The skin, touch, and human development.

Abstract Most of us take our skin for granted, except when it breaks out in pimples, wrinkles, or otherwise becomes blemished. At such times we tend to become somewhat irritated with it, and wish it would go away. Most people seem to think of the skin as a sort of binding or wrapper that keeps the skeleton from falling apart, or out of which, at least in other animals, shoes and various leather articles are made. In hot weather the skin sweats unpleasantly, and in cold weather it grows uncomfortably chilly. Perhaps worst of all, it sprouts hairs in the wrong places, which have to shaved, and where hair is desired most thickly it grows most thinly, and only too early takes on the color least desired. And this is the skin.