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Title: Hygienic Physiology

Author: Joel Dorman Steele

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[This file was first posted on February 20, 2003]

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, HYGIENIC PHYSIOLOGY ***




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[Illustration]

PATHFINDER PHYSIOLOGY No. 3

HYGIENIC PHYSIOLOGY

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE USE OF

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND NARCOTICS

BEING A REVISED EDITION OF THE

FOURTEEN WEEKS IN HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY

BY JOEL DORMAN STEELE, PH.D.

ENLARGED EDITION WITH SELECTED READINGS

_Edited for the use of Schools, in accordance with the recent
Legislation upon Temperance Instruction_

INDORSEMENT.

BOSTON, _June_ 20, 1889.

The Pathfinder Series of Text-books on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene
consists of the following volumes:

I. Child's Health Primer (for Primary Grades).

II. Hygiene for Young People or, Young People's Physiology. (for
Intermediate Classes)

III. Hygienic Physiology (for Advanced Pupils).

The above are the series originally prepared (as their general title
indicates) to supply the demand created by the laws for temperance
instruction in public schools in the United States. They were written by
experts under the supervision of the Scientific Department of the National
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, published by the instigation of the
same, and have been carefully revised from time to time, under the same
supervision, to keep them abreast with the latest teachings of science.

Being both teachable and well adapted to grade, their educational value,
as proven by schoolroom tests, is of the highest order. We therefore
cordially indorse and highly recommend the Pathfinder Series for use in
schools.

MARY H. HUNT,

_National and International Superintendent of the Scientific Dep't of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Life Director of the National
Educational Association._

ADVISORY BOARD:

JOSEPH COOK, WILLIAM E. SHELDON, ALBERT H. PLUMB, D.D., DANIEL DORCHESTER,
D.D.

PREFACE

The term Physiology, or the science of the functions of the body, has come
to include Anatomy, or the science of its structure, and Hygiene, or the
laws of health; the one being essential to the proper understanding of
physiology, and the other being its practical application to life. The
three are intimately blended, and in treating of the different subjects
the author has drawn no line of distinction where nature has made none.
This work is not prepared for the use of medical students, but for the
instruction of youth in the principles which underlie the preservation of
health and the formation of correct physical habits. All else is made
subservient to this practical knowledge. A simple scientific dress is used
which, while conducing to clearness, also gratifies that general desire of
children to know something of the nomenclature of any study they pursue.

To the description of each organ is appended an account of its most common
diseases, accidents, etc., and, when practicable, their mode of treatment.
A pupil may thus learn, for example, the cause and cure of "a cold," the
management of a wound, or the nature of an inflammation.

The Practical Questions, which have been a prominent feature in other
books of the series, will be found, it is hoped, equally useful in this
work. Directions for preparing simple microscopic objects, and
illustrations of the different organs, are given under each subject.

The Readings, which represent the ideas but not always the exact
phraseology of the author quoted, have, in general, been selected with
direct reference to Practical Hygiene, a subject which now largely
occupies the public mind. The dangers that lurk in foul air and
contaminated water, in bad drainage, leaky gas pipes, and defective
plumbing, in reckless appetites, and in careless dissemination of
contagious diseases, are here portrayed in such a manner as, it is
trusted, will assist the pupil to avoid these treacherous quicksands, and
to provide for himself a solid path of health.

Under the heading of Health and Disease will be found Hints about the sick
room, Directions for the use of Disinfectants, Suggestions as to what to
do "Till the Doctor comes," and a list of antidotes for Poisons. Questions
for Class Use, a full Glossary, and an ample Index complete the book.

Believing in a Divine Architect of the human form, the author can not
refrain from occasionally pointing out His inimitable workmanship, and
impressing the lesson of a Great Final Cause.

The author has gleaned from every field, at home and abroad, to secure
that which would interest and profit his pupils. In general, Flint's great
work on the "Physiology of Man," an undisputed authority on both sides of
the Atlantic, has been adopted as the standard in digestion, respiration,
circulation, and the nervous system. Leidy's "Human Anatomy," and Sappey's
"Traité d'Anatomie" have been followed on all anatomical questions, and
have furnished many beautiful drawings. Huxley's "Physiology" has afforded
exceedingly valuable aid. Foster's "Text-Book of Physiology," Hinton's
"Health and its Conditions," Black's "Ten Laws of Health," Williams's
practical essay on "Our Eyes and How to Use them," Le Pileur's charming
treatise on "The Wonders of the Human Body," and that quaint volume, "Odd
Hours of a Physician," have aided the author with facts and fancies. The
writings of Draper, Dalton, Carpenter, Yalentin, Mapother, Watson,
Lankester, Letheby, Hall, Hamilton, Bell, Wilson, Bower, Cutter,
Hutchison, Wood, Bigelow, Stille, Holmes, Beigel, and others have been
freely consulted.

PUBLISHERS' NOTE.

An ABRIDGED EDITION of this work is published, to afford a cheaper manual
--adapted to Junior Classes and Common Schools. The abridgment contains
the essence of this text, nearly all its illustrations, and the whole of
the Temperance matter as here presented.

ORDER "HYGIENIC PHYSIOLOGY, ABRIDGED."

READING REFERENCES.

Foster's "Text-Book of Physiology"; Leidy's "Human Anatomy"; Draper's
"Human Physiology"; Dalton's "Physiology and Hygiene"; Cutter's
"Physiology"; Johnston and Church's "Chemistry of Common Life"; Letheby's
"Food"; Tyndall "On Light," and "On Sound"; Mint's "Physiology of Man ";
Rosenthal's "Physiology of the Muscles and Nerves"; Bernstein's "Five
Senses of Man"; Huxley and Youmans's "Physiology and Hygiene"; Sappey's
"Traité d'Anatomie "; Luys's "Brain and its Functions"; Smith's "Foods";
Bain's "Mind and Body"; Pettigrew's "Animal Locomotion"; Carpenter's
"Human Physiology," and "Mental Physiology"; Wilder and Gage's "Anatomy";
Jarvis's "Physiology and Laws of Health."

Hargreaves's "Alcohol and Science"; Richardson's "Ten Lectures on
Alcohol," and "Diseases of Modern Life"; Brown's "Alcohol"; Davis's
"Intemperance and Crime"; Pitman's "Alcohol and the State"; "Anti-
Tobacco"; Howie's "Stimulants and Narcotics"; Hunt's "Alcohol as Food or
Medicine"; Schützenberger's "Fermentation"; Hubbard's "Opium Habit and
Alcoholism"; Trouessart's "Microbes, Ferments, and Molds."

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I.--THE SKELETON

THE HEAD

THE TRUNK

THE LIMBS

II.--THE MUSCLES

III.--THE SKIN

THE HAIR AND THE NAILS

THE TEETH

IV.--RESPIRATION AND THE VOICE

V.--THE CIRCULATION

THE BLOOD

THE HEART

THE ARTERIES

THE VEINS

VI.--DIGESTION AND FOOD

VII.--THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

THE BRAIN

THE SPINAL CORD AND THE NERVES

THE SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM

VIII.--THE SPECIAL SENSES

TOUCH

TASTE

SMELL

HEARING

SIGHT

IX.--HEALTH AND DISEASE.--DEATH AND DECAY

1. HINTS ABOUT THE SICK ROOM

2. DISINFECTANTS

3. WHAT TO DO "TILL THE DOCTOR COMES"

4. ANTIDOTES TO POISONS

X.--SELECTED READINGS

XI.--APPENDIX

QUESTIONS FOR CLASS USE

GLOSSARY

INDEX

SUGGESTIONS To Teachers

Seeing is believing--more than that, it is often knowing and remembering.
The mere reading of a statement is of little value compared with the
observation of a fact. Every opportunity should therefore be taken of
exhibiting to the pupil the phenomena described, and thus making them
real. A microscope is so essential to the understanding of many subjects,
that it is indispensable to the proper teaching of Physiology. A suitable
instrument and carefully prepared specimens, showing the structure of the
bones, the skin, and the blood of various animals, the pigment cells of
the eye, etc., may be obtained at a small cost from any good optician.

On naming the subject of a paragraph, the pupil should be prepared to tell
all he knows about it. No failure should discourage the teacher in
establishing this mode of study and recitation. A little practice will
produce the most satisfactory results. The unexpected question and the apt
reply develop a certain sharpness and readiness which are worthy of
cultivation. The questions for review, or any others that the wit of the
teacher may suggest, can be effectively used to break the monotony of a
topical recitation, thereby securing the benefits of both systems.

The pupil should expect to be questioned each day upon any subject passed
over during the term, and thus the entire knowledge gained will be within
his grasp for instant use. While some are reciting to the teacher, let
others write on slates or on the blackboard. At the close of the
recitation, let all criticise the ideas, the spelling, the use of
capitals, the pronunciation, the grammar, and the mode of expression.
Greater accuracy and much collateral drill may thus be secured at little
expense of valuable school time.

