the skin acts like a handkerchief

Share This
« Back to Index

Categories: Comparisons

An historical example of simile in scientific explanation:

"For the limbs reject, when it arrives, the infected blood that is allocated for their nourishment, and this is expelled from the whole body by natural means through the skin acting like a handkerchief…"

Jacobus Cataneus de Lacumarcino

Jacobus Cataneus de Lacumarcino (16th Century) quoted in Fleck, L. (1979). Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact [Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache. Einführung in die Lehre vom Denkstil und Denkkollektiv] (F. Bradley & T. J. Trenn, Trans.; T. J. Trenn & R. K. Merton, Eds.). The University of Chicago Press.

Read about similes in science

Read about examples of science similes

Tags: excretion
[Please be aware that a word may have different nuances, or even a different meaning, according to context.]« Back to Index

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.