THE PERSPIRATION.--From these openings, there constantly passes a vapor, forming what we call the insensible perspiration. Exercise or heat causes it to flow more freely, when it condenses on the surface in drops. The perspiration consists of about ninety-nine parts water, and one part solid matter. The amount varies greatly, but on the average is, for an adult, not far from two pounds per day. Any suppression of this constant drainage will lead to disagreeable and even dangerous results. If it be entirely and permanently checked, death will inevitably ensue. [Footnote: Once, on an occasion of great solemnity at Rome, a child was, it is said, completely covered with gold leaf, closely applied to the skin, so as to represent, according to the idea of that age, the golden glory of an angel or seraph. In a few hours, after contributing to this pageant, the child died; the cause being suffocation, from stopping the exhalation of the skin; although, in the ignorance of the common people of those days, the death was attributed to the anger of the Deity, and looked upon as a circumstance of evil omen.] THE ABSORBING POWER OF THE SKIN.--We have already described two uses of the skin: (1) Its _protective_, (2) its _exhaling_, and now we come to (3) its _absorbing_ power. This is not so noticeable as the others, and yet it can be illustrated. Persons frequently poison their hands with the common wood ivy. Contagious diseases are taken by touching a patient, or even his clothing, especially if there be a crack in the cuticle. [Footnote: If one is called upon to handle a dead body, it is well, especially if the person has died of a contagious disease, to rub the hand with lard or olive oil. Poisonous matter has been fatally absorbed through the breaking of the cuticle by a hangnail, or a simple scratch. There is a story that Bonaparte, when a lieutenant of artillery, in the heat of battle, seized the rammer and worked the gun of an artilleryman who had fallen. From the wood which the soldier had used, Bonaparte absorbed a poison that gave him a skin disease, by which he was annoyed the remainder of his life.] Painters absorb so much lead through the pores of their hands that they are attacked with colic. [Footnote: Cosmetics, hair dyes, etc., are exceedingly injurious, not only because they tend to fill the pores of the skin, but because they often contain poisonous matters that may be absorbed into the system, especially if they are in a solution.] Snuff and lard are frequently rubbed on the chest of a child suffering with the croup, to produce vomiting. It is said that seamen in want of water drench their clothing in salt spray, when the skin will absorb enough moisture to quench thirst (see Lymphatic System).