The Introduction is designed merely to furnish suggestive material for the
first lesson, preparatory to beginning the study. Other subjects for
consideration may be found in the section on Health and Disease, in the
Selected Readings, and among the questions given in the Appendix. Where
time will allow, the Selected Readings may profitably be used in
connection with the topics to which they relate. Questions upon them are
so incorporated with those upon the text proper that they may be employed
or not, according to the judgment of the teacher.

NOTE.--Interest in the study of Physiology will be much increased by the
use of the microscope and prepared slides. These may be obtained from any
good optician.

INTRODUCTION.

Physiological study in youth is of inestimable value. Precious lives are
frequently lost through ignorance. Thousands squander in early years the
strength which should have been kept for the work of real life. Habits are
often formed in youth which entail weakness and poverty upon manhood, and
are a cause of lifelong regret. The use of a strained limb may permanently
damage it. Some silly feat of strength may produce an irreparable injury.
A thoughtless hour of reading by twilight may impair the sight for life. A
terrible accident may happen, and a dear friend perish before our eyes,
while we stand by powerless to render the assistance we could so easily
give did we "only know what to do." The thousand little hints which may
save or lengthen life, may repel or abate disease, and the simple laws
which regulate our bodily vigor, should be so familiar that we may be
quick to apply them in an emergency. The preservation of health is easier
than the cure of disease. Childhood can not afford to wait for the lesson
of experience which is learned only when the penalty of violated law has
been already incurred, and health irrevocably lost.

NATURE'S LAWS INVIOLABLE.--In infancy, we learn how terribly Nature
punishes a violation of certain laws, and how promptly she applies the
penalty. We soon find out the peril of fire, falls, edged tools, and the
like. We fail, however, to notice the equally sharp and certain
punishments which bad habits entail. We are quick to feel the need of
food, but not so ready to perceive the danger of an excess. A lack of air
drives us at once to secure a supply; foul air is as fatal, but it gives
us no warning.

Nature provides a little training for us at the outset of life, but leaves
the most for us to learn by bitter experience. So in youth we throw away
our strength as if it were a burden of which we desire to be rid. We eat
anything, and at any time; do anything we please, and sit up any number of
nights with little or no sleep. Because we feel only a momentary
discomfort from these physical sins, we fondly imagine when that is gone
we are all right again. Our drafts upon our constitution are promptly
paid, and we expect this will always be the case; but some day they will
come back to us, protested; Nature will refuse to meet our demands, and we
shall find ourselves physical bankrupts.

We are furnished in the beginning with a certain vital force upon which we
may draw. We can be spendthrifts and waste it in youth, or be wise and so
husband it till manhood. Our shortcomings are all charged against this
stock. Nature's memory never fails; she keeps her account with perfect
exactness. Every physical sin subtracts from the sum and strength of our
years. We may cure a disease, but it never leaves us as it found us. We
may heal a wound, but the scar still shows. We reap as we sow, and we may
either gather in the thorns, one by one, to torment and destroy, or we may
rejoice in the happy harvest of a hale old age.




I.


THE SKELETON.

"Not in the World of Light alone,
Where God has built His blazing throne,
Nor yet alone on earth below,
With belted seas that come and go,
And endless isles of sunlit green
Is all thy Maker's glory seen--
Look in upon thy wondrous frame,
Eternal wisdom still the same!"

HOLMES.

ANALYSIS OF THE SKELETON.

NOTE.--The following Table of 206 bones is exclusive of the 8 sesamoid
bones which occur in pairs at the roots of the thumb and great toe, making
214 as given by Leidy and Draper. Gray omits the bones of the ear, and
names 200 as the total number.

THE SKELETON.
_
| I. THE HEAD (_28 bones._)
|                            _
|                           | Frontal Bone (forehead).
|  _                        | Two Parietal Bones.
| | 1. CRANIUM..............| Two Temporal (temple) Bones.
| |     (_8 bones._)        | Sphenoid Bone.
| |                         | Ethmoid (sieve-like bone at root of nose).
| |                         |_Occipital Bone (back and base of skull).
| |                          _
| |                         | Two Superior Maxillary (upper jaw) Bones.
| |                         | Inferior Maxillary (lower jaw) Bone.
| |                         | Two Malar (cheek) Bones.
| | 2. FACE.................| Two Lachrymal Bones.
| |     (_14 bones._)       | Two Turbinated (scroll like) Bones, each
| |                         |   side of nose.
| |                         | Two Nasal Bones (Bridge of nose).
| |                         | Vomer (the bone between the nostrils).
| |                         |_Two Palate Bones.
| |                          _
| |                         | Hammer.
| | 3. EARS.................| Anvil.
| |_    (_6 bones._)        |_Stirrup.
|
| II. THE TRUNK (_54 bones._)
|                            _
|                           | Cervical Vertebræ (seven vertebræ of the
|  _                        |     neck).
| | 1. SPINAL COLUMN........| Dorsal Vertebræ (twelve vertebræ of the
| |                         |     back).
| |                         | Lumbar Vertebræ (five vertebræ of the
| |                         |_    loins).
| |                          _
| |                         | True Ribs.
| | 2. RIBS.................|_False Ribs.
| |
| | 3. STERNUM (breastbone).
| |
| | 4. OS HYOIDES (bone at the root of tongue).
| |                          _
| |                         | Two Innominata.
| |_5. PELVIS...............| Sacrum.
|                           |_Coccyx.
|
| III. THE LIMBS (_124 bones._)
|                                         _
|                            _           | _Clavicle._
|                           | Shoulder...|__Scapula._
|  _                        |             _
| | 1. UPPER LIMBS..........|            | _Humerus._
| |     (_64 bones._)       | Arm........|__Ulna and Radius._
| |                         |             _
| |                         |            | _Eight Wrist or Carpal
| |                         |            |       Bones._
| |                         |_Hand.......| _Five Metacarpal Bones._
| |                                      |__Phalanges (14 bones)._
| |                                       _
| |                          _           | _Femur._
| |                         | Leg........| _Patella._
| |                         |            |__Tibia and Fibula._
| | 2. LOWER LIMBS..........|             _
| |_    (_60 bones._)       |            | _Seven Tarsal Bones._
|_                          | Foot.......| _Five Metatarsal Bones._
|_           |__Phalanges (14 bones)._

_
| 1. Uses.
_                        | 2. Composition.
| 1. FORM, STRUCTURE,     | 3. Structure.
|     ETC., OF THE BONES  | 4. Growth.
|                         | 5. Repair.
THE SKELETON   |                         |_6. The Joints.
|                          _
| 2. CLASSIFICATION OF    | 1. The Head.
|_    THE BONES.          | 2. The Trunk.
|_3. The Limbs.
THE SKELETON.

I. FORM, STRUCTURE, ETC., OF THE BONES.

(_See page 269_.)

THE SKELETON, or framework of the "House we live in," is composed of about
200 bones. [Footnote: The precise number varies in different periods of
life. Several which are separated in youth become united in old age. Thus
five of the "false vertebræ" at the base of the spine early join in one
great bone--the sacrum; while four tiny ones below it often run into a
bony mass--the coccyx (Fig. 6); in the child, the sternum is composed of
eight pieces, while in the adult it consists of only three. While,
however, the number of the bones is uncertain, their relative length is so
exact that the length of the entire skeleton, and thence the height of the
man, can be obtained by measuring a single one of the principal bones.
Fossil bones and those found at Pompeii have the same proportion as our
own.]

USES AND FORMS OF THE BONES.--They have three principal uses: 1. To
protect the delicate organs; [Footnote: An organ is a portion of the body
designed for a particular use, called its _function_. Thus the heart
circulates the blood; the liver produces the bile.] 2. To serve as levers
on which the muscles may act to produce motion; and 3. To preserve the
shape of the body.

Bones differ in form according to the uses they subserve. For convenience
in walking, some are long; for strength and compactness, some are short
and thick; for covering a cavity, some are flat; and for special purposes,
some are irregular. The general form is such as to combine strength and
lightness. For example, all the long bones of the limbs are round and
hollow, thus giving with the same weight a greater strength, [Footnote:
Cut a sheet of foolscap in two pieces. Roll one half into a compact
cylinder, and fold the other into a close, flat strip; support the ends of
each and hang weights in the middle until they bend. The superior strength
of the roll will astonish one unfamiliar with this mechanical principle.
In a rod, the particles break in succession, first those on the outside,
and later those in the center. In a tube, the particles are all arranged
where they resist the first strain. Iron pillars are therefore cast
hollow. Stalks of grass and grain are so light as to bend before a breath
of wind, yet are stiff enough to sustain their load of seed. Bone has been
found by experiment to possess twice the resisting property of solid oak.]
and also a larger surface for the attachment of the muscles.

