Pore (plant)

“ Her idea is that these pores are only little holes in the skin, so that, if you fill them up with oil, the insensible perspiration will not get through. Now let us observe that a pore is a complete organ in itself, and has at least three things that characterise it. (See page 285) . First of all, it is a living thing. It is so as really as a finger is a living organ, or an eye, or an ear. When it dies, it is as much an opening as ever, but it ceases to secrete the perspiration which is constantly separated from the current of the blood when it was healthily alive. ”

“ The skin of the face is constantly exposed. In every tiny pore dust and dirt are bound to accumulate. Unless your skin is kept in perfect health, with every tiny pore active, these impurities make themselves evident in the form of blackheads. These little black pests are frequently found where the circulation is sluggish and the pores less active—on the forehead, between the eyes, over the nose, about the chin and sometimes on the ears.
Cleanliness is the principal secret of the clear, blackheadless skin and nothing will so effectively get down into the pores as a cream. ”

“ They should be thoroughly pressed out of every pore, or there they will remain, and no cosmetic will dislodge them. When this is effectually done, the following safe and simple application may be tried: take one ounce of bitter almonds and one ounce of barley-flour; mix them with honey, until they form a smooth paste, and anoint the skin at night. Gentle friction, either with the hand or with a soft glove, is also good. When this state of the skin is induced by bilious disorders, indigestion, &c., sulphur, purgatives, and other remedies must be taken to remove it ”

“ The majority of persons are not affected by these plants, but in many contact, or in some mere proximity to the plant, will be followed by a dermatitis, variable as to degree. The inflammation may simply be of an erythematous character with slight swelling, or, on the other hand, it may be vesicular, pustular, or bullous, with marked hyperæmia, oedema, and swelling. ”

“ In our chapter on the use of water as an irrigator for the internal man, we told you of the importance of keeping the pores open, and how soon a man would die if his pores were sealed, as shown by experiments and occurrences in the past. And this accumulation of worn-out cells, oil, perspiration, etc., will at least partially seal up the pores unless the body is kept clean. And then, again, this filth on the surface of the skin is an invitation for stray germs and bacteria to take up their abode there and thrive. ”

“ The heat makes it secrete more perfectly, and the chemical combination makes the removal of the secretion easy. It is possible to block the pores up, but it is not very easy to do so. A healthy pore will send its secretions out through very close stuff. It is only by something like very strong varnish that it can be prevented. ”

“ PORE, a small opening or orifice, particularly used of the openings of the ducts of the sweat-glands in the skin or of the stomata in the epidermis of plants or those through which the pollen or seed are discharged from anthers or seed capsules. ”

“ The flowers contain a yellow colouring matter, mucilage, and sugar. In Germany they are given with the rest of the plant for dropsy, jaundice, piles, and some diseases of the skin. Gerard says: "The decoction openeth the stoppings of the liver, and spleen: and is singular good against the jaundice which is of long continuance." He advises an ointment made from the plant stampt with lard for certain skin eruptions, and a decoction made with four drachms of the herb in eight ounces of boiling water. The bruised leaves are useful externally for curing blotches on the face, and for piles. ”

“ A microscopical examination of the tissues of the plant shows them to be comparatively simple, this being especially the case with the fibro-vascular system.
The epidermis of the leaf is readily removed, and examination shows it to be made up of oblong cells with large breathing pores in rows. The breathing pores are much larger than any we have yet seen, and are of the type common to most angiosperms. ”

“ Having observed, as in the year 1802, a spontaneous moisture on the skin on the first day of the disease, in several cases, I was led to assist this disposition in nature to be relieved by the pores, by means of sweating remedies, but in no instance did I follow it, without previous evacuations from the blood-vessels or bowels; for, however useful the intimations of nature may be in acute diseases, her efforts should never be trusted to alone, inasmuch as they are in most cases too feeble to do service, or so violent as to do mischief. ”

