[21] You can easily test this by a very simple experiment. Take a pair
of dividers; or, if you haven't these, a couple of long pins or needles
will do. Set them with their points a quarter of an inch apart. Then
touch these points, first closing your eyes, so that you will not be
able to see them, to the tip of one of your fingers, and you will
readily feel that _two_ points touch the skin. Turn your hand over and
touch the back of it with the two points, and they will feel like one
point. Carry the test further, over other parts of the body, and you
will find that they are much less sensitive; thus you will find that at
the back of the neck, or over the shoulder-blades, you will have to put
the points nearly an inch apart before you can tell that there are two
of them. This simply means that you have to touch two separate touch
bulbs before you can get the idea of "two-ness." As these bulbs are an
inch or more apart in the skin of the back, you have to spread the
points of the dividers that distance. You can also prove that the
touching of two nerve-buds gives the idea of "two-ness" by crossing two
of your fingers and placing a pea, or small round piece of chalk,
between their crossed tips. If you close your eyes and roll the pea on
the table, or desk, you will think you have two peas between your
fingers.
CHAPTER XVI
HOW TO KEEP THE SKIN HEALTHY
CLOTHING
Clothes should be Loose and Comfortable. Man is the only animal that
has no natural suit of clothing. Birds have feathers, and animals have
fur, or hair, which they shed in summer and thicken up in winter without
even thinking about it, so that they do not have to bother with either
overcoats or flannels. The wise men say that man originally had a full
suit of hair like other animals, and that he gradually got rid of it, as
he became human. Whether this be true or not, the fact remains that he
has none now; and consequently he must invent and manufacture something
to take its place.
Originally, in the time of our savage ancestors, clothing was worn
chiefly as protection from cold at night, so that all the earlier forms
of clothing were of a more or less blanket-or cloak-like form, and
wrapped, or swathed, the whole body without fitting closely to the
limbs. It is interesting to remember this fact, because even our most
highly civilized forms of clothing still show this same tendency. The
skirt, for instance, is simply a survival of the lower end of the
blanket, which has never been cut down to fit the limbs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account