Читать книгу The House We Live In; or, The Making of the Body онлайн

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Amy: Isn’t the skin thicker in some parts of the body than others?

Mother: Yes; on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet it is quite thick, while on the lips and some other parts of the body it is very thin indeed. Have you noticed how the skin looks if it is scratched and then heals up?

Elmer: Just the same as it did before.

Mother: But if there is a deep cut or a severe burn, how does it look after it heals?

Helen: There is a scar left.

Mother: This shows that the outer skin and the coloring matter will come back as they were before if they are hurt; but when the true skin is injured, the blood makes a kind of patch, which we call a scar. Another curious thing about the true skin is that it has tiny muscles, and when the body is cold, they draw up and make little hillocks, which we call “goose-flesh.”

But the skin is very useful, besides being a covering for the body. When we were getting dinner to-day, what did we do with the potato parings and other things we did not wish to keep?