“ In other cases the formation of hair seems to accompany the diminished development of some organ, as on the barren pedicels of the wig plant, Rhus Cotinus. A similar production of hair may be noticed in many cases where the development of a branch or of a flower is arrested, and this occurs with especial frequency where the arrest in growth is due to the puncture of an insect, or to the formation of a gall. In such cases the hairs are mere excrescences from the epidermis. ”

“ It helps also to procure women’s courses, and eases all pains of the mother and to break and discuss wind therein, and in the bowels. The powder of the root taken in drink, drives forth the worms in the body. The juice or distilled water of the herb, is effectual for green wounds, or old sores, and cleanses the body inwardly, and the seed outwardly, from sores, scurf, itch, pimples, freckles, morphew, or other deformities thereof, especially if a little vitriol be dissolved therein. ”

“ Absolute dryness of the skin is all-important. At least once a day, the sacrum, buttocks, shoulder-blades, heels, elbows, malleoli, or other parts exposed to pressure, must be sponged with soap and water, thoroughly dried, and then rubbed with methylated spirit, which is allowed to dry on the skin. Dusting the part with boracic acid powder not only keeps it dry, but prevents the development of bacteria in the skin secretions. ”

“ A careful examination of a cross-section of the bark shows first, if taken from a branch not more than two or three years old, the epidermis composed of cells not unlike those of the leaf, but whose walls are usually browner. Underneath are cells with brownish walls, and often more or less dry and dead. These cells give the brown color to the bark, and later both epidermis and outer ground tissue become entirely dead and disappear. The bulk of the ground tissue is made up of rather large, loose cells, the outer ones containing a good deal of chlorophyll. ”

“ Spores borne in labyrinth-like pores Daedalea & Daedaleopsis Spores borne in elongate pores like very thick gills, or fruit-body completely resupinate 29 29. Spore-layer lining elongate pores Lenzites (white) & Gloeophyllum (brown) Spore-layer consisting of a resupinate pore-layer 30 30. Pore-layer totally resupinate; flesh very poorly developed [138] Fibuloporia and related genera Fruit-body resupinate or developing ill-formed caps at the margin; flesh well-developed and quite tough Datronia, Gloeoporus & Bjerkandera 31. ”

“ In different stages of the fever, after a few days, a cutaneous efflorescence is perceivable, from which the disease takes its name, preceded by and accompanied with itching and pricking heat of the skin, and eruption of diminutive{97} pustules, the size of millet seed, and, by the fingers, may be felt prominent: they are rarely seen on the face; commonly on the neck, back, breast, and extremities ”

“ I turn, lastly, to the consideration of a disease in coffee which is popularly known by the name of rot, and scientifically as pellicularia koleroga, a fungoid plant which crawls over the leaves and seals up their breathing pores, till at last the leaf dies, as man does, from want of breath. ”

“ The skin thickens in patches, and painful fissures are formed, which are irritated by exposure to air or water. Eczema denotes debility. It occurs in various forms, and, like erysipelas, should be treated by a physician.
3. Corns are thickened cuticle, caused by pressure or friction. They most frequently occur on the feet; but are produced on the shoemaker's knee by constant hammering, and on the soldier's shoulder by the rubbing of his musket. This hard portion irritates the sensitive cutis beneath, and so causes pain. A corn will soften in hot water, when it may be pared with a sharp knife. ”

“ By this method the entire body is hermetically sealed (just as our New England forebears used to seal their preserves and jams with paraffin) and the skin is kept immaculately clean.
As soon, however, as the Spring sun has ameliorated the low temperature the native feels that it is time to slough his oily protection. Nature demands that his pores come up for air. This is accomplished by exposure to the sun's rays. The wax and substrata rapidly liquefy and are easily scraped-off with curved bone knives admirably adapted to the work in hand. ”

