of the mucous membrane is visible through it. The extremities of the
nerves are spread over this skin, so that the sensation of feeling is
transmitted through the cuticle. The internal covering of the muscles,
which is properly the skin, is the thickest, the toughest, and most
resisting of the whole; it is this membrane which is so essential in the
arts, by forming leather when combined with tannin.

The skin which covers the animal body, as well as those membranes that
form the coats of the vessels, consists almost exclusively of gelatine;
and is capable of being converted into glue, size, or jelly.

The cavities between the muscles and the skin are usually filled with
fat, which lodges in the cells of the membranous net before mentioned,
and gives to the external form (especially in the human figure) that
roundness, smoothness, and softness, so essential to beauty.

EMILY.

And the skin itself is, I think, a very ornamental part of the human
frame, both from the fineness of its texture, and the variety and
delicacy of its tints.

MRS. B.

This variety and harmonious graduation of colours, proceed, not so much
from the skin itself, as from the internal organs which transmit their
several colours through it, these being only softened and blended by the
colour of the skin, which is uniformly of a yellowish white.

Thus modified, the darkness of the veins appears of a pale blue colour,
and the floridness of the arteries is changed to a delicate pink. In the
most transparent parts, the skin exhibits the bloom of the rose, whilst
where it is more opake its own colour predominates; and at the joints,
wh