The Composition of the Bones at maturity is about one part animal to two
parts mineral matter. The proportion varies with the age. In youth it is
nearly half and half, while in old age the mineral is greatly in excess.
By soaking a bone in weak muriatic acid, and thus dissolving the mineral
matter, its shape will not change, but its stiffness will disappear,
leaving a tough, gristly substance [Footnote: Mix a wineglass of muriatic
acid with a pint of water, and place in it a sheep's rib. In a day or two,
the bone will become so soft that it can be tied into a knot. In the same
way, an egg may be made so pliable that it can be crowded into a narrow-
necked bottle, within which it will expand, and become an object of great
curiosity to the uninitiated. By boiling bones at a high temperature, the
animal matter separates in the form of gelatine. Dogs and cats extract the
animal matter from the bones they eat. Fossil bones deposited in the
ground during the Geologic period, were found by Cuvier to contain
considerable animal matter. Gelatine was actually extracted from the
Cambridge mastodon, and made into glue. A tolerably nutritious food might
thus be manufactured from bones older than man himself.] (cartilage) which
can be bent like rubber.

If the bone be burned in the fire, thus consuming the animal matter, the
shape will still be the same, but it will have lost its tenacity, and the
beautiful, pure-white residue [Footnote: From bones thus calcined, the
phosphorus of the chemist is made. See Steele's "Popular Chemistry," page
114. If the animal matter be not consumed, but only charred, the bone will
be black and brittle. In this way, the "boneblack" of commerce is
manufactured.] may be crumbled into powder with the fingers.

FIG. 2.

[Illustration: _The Thigh Bone, or Femur, sawed lengthwise._]

We thus see that a bone receives hardness and rigidity from its mineral,
and tenacity and elasticity from its animal matter.

The entire bone is at first composed of cartilage, which gradually
_ossifies_ or turns to bone. [Footnote: The ossification of the bones
on the sides and upper part of the skull, for example, begins by a rounded
spot in the middle of each one. From this spot the ossification extends
outward in every direction, thus gradually approaching the edges of the
bone. When two adjacent bones meet, there will be a line where their edges
are in contact with each other, but have not yet united; but when more
than two bones meet in this way, there will be an empty space between them
at their point of junction. Thus, if you lay down three coins upon the
table with their edges touching one another, there will be a three-sided
space in the middle between them; if you lay down four coins in the same
manner, the space between them will be four-sided. Now at the back part of
the head there is a spot where three bones come together in this way,
leaving a small, three-sided opening between them: this is called the
"posterior fontanelle." On the top of the head, four bones come together,
leaving between them a large, four-sided opening: this is called the
"anterior fontanelle." These openings are termed the _fontanelles_,
because we can feel the pulsations of the brain through them, like the
bubbling of water in a fountain. They gradually diminish in size, owing to
the growth of the bony parts around them, and are completely closed at the
age of four years after birth.--DALTON.] Certain portions near the joints
are long delayed in this process, and by their elasticity assist in
breaking the shock of a fall. [Footnote: Frogs and toads, which move by
jumping, and consequently receive so many jars, retain these unossified
portions (epiphyses) nearly through, life, while alligators and turtles
whose position is sprawling, and whose motions are measured do not have
them at all--LEIDY] Hence the bones of children are tough, are not readily
fractured, and when broken easily heal again; [Footnote: This is only one
of the many illustrations of the Infinite care that watches over helpless
infancy, until knowledge and ability are acquired to meet the perils of
life.] while those of elderly people are liable to fracture, and do not
quickly unite.

FIG. 3.

[Illustration: _A thin slice of Bone, highly magnified showing the
lacunæ, the tiny tubes (canaliculi) radiating from them, and four
Haversian canals, three seen crosswise and one lengthwise._]

THE STRUCTURE OF THE BONES--When a bone is sawed lengthwise, it is found
to be a compact shell filled with a spongy substance This filling
increases in quantity, and becomes more porous at the ends of the bone,
thus giving greater size to form a strong joint, while the solid portion
increases near the middle, where strength alone is needed. Each fiber of
this bulky material diminishes the shock of a sudden blow, and also acts
as a beam to brace the exterior wall. The recumbent position of the
alligator protects him from falls, and therefore his bones contain very
little spongy substance.

In the body, bones are not the dry, dead, blanched things they commonly
seem to be, but are moist, living, pinkish structures, covered with a
tough membrane, called the per-i-os'-te-um [Footnote: The relations of the
periosteum to the bone are very interesting. Instances are on record where
the bone has been removed, leaving the periosteum, from which the entire
bone was afterward renewed.] (_peri_, around, and _osteon_, a
bone), while the hollow is filled with marrow, rich in fat, and full of
blood vessels. If we examine a thin slice with the microscope, we shall
see black spots with lines running in all directions, and looking very
like minute insects. These are really little cavities, called la-cu'-næ
[Footnote: When the bone is dry, the lacunæ are filled with air, which
refracts the light, so that none of it reaches the eye, and hence the
cavities appear black.] from which radiate tiny tubes. The lacunæ are
arranged in circles around larger tubes, termed from their discoverer,
_Haversian canals_, which serve as passages for the blood vessels
that nourish the bone.

GROWTH OF THE BONES.--By means of this system of canals, the blood
circulates as freely through the bones as through any part of the body,
The whole structure is constantly but slowly changing, [Footnote: Bone is
sometimes produced with surprising rapidity. The great Irish Elk is
calculated by Prof. Owen to have cast off and renewed, annually in its
antlers eighty pounds of bone.] old material being taken out and new put
in. A curious illustration is seen in the fact that if madder be mixed
with the food of pigs, it will tinge their bones red.

REPAIR OF THE BONES.--When a bone is broken, the blood at once oozes out
of the fractured ends. This soon gives place to a watery fluid, which in a
fortnight thickens to a gristly substance, strong enough to hold them in
place. Bone matter is then slowly deposited, which in five or six weeks
will unite the broken parts. Nature, at first, apparently endeavors to
remedy the weakness of the material by excess in the quantity, and so the
new portion is larger than the old. But the extra matter will be gradually
absorbed, sometimes so perfectly as to leave no trace of the injury. (See
p. 271.)

A broken limb should be held in place by splints, or a plaster cast, to
enable this process to go on uninterruptedly, and also lest a sudden jar
might rupture the partially mended break. For a long time, the new portion
consists largely of animal matter, and so is tender and pliable. The
utmost care is therefore necessary to prevent a malformation.

THE JOINTS are packed with a soft, smooth cartilage, or gristle, which
fits so perfectly as to be airtight. Upon convex surfaces, it is thickest
at the middle, and upon concave surfaces, it is thickest at the edge, or
where the wear is greatest. In addition, the ends of the bones are covered
with a thin membrane, the _synovial_ (_sun_, with; _ovum_,
an egg), which secretes a viscid fluid, not unlike the white of an egg.
This lubricates the joints, and prevents the noise and wear of friction.
The body is the only machine that oils itself.

The bones which form the joint are tied with stout ligaments (_ligo_,
I bind), or bands, of a smooth, silvery white tissue, [Footnote: The
general term _tissue_ is applied to the various textures of which the
organs are composed. For example, the osseous tissue forms the bones; the
fibrous tissue, the skin, tendons, and ligaments.] so strong that the
bones are sometimes broken without injuring the fastenings.

II. CLASSIFICATION OF THE BONES.

For convenience, the bones of the skeleton are considered in three
divisions: the _head_, the _trunk_, and the _limbs_.

1. THE HEAD.

THE BONES OF THE SKULL AND THE FACE form a cavity for the protection of
the brain and the four organs of sense, viz.: sight, smell, taste, and
hearing. All these bones are immovable except the lower jaw, which is
hinged [Footnote: A ring of cartilage is inserted in its joints, something
after the manner of a washer in machinery. This follows the movements of
the jaw, and admits of freer motion, while it guards against dislocation.]
at the back so as to allow for the opening and shutting of the mouth.

THE SKULL is composed, in general, of two compact plates, with a spongy
layer between. These are in several pieces, the outer ones being joined by
notched edges, sutures (su'tyurs,), in the way carpenters term
dovetailing. (See Fig. 4.)

FIG. 4.

