its functional power. When the cuticle is removed, it is
reproduced and no scar remains; but, when the true skin is destroyed,
a scar is formed.

449. It is not uncommon that the nutrient arteries have their action
so much increased in some parts, as to produce preternatural growth.
Sometimes the vessels whose function it is to deposit fat, are
increased in action, and wens of no inferior size are formed. Again,
there may be a deposition of substances unlike any known to exist in
the body. Occasionally, these nutrient arteries of a part take on a
new action, and not only deposit their ordinary substance, but others,
which they have not heretofore secreted, but which are formed by
vessels of other parts of the body. It is in this way that we account
for the bony matter deposited in the valves of the heart and brain,
also the chalky deposits around the finger-joints.

450. In infancy and childhood, the function of nutrition is very
active; a large amount of food is taken, to supply the place of what
is lost by the action of the absorbents, and also to contribute to the
growth of the body. In middle age, nutrition and absorption are more
equal; but in old age, the absorbents are more active than the
nutrient vessels. The size, consequently, diminishes, the parts become
weaker, the bones more brittle, the body bends forward, and every
function exhibits marks of decay and dissolution.

451. A striking instance of active absorption in middle age was
exhibited in the person of Calvin Edson, of Vermont, who was exhibited
in the large towns of New England, as the "living skeleton." In early
manhood he was athletic, and weighed one hundred and sixty pounds; but
the excessive action of the absorbents over the nutrient vessels,
reduced his weight, in the interval of eighteen years, to sixty
pounds.

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448. What occurs when a muscle is divided? 449. State some of the
results of an increased action of the nutrient arteries. 450. When is
nutrition most active? How in middle age? How in old age? 451. Relate
a striking instance of active absorption in middle age.

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452. Instances, on the other hand, have occurred, of the action of the
nutrient vessels exceeding, in an extreme degree, those of absorption;
as in the person of a colored girl, thirteen years of age, who was
exhibited in New York in the summer of 1840. She was of the height of
misses at that age, but weighed five