od-vessels of the skin contract, the blood is driven from the
surface, and the internal organs are taxed with a double duty. If the
constitution be a strong one, these organs march on and perform the
labor exacted. But if any of these organs be debilitated, the weakest
one generally gives way, and some disease ensues.

One of the most frequent illustrations of this reciprocated action, is
afforded by a convivial meeting in cold weather. The heat of the room,
the food, and the excitement, quicken the circulation, and perspiration
is evolved. When the company passes into the cold air, a sudden
revulsion takes place. The increased circulation continues, for some
time after; but the skin being cooled, the blood retreats, and the
internal organs are obliged to perform the duties of the skin as well as
their own. Then, in case the lungs are the weakest organ, the mucous
secretion becomes excessive; so that it would fill up the cells, and
stop the breathing, were it not for the spasmodic effort called
coughing, by which this substance is thrown out. In case the nerves are
the weakest part of the system, such an exposure would result in pains
in the head or teeth, or in some other nervous ailment. If the muscles
be the weakest part, rheumatic affections will ensue; and if the bowels
or kidneys be weakest, some disorder in their functions will result.

But it is found, that the closing of the pores of the skin with other
substances, tends to a similar result on the internal organs. In this
situation, the skin is unable perfectly to perform its functions, and
either the blood remains to a certain extent unpurified, or else the
internal organs have an unnatural duty to perform. Either of these
results tends to produce disease, and the gradual decay of the vital
powers.

Moreover, it has been shown, that the skin has the power of absorbing
into the blood particles retained on its surface. In consequence of
these peculiarities, the skin of the whole body needs to be washed,
every day. This process removes from the pores the matter exhaled from
the blood, and also that collected from the atmosphere and other bodies.
If this process be not often performed, the pores of the skin fill up
with the redundant matter expelled, and being pressed, by the clothing,
to the surface of the body, the skin is both interrupted in its exhaling
process, and its absorbents take back into the system portions of the
noxious matter. Thus the blood is no