[Illustration: _The Skull._--1. _frontal bone;_ 2, _parietal bone;_
3, _temporal bone;_ 4, _the sphenoid bone;_ 5, _ethmoid bone;_ 6,
_superior maxillary (upper jaw) bone;_ 7, _malar bone;_ 8, _lachrymal
bone;_ 9, _nasal bone;_ 10, _inferior maxillary (lower jaw) bone._]

The peculiar structure and form of the skull afford a perfect shelter for
the brain--an organ so delicate that, if unprotected, an ordinary blow
would destroy it. Its oval or egg shape adapts it to resist pressure. The
smaller and stronger end is in front, where the danger is greatest.
Projections before and behind shield the less protected parts. The hard
plates are not easy to penetrate. [Footnote: Instances have been known
where bullets, striking against the skull, have glanced off, been
flattened, or even split into halves. In the Peninsular Campaign, the
author saw a man who had been struck in the forehead by a bullet which,
instead of penetrating the brain, had followed the skull around to the
back of the head, and there passed out.] The spongy packing deadens every
blow. [Footnote: An experiment resembling the familiar one of the balls in
Natural Philosophy ("Steele's Popular Physics," Fig. 6, p. 26),
beautifully illustrates this point. Several balls of ivory are suspended
by cords, as in Fig. 5. If A be raised and then let fall, it will transmit
the force to B, and that to C, and so on until F is reached, which will
fly off with the impulse. If now a ball of spongy bone be substituted for
an ivory one anywhere in the line, the force will be checked, and the last
ball will not stir.] The separate pieces with their curious joinings
disperse any jar which one may receive, and also prevent fractures from
spreading.

FIG. 5.

[Illustration]

The frequent openings in this strong bone box afford safe avenues for the
passage of numerous nerves and vessels which communicate between the brain
and the rest of the body.

FIG. 6.

[Illustration: _The Spine; the seven vertebræ of the neck, cervical; the
twelve of the back, dorsal; the five of the loins, lumbar;_ a, _the
sacrum, and_ b, _the coccyx, coming the nine "false vertebræ."_
(p. 3).]

2 THE TRUNK.

THE TRUNK has two important cavities. The upper part, or _chest_,
contains the heart and the lungs, and the lower part, or _abdomen_,
holds the stomach, liver, kidneys, and other organs (Fig. 31). The
principal bones are those of the _spine_, the _ribs_, and the
_hips_.

THE SPINE consists of twenty-four bones, between which are placed pads of
cartilage. [Footnote: These pads vary in thickness from one fourth to one
half an inch. They become condensed by the weight they bear during the
day, so that we are somewhat shorter at evening than in the morning.
Their elasticity causes them to resume their usual size during the night,
or when we lie down for a time.] A canal is hollowed out of the column
for the safe passage of the spinal cord. (See Fig. 50.) Projections
(processes) at the back and on either side are abundant for the attachment
of the muscles. The packing acts as a cushion to prevent any jar from
reaching the brain when we jump or run, while the double curve of the
spine also tends to disperse the force of a fall. Thus on every side the
utmost caution is taken to guard that precious gem in its casket.

THE PERFECTION OF THE SPINE surpasses all human contrivances. Its various
uses seem a bundle of contradictions. A chain of twenty-four bones is made
so stiff that it will bear a heavy burden, and so flexible that it will
bend like rubber; yet, all the while, it transmits no shock, and even
hides a delicate nerve within that would thrill with the slightest touch.
Resting upon it, the brain is borne without a tremor; and, clinging to it,
the vital organs are carried without fear of harm.

FIG. 7.

[Illustration: B, _the first cervical vertebra, the atlas;_ A, _the
atlas, and the second cervical vertebra, the axis;_ e, _the odontoid
process;_ c, _the foramen._]

THE SKULL ARTICULATES with (is jointed to) the spine in a peculiar manner.
On the top of the upper vertebra (atlas [Footnote: Thus called because,
as, in ancient fable, the god Atlas supported the world on his shoulders,
so in the body this bone bears the head.]) are two little hollows
(_a_, _b_, Fig. 7), nicely packed and lined with the synovial
membrane, into which fit the corresponding projections on the lower part
of the skull, and thus the head can rock to and fro. The second vertebra
(axis) has a peg, _e_, which projects through a hole, _c_, in
the first.

FIG. 8.

[Illustration: _The Thorax or Chest._ a, _the sternum;_ b _to_ c, _the
true ribs;_ d _to_ h, _the false ribs;_ g, h, _the floating ribs;_ i, k,
_the dorsal vertebræ._]

The surfaces of both vertebræ are so smooth that they easily glide on each
other, and thus, when we move the head side wise, the atlas turns around
the peg, _e_, of the axis.

THE RIBS, also twenty-four in number, are arranged in pairs on each side
of the chest. At the back, they are all attached to the spine. In front,
the upper seven pairs are tied by cartilages to the breastbone (sternum);
three are fastened to each other and to the cartilage above, and two, the
floating ribs, are loose.

The natural form of the chest is that of a cone diminishing upward. But,
owing to the tightness of the clothing commonly worn, the reverse is often
the case. The long, slender ribs give lightness, [Footnote: If the chest
wall were in one bone thick enough to resist a blow, it would be unwieldy
and heavy As it is, the separate bones bound by cartilages yield
gradually, and diffuse the force among them all, and so are rarely
broken.] the arched form confers strength, and the cartilages impart
elasticity,--properties essential to the protection of the delicate organs
within, and to freedom of motion in respiration. (See note, p. 80.)

FIG. 9.

[Illustration: _The Pelvis._ a, _the sacrum;_ b, b, _the right
and the left innominatum._]

THE HIP BONES, called by anatomists the innominata, or nameless bones,
form an irregular basin styled the _pelvis_ (_pelvis_, a basin).
In the upper part, is the foot of the spinal column--a wedge-shaped bone
termed the _sacrum_ [Footnote: So called because it was anciently
offered in sacrifice.] (sacred), firmly planted here between the
widespreading and solid bones of the pelvis, like the keystone to an arch,
and giving a steady support to the heavy burden above.

3. THE LIMBS.

TWO SETS OF LIMBS branch from the trunk, viz.: the upper, and the lower.
They closely resemble each other. The arm corresponds to the thigh; the
forearm, to the leg; the wrist, to the ankle; the fingers, to the toes.
The fingers and the toes are so much alike that they receive the same
name, _digits_, while the several bones of both have also the common
appellation, _phalanges_. The differences which exist grow out of
their varying uses. The foot is characterized by strength; the hand, by
mobility.

FIG. 10.

[Illustration: _The Shoulder Joint._ a, _the clavicle;_ b,
_the scapula._]

1. THE UPPER LIMBS.--THE SHOULDER.--The bones of the shoulder are the
collar bone (clavicle), and the shoulder blade (scapula). The
_clavicle_ (_clavis_, a key) is a long, slender bone, shaped
like the Italic _f_. It is fastened at one end to the breastbone and
the first rib, and, at the other, to the shoulder blade. (See Fig. 1.) It
thus holds the shoulder joint out from the chest, and gives the arm
greater play. If it be removed or broken, the head of the arm bone will
fall, and the motions of the arm be greatly restricted. [Footnote: Animals
which use the forelegs only for support (as the horse, ox, etc.), do not
possess this bone. "It is found in those that dig, fly, climb and seize."]

THE SHOULDER BLADE is a thin, flat, triangular bone, fitted to the top and
back of the chest, and designed to give a foundation for the muscles of
the shoulder.

THE SHOULDER JOINT.--The arm bone, or _humerus_, articulates with the
shoulder blade by a ball-and-socket joint. This consists of a cup-like
cavity in the latter bone, and a rounded head in the former, to fit it,--
thus affording a free rotary motion. The shallowness of the socket
accounts for the frequent dislocation of this joint, but a deeper one
would diminish the easy swing of the arm.

FIG. 11.

[Illustration: _Bones of the right Forearm._ H, _the humerus;_
R, _the radius; and_ U, _the ulna._]

THE ELBOW.--At the elbow, the humerus articulates with the _ulna_--a
slender bone on the inner side of the forearm--by a hinge joint which
admits of motion in only two directions, _i. e._, backward and
forward. The ulna is small at its lower end; the _radius_, or large
bone of the forearm, on the contrary, is small at its upper end, while it
is large at its lower end, where it forms the wrist joint. At the elbow,
the head of the radius is convex and fits into a shallow cavity in the
ulna, while at the wrist the ulna plays in a similar socket in the radius.
Thus the radius may roll over and even cross the ulna.

THE WRIST, or _carpus_, consists of two rows of very irregular bones,
one of which articulates with the forearm; the other, with the hand. They
are placed side to side, and so firmly fastened as to admit of only a
gliding motion. This gives little play, but great strength, elasticity,
and power of resisting shocks.

THE HAND.--The _metacarpal_ (_meta_, beyond; _karpos_,
wrist), or bones of the palm, support each a thumb or a finger. Each
finger has three bones, while the thumb has only two. The first bone of
the thumb, standing apart from the rest, enjoys a special freedom of
motion, and adds greatly to the usefulness of the hand.

FIG. 12.

