Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| Book 36. Problems Concerning the Face Why do people make images of the face? Is it because this shows what sort of people they are, or because it is the part most easily recognized? Why do people sweat from the face most of all, though it has the least flesh? p. Is it because things that are moist and porous sweat most readily, and the head is such, since it has the greatest amount of moisture proper to itself? The veins stretching out from there show this, and so do the discharges that come from it, and the brain is moist, and its passages are many; a sign of this is the hair, which shows that there are many passages reaching to the outside. So the sweat does not come from the lower parts but arises from the head. That is why people sweat there, and the forehead sweats first of all, since it lies lowest of the upper parts. And moisture flows downward, not upward. Why do pimples occur in the face most of all? Is it because that region is porous and holds moisture? A sign of this is both the growth of hair there and the power of the senses located there; and a pimple is like an eruption of some unconcocted moisture.