That the retention of various harmful products normally eliminated through the skin is extremely injurious to health is best shown by the fact that animals whose skin is varnished all over invariably succumb to intoxication. Especially is this true in amphibia, who, as Spallanzani[234] found, can live longer after the removal of the lungs than after varnishing the whole skin. The cause of this is that in amphibia the respiration by the skin is more important than that through the lungs. Footnote 234: Memorabilien traduits par Levebier, p. 77, Genève, 1863. But even if, in higher animals, there is far more respiration through the lungs than through the skin, the varnishing over of the skin on the entire body can produce death in certain mammalia. This has also been observed to have occurred in man. The day before the solemn entry into Rome of Pope Leo XIII, a little boy was painted over his entire body with gold leaf so as to represent an angel; but he suddenly died before the procession began. We cannot, however, conceal the fact that the death of higher animals, according to some authorities, is not due to the retention of the products of perspiration, but rather to an increased loss of warmth of the body, especially as these animals have always been shaved prior to being varnished. Still, for reasons we shall give later, we believe that this cannot alter our views on the harmfulness of checking respiration through the skin. The injurious action of this is also shown by the fact that persons whose skin is burnt to a large extent, die, as a rule, by intoxication. Certain opinions have been advanced which ascribe such a death to a change in the constitution of the blood after extensive burns. I am inclined to think that death may be due to the fact that the skin respiration is, in such a case, more suppressed, as the body is enveloped in bandages which, like sticking plaster, do not admit of air circulation; and also because there is no elimination. At the same time the other parts of the body are covered by the clothing instead of the same being removed. If, however, after such burns the body be kept quite naked and the air thus permitted a free circulation on all sides, then even after the most extensive burns death will not follow, as we have seen in several cases so treated by Dr. Sneve in St. Paul, Minn., whose wards we inspected some years ago. Why should the changes in the blood not induce death in these patients in the same way as it does in patients swathed in bandages? Logically, this cannot be the reason for death, but in all probability it is the suppression of the skin respiration. But if death after extensive burns is due to this cause, then the same may be given as the cause of death after varnishing the body. The substances which are eliminated from the body through perspiration are urea, uric acid (in small quantities only), common salt, creatin, acetic acid, lactic acid, and a number of fatty acids.