[Illustration: _Bones of the Hand and the Wrist._]

The first bone (Figs. 11, 12) of each finger is so attached to the
corresponding metacarpal bone as to move in several directions upon it,
but the other phalanges form hinge joints.

The fingers are named in order: the thumb, the index, the middle, the
ring, and the little finger. Their different lengths cause them to fit the
hollow of the hand when it is closed, and probably enable us more easily
to grasp objects of varying size. If the hand clasps a ball, the tips of
the fingers will be in a straight line.

The hand in its perfection belongs only to man. Its elegance of outline,
delicacy of mold, and beauty of color have made it the study of artists;
while its exquisite mobility and adaptation as a perfect instrument have
led many philosophers to attribute man's superiority even more to the hand
than to the mind. [Footnote: How constantly the hand aids us in explaining
or enforcing a thought! We affirm a fact by placing the hand as if we
would rest it firmly on a body; we deny by a gesture putting the false or
erroneous proposition away from us; we express doubt by holding the hand
suspended, as if hesitating whether to take or reject. When we part from
dear friends, or greet them again after long absence, the hand extends
toward them as if to retain, or to bring them sooner to us. If a recital
or a proposition is revolting, we reject it energetically in gesture as in
thought. In a friendly adieu we wave our good wishes to him who is their
object; but when it expresses enmity, by a brusque movement we sever every
tie. The open hand is carried backward to express fear or horror, as well
as to avoid contact; it goes forward to meet the hand of friendship; it is
raised suppliantly in prayer toward Him from whom we hope for help; it
caresses lovingly the downy cheek of the infant, and rests on its head
invoking the blessing of Heaven,--_Wonders of the Human Body_.]

FIG. 13.

[Illustration: _The Mechanism of the Hip Joint._]

2. THE LOWER LIMBS.--THE HIP--The thigh bone, or _femur_, is the
largest and necessarily the strongest in the skeleton, since at every step
it has to bear the weight of the whole body. It articulates with the hip
bone by a ball-and-socket joint. Unlike the shoulder joint, the cup here
is deep, thus affording less play, but greater strength. It fits so
tightly that the pressure of the air largely aids in keeping the bones in
place. [Footnote: In order to test this, a hole was bored through a hip
bone, so as to admit air into the socket, the thigh bone at once fell out
as far as the ligaments would permit. An experiment was also devised
whereby a suitably prepared hip joint was placed under the receiver of an
air pump. On exhausting the air, the weight of the femur caused it to drop
out of the socket, while the readmission of the air raised it to its
place. Without this arrangement, the adjacent muscles would have been
compelled to bear the additional weight of the thighbone every time it was
raised. Now the pressure of the air rids them of this unnecessary burden,
and hence they are less easily fatigued--WEBER] Indeed, when the muscles
are cut away, great force is required to detach the limbs.

THE KNEE is strengthened by the patella_, or kneepan (_patella_,
little dish), a chestnut-shaped bone firmly fastened over the joint.

The shin bone, or _tibia_, the large, triangular bone on the inner
side of the leg, articulates both with the femur and the foot by hinge
joints. The kneejoint is so made, however, as to admit of a slight rotary
motion when the limb is not extended.

The _fibula_ (_fibula_, a clasp), the small, outside bone of the
leg, is firmly bound at each end to the tibia. (See Fig. 1.) It is
immovable, and, as the tibia bears the principal weight of the body, the
chief use of this second bone seems to be to give more surface to which
the muscles may be attached. [Footnote: A young man in the hospital at
Limoges had lost the middle part of his tibia. The lost bone was not
reproduced, but the fibula, the naturally weak and slender part of the
leg, became thick and strong enough to support the whole body.--STANLEY'S
_Lectures_.]

THE FOOT.--The general arrangement of the foot is strikingly like that of
the hand (Fig. 1). The several parts are the _tarsus_, the
_metatarsus_, and the _phalanges_. The graceful arch of the
foot, and the numerous bones joined by cartilages, give an elasticity to
the step that could never be attained by a single, flat bone. [Footnote:
The foot consists of an arch, the base of which is more extended in front
than behind, and the whole weight of the body is made to fall on this arch
by means of a variety of joints. These joints further enable the foot to
be applied, without inconvenience, to rough and uneven surfaces.--HINTON.]
The toes naturally lie straight forward in the line of the foot. Few
persons in civilized nations, however, have naturally formed feet. The big
toe is crowded upon the others, while crossed toes, nails grown-in,
enormous joints, corns, and bunions abound.

THE CAUSE OF THESE DEFORMITIES is found in the shape and size of
fashionable boots and shoes. The sole ought to be large enough for full
play of motion, the uppers should not crowd the toes, and the heels should
be low, flat, and broad. As it is, there is a constant warfare between
Nature and our shoemakers, [Footnote: When we are measured for boots or
shoes, we should stand on a sheet of paper, and have the shoemaker mark
with a pencil the exact outline of our feet as they bear our whole weight.
When the shoe is made, the sole should exactly cover this outline.] and we
are the victims. The narrow point in front pinches our toes, and compels
them to override one another; the narrow sole compresses the arch; while
the high heel, by throwing all the weight forward on the toes, strains the
ankle, and, by sending the pressure where Nature did not design it to
fall, causes that joint to become enlarged. The body bends forward to meet
the demand of this new motion, and thus loses its uprightness and beauty,
making our gait stiff and ungraceful. (See p. 271.)

DISEASES, ETC.--l. _Rickets_, a disease of early life, is caused by a
lack of mineral matter in the bones, rendering them soft and pliable, so
that they bend under the weight of the body. They thus become permanently
distorted, and of course are weaker than if they were straight, [Footnote:
Just here appears an exceedingly beautiful provision. As soon as the
disproportion of animal matter ceases, a larger supply of mineral is sent
to the weak points, and the bones actually become thicker, denser, harder,
and consequently stronger at the very concave part where the stress of
pressure is greatest.--WATSON'S _Lectures_. We shall often have
occasion to refer to similar wise and providential arrangements whereby
the body is enabled to remedy defects, and to prepare for accidents.]
Rickets is most common among children who have inherited a feeble
constitution and who are ill fed, or who live in damp, ill-ventilated
houses. "Rickety" children should have plenty of fresh air and sunlight,
nourishing food, comfortable clothing, and, in short, the best of hygienic
care.

2. _A Felon_ is a swelling of the finger or thumb, usually of the
last joint. It is marked by an accumulation beneath the periosteum and
next the bone. The physician will merely cut through the periosteum, and
let out the effete matter.

3. _Bowlegs_ are caused by children standing on their feet before the
bones of the lower limbs are strong enough to bear their weight. The
custom of encouraging young children to stand by means of a chair or the
support of the hand, while the bones are yet soft and pliable, is a cruel
one, and liable to produce permanent deformity. Nature will set the child
on its feet when the proper time comes.

4. _Curvature of the Spine_.--When the spine is bent, the packing
between the vertebræ becomes compressed on one side into a wedge-like
shape. After a time, it will lose its elasticity, and the spine will
become distorted. This often occurs in the case of students who bend
forward to bring their eyes nearer their books, instead of lifting their
books nearer their eyes, or who raise their right shoulder above their
left when writing at a desk which is too high. Round shoulders, small,
weak lungs, and, frequently, diseases of the spine are the consequences.
An erect posture in reading or writing conduces not alone to beauty of
form, but also to health of body. We shall learn hereafter that the action
of the muscles bears an important part in preserving the symmetry of the
spine. Muscular strength comes from bodily activity; hence, one of the
best preventives of spinal curvature is daily exercise in the open air.

5. _Sprains_ are produced when the ligaments which bind the bones of
a joint are strained, twisted, or torn from their attachments. They are
quite as serious as a broken bone, and require careful attention lest they
lead to a crippling for life. By premature use a sprained limb may be
permanently impaired. Hence, the joint should be kept quiet, even after
the immediate pain is gone.

6. _A Dislocation_ is the forcible displacement of a bone from its
socket. It is, generally, the result of a fall or a violent blow. The
tissues of the joint are often ruptured, while the contraction of the
muscles prevents the easy return of the bone to its place. A dislocation
should be reduced as soon as possible after the injury, before
inflammation supervenes.

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. Why does not a fall hurt a child as much as it does a grown person?

