The Miracle of Skin

Without our skin, we would shrivel and die. We would resemble prunes, rather than plums, or raisins, not grapes. It is this life-enabling function of skin, its ability to conserve our precious body water, which forms the subject of this book. It suggests that, while many people are deeply interested in skin because it represents our social interface, its emotional importance for us is not matched by an appreciation of its most critical role. The book notes that the omnipresent threat of dehydration dictates the behaviour of all land-based animals, including amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, and highlights that, to hunt bigger game on the sun-saturated African savannah, without succumbing to heat prostration and dehydration, early humans first developed sweat glands, then dispensed with hair, and finally developed pigmentation.