What is this bag we call the skin-this fantastic envelope that possesses some of the most extraordinary mechanisms in the entire body? It is an organ of the body-a marvelously efficient apparatus that nourishes, guards, and protects us twenty four hours a day.
When laid out flat, the skin of an average adult would measure some twenty square feet; it would weigh about nine pounds. That's a lot of organ-one of the largest and heaviest of the body. Also the most abused and maligned organ of the body.
Considering those "thousand natural shocks that skin is heir to," its continuing function and lack of complaint is nothing short of amazing.
How do we treat this remarkable mechanism? We dig and rub and scratch it. We expose it to all the elements---extremes of heat and cold, sun, wind, rain, and snow. We cut it, shave it, pick it, squeeze it, pinch it, and twist it. We scrub it, pull it, and bend it. We rub it, slap it, punch it, and knead it.
In the name of Beauty, we paint it and mark it and spray it. In the name of Health, we massage it and scorch it in the steam room and sauna. Name another organ that can stand up to all that! Yet it survives!
We never think of our skin as we do our heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, brain, or any other "important" organ. To many of us, this complex body stocking we wear so casually is just a sac to hold our insides in, a bag containing some watery stuff and bones. But the skin is an important, vital, viable, living mechanism without which the human organism cannot survive.
When laid out flat, the skin of an average adult would measure some twenty square feet; it would weigh about nine pounds. That's a lot of organ-one of the largest and heaviest of the body. Also the most abused and maligned organ of the body.
Considering those "thousand natural shocks that skin is heir to," its continuing function and lack of complaint is nothing short of amazing.
How do we treat this remarkable mechanism? We dig and rub and scratch it. We expose it to all the elements---extremes of heat and cold, sun, wind, rain, and snow. We cut it, shave it, pick it, squeeze it, pinch it, and twist it. We scrub it, pull it, and bend it. We rub it, slap it, punch it, and knead it.
In the name of Beauty, we paint it and mark it and spray it. In the name of Health, we massage it and scorch it in the steam room and sauna. Name another organ that can stand up to all that! Yet it survives!
We never think of our skin as we do our heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, brain, or any other "important" organ. To many of us, this complex body stocking we wear so casually is just a sac to hold our insides in, a bag containing some watery stuff and bones. But the skin is an important, vital, viable, living mechanism without which the human organism cannot survive.
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