2. Should a young child ever be urged to stand or walk?

3. What is meant by "breaking one's neck"?

4. Should chairs or benches have straight backs?

5. Should a child's feet be allowed to dangle from a high seat?

6. Why can we tell whether a fowl is young by pressing on the point of the
breastbone?

7. What is the use of the marrow in the bones?

8. Why is the shoulder so often put out of joint?

9. How can you tie a knot in a bone?

10. Why are high pillows injurious?

11. Is a stooping posture a healthful position?

12. Should a boot have a heel piece?

13. Why should one always sit and walk erect?

14. Why does a young child creep rather than walk?

15. What is the natural direction of the big toe?

16. What is the difference between a sprain and a fracture? A dislocation?

17. Does the general health of the system affect the strength of the
bones?

18. Is living bone sensitive? _Ans_.--Scrape a bone, and its vessels
bleed; cut or bore a bone, and its granulations sprout up; break a bone,
and it will heal; cut a piece away, and more bone will readily be
produced; hurt it in any way, and it inflames; burn it, and it dies. Take
any proof of sensibility but the mere feeling of pain, and it will answer
to the proof.--BELL'S _Anatomy_. Animal sensibility would be
inconvenient; it is therefore not to be found except in diseased bone,
where it sometimes exhibits itself too acutely.--TODD'S _Cyclopedia of
Anatomy_.

19. Is the constitution of bone the same in animals as in man?
_Ans_.--The bones of quadrupeds do not differ much from those of man.
In general they are of a coarser texture, and in some, as in those of the
elephant's head, we find extensive air cells.--TODD'S _Anatomy_.




II.


THE MUSCLES.

"Behold the outward moving frame,
Its living marbles jointed strong
With glistening band and silvery thong,
And link'd to reason's guiding reins
By myriad rings in trembling chains,
Each graven with the threaded zone
Which claims it as the Master's own."

HOLMES.

ANALYSIS OF THE MUSCLES.

_
|  1. The Use of the Muscles.
|  2. Contractility of the Muscles.
_                       |  3. Arrangement of the Muscles.
| 1. THE USE, STRUCTURE  |  4. The two Kinds of Muscles.
|     AND ACTION OF THE  |  5. The Structure of the Muscles.
|         MUSCLES.       |  6. The Tendons for Fastening Muscles.
|                        |  7. The Muscles and Bones as Levers.
|                        |  8. The Effect of Big Joints.
|                        |  9. Action of the Muscles in Walking.
|                        |_10. Action of the Muscles in Walking.
|
| 2. THE MUSCULAR SENSE.
|                         _
| 3. HYGIENE OF THE      |  1. Necessity of Exercise.
|       MUSCLES.         |  2. Time for Exercise.
|                        |_ 3. Kinds of Exercise.
|
| 4. WONDERS OF THE MUSCLES.
|                         _
|                        |  1. St. Vitus's Dance.
|                        |  2. Convulstions.
|                        |  3. Locked-jaw.
|_5. DISEASES.           |  4. Gout.
|  5. Rheumatism.
|  6. Lumbago.
|_ 7. A Ganglion.

FIG. 14.

[Illustration]

THE MUSCLES.

THE USE OF THE MUSCLES.--The skeleton is the image of death. Its unsightly
appearance instinctively repels us. We have seen, however, what uses it
subserves in the body, and how the ugly-looking bones abound in nice
contrivances and ingenious workmanship. In life, the framework is hidden
by the flesh. This covering is a mass of muscles, which by their
arrangement and their properties not only give form and symmetry to the
body, but also produce its varied movements.

In Fig. 14, we see the large exterior muscles. Beneath these are many
others; while deeply hidden within are tiny, delicate ones, too small to
be seen with the naked eye. There are, in all, about five hundred, each
having its special use, and all working in exquisite harmony and
perfection.

CONTRACTILITY.--The peculiar property of the muscles is their power of
contraction, whereby they decrease in length and increase in thickness.
[Footnote: The maximum force of this contraction has been estimated as
high as from eighty-five to one hundred and fourteen pounds per square
inch.] This may be caused by an effort of the will, by cold, by a sharp
blow, etc. It does not cease at death, but, in certain cold-blooded
animals, a contraction of the muscles is often noticed long after the head
has been cut off.

ARRANGEMENT OF THE MUSCLES. [Footnote: "Could we behold properly the
muscular fibers in operation, nothing, as a mere mechanical exhibition,
can be conceived more superb than the intricate and combined actions that
must take place during our most common movements. Look at a person running
or leaping, or watch the motions of the eye. How rapid, how delicate, how
complicated, and yet how accurate, are the motions required! Think of the
endurance of such a muscle as the heart, that can contract, with a force
equal to sixty pounds, seventy-five times every minute, for eighty years
together, without being weary."]--The muscles are nearly all arranged in
pairs, each with its antagonist, so that, as they contract and expand
alternately, the bone to which they are attached is moved to and fro. (See
p. 275.)

If you grasp the arm tightly with your hand just above the elbow joint,
and bend the forearm, you will feel the muscle on the inside (biceps,
_a_, Fig. 14) swell, and become hard and prominent, while the outside
muscle (triceps, _f_) will be relaxed. Now straighten the arm, and
the swelling and hardness of the inside muscle will vanish, while the
outside one will, in turn, become rigid. So, also, if you clasp the arm
just below the elbow, and then open and shut the fingers, you can feel the
alternate expanding and relaxing of the muscles on opposite sides of the
arms.

If the muscles on one side of the face become palsied, those on the other
side will draw the mouth that way. Squinting is caused by one of the
straight muscles of the eye (Fig. 17) contracting more strongly than its
antagonist.

KINDS OF MUSCLES.--There are two kinds of muscles, the _voluntary_,
which are under the control of our will, and the _involuntary_,
which are not. Thus our limbs stiffen or relax as we please, but the
heart beats on by day and by night. The eyelid, however, is both
voluntary and involuntary, so that while we wink constantly without
effort, we can, to a certain extent, restrain or control the motion.

STRUCTURE OF THE MUSCLES.--If we take a piece of lean beef and wash out
the red color, we can easily detect the fine fibers of which the meat is
composed. In boiling corned beef for the table, the fibers often separate,
owing to the dissolving of the delicate tissue which bound them together.
By means of the microscope, we find that these fibers are made up of
minute filaments (_fibrils_), and that each fibril is composed of a
row of small cells arranged like a string of beads. This gives the muscles
a peculiar striped (striated) appearance. [Footnote: The involuntary
muscles consist generally of smooth, fibrous tissue, and form sheets or
membranes in the walls of hollow organs. By their contraction they change
the size of cavities which they inclose. Some functions, however, like the
action of the heart, or the movements of deglutition (swallowing), require
the rapid, vigorous contraction, characteristic of the voluntary muscular
tissue--FLINT.] (See p. 276.) The cells are filled with a fluid or
semifluid mass of living (protoplasmic) matter.

FIG. 15.

[Illustration: _Microscopic view of a Muscle, showing, at one end, the
fibrillæ; and, at the other, the disks, or cells, of the fiber._]

The binding of so many threads into one bundle [Footnote: We shall learn
hereafter how these fibers are firmly tied together by a mesh of fine
connective tissue which dissolves in boiling, as just described] confers
great strength, according to a mechanical principle that we see
exemplified in suspension bridges, where the weight is sustained, not by
bars of iron, but by small wires twisted into massive ropes.

FIG. 16.

[Illustration: _Tendons of the Hand._]

THE TENDONS.--The ends of the muscles are generally attached to the bone
by strong, flexible, but inelastic tendons. [Footnote: The tendons may be
easily seen in the leg of a turkey as it comes on our table; so we may
study Physiology while we pick the bones.] The muscular fibers spring from
the sides of the tendon, so that more of them can act upon the bone than
if they went directly to it. Besides, the small, insensible tendon can
better bear the exposure of passing over a joint, and be more easily
lodged in some protecting groove, than the broad, sensitive muscle. This
mode of attachment gives to the limbs strength, and elegance of form.
Thus, for example, if the large muscles of the arm extended to the hand,
they would make it bulky and clumsy. The tendons, however, reach only to
the wrist, whence fine cords pass to the fingers (Fig. 16).

Here we notice two other admirable arrangements. 1. If the long tendons at
the wrist on contracting should rise, projections would be made and thus
the beauty of the slender joint be marred. To prevent this, a stout band
or bracelet of ligament holds them down to their place. 2. In order to
allow the tendon which moves the last joint of the finger to pass through,
the tendon which moves the second joint divides at its attachment to the
bone (Fig. 16). This is the most economical mode of packing the muscles,
as any other practicable arrangement would increase the bulk of the
slender finger.

FIG. 17.

[Illustration: _Muscles of the Right Eye:_ A, _superior
straight,_ B, _superior oblique passing through a pulley,_ D; G,
_inferior oblique,_ H, _external straight, and, back of it, the
internal straight muscle._]

Since the tendon can not always pull in the direction of the desired
motion, some contrivance is necessary to meet the want. The tendon (B)
belonging to one of the muscles of the eye, for example, passes through a
ring of cartilage, and thus a rotary motion is secured.

FIG. 18.