“ As the irritation is continued the skin continues growing harder and thicker, until a large and ugly corn is produced. To understand its nature more fully, and why it assumes a sharp point, thus turning its protection into a torture, it will be necessary to explain something more of the nature of the skin itself.
There are two layers of membrane composing the skin—the cutis vera, dermis, or true skin, which is the inner portion; and the cuticle, epidermis, or scarf-skin, which is the outside layer. ”

“ A culture may be prepared from the sweating bacteria by taking the hair from the skin when it “slips”—that is, when it can be removed by simply pulling it. The root portion of the hairs are then cut off, and about 10 grm. carefully digested in 100 c.c. of water at a temperature of 32° to 35° centigrade for several hours. The liquid portion is then poured off, and used for inoculating 10,000 c.c. of a nutrient medium of the character hereinafter described. ”

“ The seed or leaves bruised, and put into the nostrils, stays the bleeding of them, and takes away the flesh growing in them called polypus. The juice of the leaves, or the decoction of them, or of the root, is singularly good to wash either old, rotten, or stinking sores or fistulous, and gangrenes, and such as fretting, eating, or corroding scabs, manginess, and itch, in any part of the body, as also green wounds, by washing them therewith, or applying the green herb bruised thereunto, yea, although the flesh were separated from the bones ”

“ The outer is continually wearing out and falls from the body in fine scales. The skin is pierced by thousands 19upon thousands of pores, or tiny openings, through which a large part of the waste of the body passes. If these pores are allowed to become clogged by want of cleanliness, the waste matter enters the blood and may cause disease and death.
The way to keep the pores open is by bathing or cleanliness. When the weather is cold, you should bathe at least once a week at home. ”

“ Remember that the fluid must act upon the inside of the skin, for the epidermis is often almost impervious to it. If you allow the skin to lie upon itself in thick folds, stuck together on the inside, those spots are liable to lose their hair in a most unaccountable and aggravating way. If the skin is small and thin, the bath soon does its work; but if it is a large skin, move it up and down, and all about, every day for the first two or three days. By the end of that time its preservation will be complete. ”

“ The Epidermis or skin of leaves and all young shoots is best seen in the foliage. It may readily be stripped off from the surface of a Lily-leaf, and still more so from more fleshy and soft leaves, such as those [Pg 144] of Houseleek. The epidermis is usually composed of a single layer, occasionally of two or three layers, of empty cells, mostly of irregular outline. The sinuous lines which traverse it, and may be discerned under low powers of the microscope (Fig. 487) , are the boundaries of the epidermal cells. ”

“ Fig. 33.—Vertical section through a very young Æcidium of Peridermium Pini (var. acicola) , with part of the subjacent tissue of the leaf, h, the mycelium of the parasitic fungus running between the cells of the leaf; immediately beneath the epidermis of the leaf, the ends of the hyphæ give rise to the vertical rows of spores (b) , the outermost of which (p) remain barren, and form the membrane of the blister-like body. The epidermis is already ruptured at p by the pressure of the young Æcidium. ”

“ I have isolated in plate cultivations several species which liquefy the gelatin.
If skins are allowed to lie in the bate, zoogloæ of these bacteria collect in the folds and attack the fine “grain,” so that the leather is covered with lines and markings, or “flaked.” Thus the operation is a very critical one, requiring careful watching; under certain atmospheric conditions and at a temperature of 35°–40° C. the skin, if only left a short time too long, will completely melt away. The more skin substance is dissolved in the liquid, the more rapid and pronounced the bacterial action becomes. ”

“ The stem of the flower and root are cool and dry; aphrodisiac, astringent, and cure disorders of bile, blood, and general heat. The flowers are of two kinds: one opens to the sun, and accompanies him round as he moves, and shuts its leaves when he disappears; this is white, with a red tinge, six-leaved, the yellow centre fructification, in the shape of an inverted cone. Its seed is sweet and cool; clears the complexion; of use in disorders of mucus, bile, blood, thirst, general heat, Juzam, and blisters. It is an antidote to poisons, and beneficial in acne of all kinds. ”