Anatomy 101

Human beings can survive without being able to see, hear or smell. And Professor Norbert Pallua, plastic surgeon at the University Hospital for Plastic, Hand and Burn Surgery in Aachen / Germany, says that this is still the case “when 80 per cent of their body surface has been burned. On the condition that the degree of burning is such that treatment is possible, i.e. large areas of the skin are not damaged too deeply and replacement skin can be transplanted successfully.” Human beings cannot, however, survive without their skin to protect them, without their organic outer packaging. Mother Nature did an excellent job when providing human beings with a viable "wrapper". The results represent a marvellous evolutionary engineering performance. The skin surface of an adult of average size has a total area of about two square metres (seven square metres if the mucous membranes are included) and accounts for about 16 per cent of total body weight. This means that skin is the biggest human organ.