[Illustration: _The three classes of Levers, and also the foot as a
Lever._]

THE LEVERS OF THE BODY. [Footnote: A _lever_ is a stiff bar resting
on a point of support, called the _fulcrum_ (_F_), and having connected
with it a _weight_ (_W_) to be lifted, and a _power_ (_P_) to move it.
There are three classes of levers according to the arrangement of the
power, weight, and fulcrum. In the first class, the _F_ is between the
_P_ and _W_; in the second, the _W_ is between the _P_ and _F_; and in
the third, the _P_ is between the _W_ and _F_ (Fig. 18). A pump handle
is an example of the first; a lemon squeezer, of the second; and a
pair of fire tongs, of the third. See "Popular Physics," pp. 81-83, for a
full description of this subject, and for many illustrations.]--In
producing the motions of the body, the muscles use the bones as levers. We
see an illustration of the _first class_ of levers in the movements
of the head. The back or front of the head is the weight to be lifted, the
backbone is the fulcrum on which the lever turns, and the muscles at the
back or front of the neck exert the power by which we toss or bow the
head.

FIG. 19.

[Illustration: _The hand as a Lever of the third class._]

When we raise the body on tiptoe, we have an instance of the _second
class_. Here, our toes resting on the ground form the fulcrum the
muscles of the calf (gas-troc-ne'-mi-us, _j_ and so-le'-us, Fig. 14),
acting through the tendon of the heel, [Footnote: This is called the
Tendon of Achilles (_k_, Fig. 14) and is so named because, as the
fable runs, when Achilles was an infant his mother held him by the heel
while she dipped him in the River Styx, whose water had the power of
rendering one invulnerable to any weapon. His heel, not being wet, was his
weak point, to which Paris directed the fatal arrow--"This tendon," says
Mapother, "will bear one thousand pounds weight before it will break." The
horse is said to be "hamstrung," and is rendered useless, when the Tendon
of Achilles is cut. (see p. 284.)] are the power and the weight is borne
by the ankle joint.

An illustration of the _third class_ is found in lifting the hand
from the elbow. The hand is the weight, the elbow the fulcrum, and the
power is applied by the biceps muscle at its attachment to the radius (A,
Fig. 19.) In this form of the lever there is great loss of force, because
it is applied at such a distance from the weight, but there is a gain of
velocity, since the hand moves so far by such a slight contraction of the
muscle. The hand is required to perform quick motions, and therefore this
mode of attachment is desirable.

The nearer the power is applied to the resistance, the more easily the
work is done. In the lower jaw, for example, the jaw is the weight, the
fulcrum is the hinge joint at the back, and the muscles (temporal,
_d_, and the mas'-se'ter, _e_, Fig. 14) on each side are the
power. [Footnote: We may feel the contraction of the masseter by placing
our hand on the face when we work the jaw, while the temporal can be
readily detected by putting the fingers on the temple while we are
chewing. The tendon of the muscle (digastric)--one of those which open the
jaw--passes through a pulley (_c_, Fig. 14) somewhat like the one in
the eye.] They act much closer to the resistance than those in the hand,
since here we desire force, and there, speed.

FIG. 20.

[Illustration: _The Kneejoint;_ k, _the patella;_ f, _the
tendon._]

THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE BONES AT THE JOINTS not only affords greater
surface for the attachment of the muscles, as we have seen, but also
enables them to work to better advantage. Thus, in Fig. 20 it is evident
that a muscle acting in the line _f b_ would not bend the lower limb
so easily as if it were acting in the line _f k_, since in the former
case its force would be about all spent in drawing the bones more closely
together, while in the latter it would pull more nearly at a right angle.
Thus the tendon _f_, by passing over the patella, which is itself
pushed out by the protuberance _b_ of the thigh bone, pulls at a
larger angle, [Footnote: The chief use of the processes of the spine (Fig.
6) and other bones is, in the same way, to throw out the point on which
the power acts as far from the fulcrum as possible. The projections of the
ulna ("funny bone") behind the elbow, and that of the heel bone to which
the Tendon of Achilles is attached, are excellent illustrations (Fig. 1).]
and so the leg is thrown forward with ease in walking and with great force
in kicking.

HOW WE STAND ERECT.--The joints play so easily, and the center of gravity
in the body is so far above the foot, that the skeleton can not of itself
hold our bodies upright. Thus it requires the action of many muscles to
maintain this position. The head so rests upon the spine as to tend to
fall in front, but the muscles of the neck steady it in its place.
[Footnote: In animals the jaws are so heavy, and the place where the head
and spine join is so far back, that there can be no balance as there is in
man. There are therefore large muscles in their necks. We readily find
that we have none if we get on "all fours" and try to hold up the head. On
the other hand, gorillas and apes can not stand erect like man, for the
reason that their head, trunk, legs, etc., are not balanced by muscles, so
as to be in line with one another.] The hips incline forward, but are held
erect by the strong muscles of the back. The trunk is nicely balanced on
the head of the thigh bones. The great muscles of the thigh acting over
the kneepan tend to bend the body forward, but the muscles of the calf
neutralize this action. The ankle, the knee, and the hip lie in nearly the
same line, and thus the weight of the body rests directly on the keystone
of the arch of the foot. So perfectly do these muscles act that we never
think of them until science calls our attention to the subject, and yet to
acquire the necessary skill to use them in our infancy needed patient
lessons, much time, and many hard knocks.

FIG. 21.

[Illustration: _Action of the Muscles which keep the body erect._]

HOW WE WALK.--Walking is as complex an act as standing. It is really a
perilous performance, which has become safe only because of constant
practice. We see how violent it is when we run against a post in the dark,
and find with what headlong force we were hurling ourselves forward.
Holmes has well defined walking as a perpetual falling with a constant
self-recovery. Standing on one foot, we let the body fall forward, while
we swing the other leg ahead like a pendulum. Planting that foot on the
ground, to save the body from falling farther, we then swing the first
foot forward again to repeat the same operation. [Footnote: It is a
curious fact that one side of the body tends to outwalk the other; and so,
when a man is lost in the woods, he often goes in a circle, and at last
comes round to the spot whence he started.]

The shorter the pendulum, the more rapidly it vibrates; and so short-
legged people take quicker and shorter steps than long-legged ones.
[Footnote: In this respect, Tom Thumb was to Magrath, whose skeleton,
eight and one half feet high, is now in the Dublin Museum, what a little
fast-ticking, French mantel clock is to a big, old-fashioned, upright,
corner timepiece.] We are shorter when walking than when standing still,
because of this falling forward to take a step in advance. [Footnote:
Women find that a gown that will swing clear of the ground when they are
standing still, will drag the street when they are walking. The length of
the step may be increased by muscular effort, as when a line of soldiers
keep step in spite of their having legs of different lengths. Such a mode
of walking is necessarily fatiguing. (See p. 280.)]

In running, we incline the body more, and so, as it were, fall faster.
When we walk, one foot is on the ground all the time, and there is an
instant when both feet are planted upon it; but in running there is an
interval of time in each step when both feet are off the ground, and the
body is wholly unsupported. As we step alternately with the feet, we are
inclined to turn the body first to one side and then to the other. This
movement is sometimes counterbalanced by swinging the hand on the opposite
side. [Footnote: In ordinary walking the speed is nearly four miles an
hour, and can be kept up for a long period. But exercise and a special
aptitude for it enable some men to walk great distances in a relatively
short space of time. Trained walkers have gone seventy-five miles in
twenty hours, and walked the distance of thirty-seven miles at the rate of
five miles an hour. The mountaineers of the Alps are generally good
walkers, and some of them are not less remarkable for endurance than for
speed. Jacques Balmat, who was the first to reach the summit of Mont
Blanc, at sixteen years of age could walk from the hamlet of the Pélerins
to the mountain of La Côte in two hours,--a distance which the best-
trained travelers required from five to six hours to get over. At the time
of his last attempt to reach the top of Mont Blanc, this same guide, then
twenty years old, passed six days and four nights without sleeping or
reposing a single moment. One of his sons, Édouard Balmat, left Paris to
join his regiment at Genoa; he reached Chamouni the fifth day at evening,
having walked three hundred and forty miles. After resting two days, he
set off again for Genoa, where he arrived in two days. Several years
afterward, this same man left the baths at Louèche at two o'clock in the
morning, and reached Chamouni at nine in the evening, having walked a
distance equal to about seventy-five miles in nineteen hours. In 1844, an
old guide of De Saussure, eighty years old, left the hamlet of Prats, in
the valley of Chamouni, in the afternoon, and reached the Grand-Mulets at
ten in the evening; then, after resting some hours, he climbed the glacier
to the vicinity of the Grand Plateau, which has an altitude of about
thirteen thousand feet, and then returned to his village without
stopping.--_Wonders of the Body_.]

THE MUSCULAR SENSE.--When we lift an object, we feel a sensation of
weight, which we can compare with that experienced in lifting another
body. [Footnote: If a small ivory ball be allowed to roll down the cheek
toward the lips, it will appear to increase in weight. In general, the
more sensitive parts of the body recognize smaller differences in weight,
and the right hand is more accurate than the left. We are very apt,
however, to judge of the weight of a body from previous conceptions. Thus,
shortly after Sir Humphrey Davy discovered the metal potassium, he placed
a piece of it in the hand of Dr. Pierson, who exclaimed: "Bless me! How
heavy it is!" Really, however, potassium is so light that it will float on
water like cork.] By balancing it in the hand. The muscular sense is
useful to us in many ways. It guides us in standing or moving. We gratify
it when we walk erect and with an elastic step, and by dancing, jumping,
skating, and gymnastic exercises.

NECESSITY OF EXERCISE.--The effect of exercise upon a muscle is very
marked. [Footnote: The greater size of the breast (pectoral muscle) of a
pigeon, as compared with that of a duck, shows how muscle increases with
use. The breast of a chicken is white because it is not used for flight,
and therefore gets little blood.] By use it grows larger, and becomes
hard, compact, and darker-colored; by disuse it decreases in size, and
becomes soft, flabby, and pale.

Violent exercise, however, is injurious, since we then tear down faster
than nature can build up. Feats of strength are not only hurtful, but
dangerous. Often the muscles are strained or ruptured, and blood vessels
burst in the effort to outdo one's companions. [Footnote: Instances have
been known of children falling dead from having carried to excess so
pleasant and healthful an amusement as jumping the rope, and of persons
rupturing the Tendon of Achilles in dancing. The competitive lifting of
heavy weights is unwise, sometimes fatal.] (See p. 278.)

Two thousand years ago, Isocrates, the Greek rhetorician, said: "Exercise
for health, not for strength." The cultivation of muscle for its own sake
is a return to barbarism, while it enfeebles the mind, and ultimately the
body. The ancient gymnasts are said to have become prematurely old, and
the trained performers of our own day soon suffer from the strain they put
upon their muscular system. Few men have sufficient vigor to become both
athletes and scholars. Exercise should, therefore, merely supplement the
deficiency of our usual employment. _A sedentary life needs daily,
moderate exercise, which always stops short of fatigue_. This is a law
of health. (See p. 280.)

No education is complete which fails to provide for the development of the
muscles. Recesses should be as strictly devoted to play as study hours are
to work. Were gymnastics or calisthenics as regular an exercise as grammar
or arithmetic, fewer pupils would be compelled to leave school on account
of ill health; while spinal curvatures, weak backs, and ungraceful gaits
would no longer characterize so many of our best institutions.

TIME FOR EXERCISE.--We should not exercise after long abstinence from
food, nor immediately after a meal, unless the meal or the exercise be
very light. There is an old-fashioned prejudice in favor of exercise
before breakfast--an hour suited to the strong and healthy, but entirely
unfitted to the weak and delicate. On first rising in the morning, the
pulse is low, the skin relaxed, and the system susceptible to cold. Feeble
persons, therefore, need to be braced with food before they brave the
outdoor air.

WHAT KIND OF EXCERCISE TO TAKE.--For children, games are unequaled.
Walking, the universal exercise, [Footnote: The custom of walking, so
prevalent in England, has doubtless much to do with the superior physique
of its people. It is considered nothing for a woman to take a walk of
eight or ten miles, and long pedestrian excursions are made to all parts
of the country. The benefits which accrue from such an open-air life are
sadly needed by the women of our own land. A walk of half a dozen miles
should be a pleasant recreation for any healthy person.] is beneficial, as
it takes one into the open air and sunlight. Running is better, since it
employs more muscles, but it must not be pushed to excess, as it taxes the
heart, and may lead to disease of that organ. Rowing is more effectual in
its general development of the system. Swimming employs the muscles of the
whole body, and is a valuable acquirement, as it may be the means of
saving life. Horseback riding is a fine accomplishment, and refreshes both
mind and body. Gymnastic or calisthenic exercises bring into play all the
muscles of the body, and when carefully selected, and not immoderately
employed, are preferable to any other mode of indoor exercise. [Footnote:
The employment of the muscles in exercise not only benefits their especial
structure, but it acts on the whole system. When the muscles are put in
action, the capillary blood vessels with which they are supplied become
more rapidly charged with blood, and active changes take place, not only
in the muscles, but in all the surrounding tissues. The heart is required
to supply more blood, and accordingly beats more rapidly in order to meet
the demand. A larger quantity of blood is sent through the lungs, and
larger supplies of oxygen are taken in and carried to the various tissues.
The oxygen, by combining with the carbon of the blood and the tissues,
engenders a larger quantity of heat, which produces an action on the skin,
in order that the superfluous warmth may be disposed of. The skin is thus
exercised, as it were, and the sudoriparous and sebaceous glands are set
at work. The lungs and skin are brought into operation, and the lungs
throw off large quantities of carbonic acid, and the skin large quantities
of water, containing in solution matters which, if retained, would produce
disease in the body. Wherever the blood is sent, changes of a healthful
character occur. The brain and the rest of the nervous system are
invigorated, the stomach has its powers of digestion improved, and the
liver, pancreas, and other organs perform their functions with more vigor.
By want of exercise, the constituents of the food which pass into the
blood are not oxidized, and products which produce disease are engendered.
The introduction of fresh supplies of oxygen induced by exercise oxidizes
these products, and renders them harmless. As a rule, those who exercise
most in the open air will live the longest.--LANKESTER.] (See p. 280.)

THE WONDERS OF THE MUSCLES.--The grace, ease, and rapidity with which the
muscles contract are astonishing. By practice, they acquire a facility
which we call mechanical. The voice may utter one thousand five hundred
letters in a minute, yet each requires a distinct position of the vocal
organs. We train the muscles of the fingers till they glide over the keys
of the piano, executing the most exquisite and difficult harmony. In
writing, each letter is formed by its peculiar motions, yet we make them
so unconsciously that a skillful penman will describe beautiful curves
while thinking only of the idea that the sentence is to express. The mind
of the violinist is upon the music which his right hand is executing,
while his left determines the length of the string and the character of
each note so carefully that not a false sound is heard, although the
variation of a hair's breadth would cause a discord. In the arm of a
blacksmith, the biceps muscle may grow into the solidity almost of a club;
the hand of a prize fighter will strike a blow like a sledge hammer; while
the engraver traces lines invisible to the naked eye, and the fingers of
the blind acquire a delicacy that almost supplies the place of the missing
sense.

DISEASES, ETC.--l. _St. Vitus's Dance_ is a disease of the voluntary
muscles, whereby they are in frequent, irregular, and spasmodic motion
beyond the control of the will. All causes of excitement, and especially
of fear, should be avoided, and the general health of the patient
invigorated, as this disease is closely connected with a derangement of
the nervous system.

2. _Convulsions_ are an involuntary contraction of the muscles.
Consciousness is wanting, while the limbs may be stiff or in spasmodic
action. (See p. 261.)

3. _Locked-jaw_ is a disease in which there are spasms and a
contraction of the muscles, usually beginning in the lower jaw. It is
serious, often fatal, yet it sometimes follows as trivial an injury as the
stroke of a whip lash, the lodgment of a bone in the throat, a fishhook in
the finger, or a tack in the sole of the foot.

4. _Gout_ is characterized by an acute pain located chiefly in the
small joints of the foot, especially those of the great toe, which become
swollen and extremely sensitive. It is generally accompanied by an excess
of uric acid in the blood, and a deposit of urate of soda about the
affected joint. Gout is often the result of high living, and of too much
animal food. It is frequently inherited.

5. _Rheumatism_ affects mainly the connective, white, fibrous tissue
of the larger joints. While gout is the punishment of the rich who live
luxuriously, rheumatism afflicts alike the poor and the rich. There are
two common forms of rheumatism--the inflammatory or acute, and the
chronic. The latter is of long continuance; the former terminates more
speedily. The acute form is probably a disease of the blood, which carries
with it some poisonous matter that is deposited where the fibrous tissue
is most abundant. The disease flies capriciously from one joint to
another, and the pain caused by even the slightest motion deprives the
sufferer of the use of the disabled part and its muscles. Its chief danger
lies in the possibility of its affecting the vital organs. Chronic
rheumatism--the result of repeated attacks of the acute--leads to great
suffering, and oftentimes to disorganization of the joints and an
interference with the movements of the heart.

6. _Lumbago_ is an inflammation of the lumbar muscles and fascia.
[Footnote: Lumbago is really a form of myalgia, a disease which, has its
seat in the muscles, and may thus affect any part of the body. Doubtless
much of what is commonly called "liver" or "kidney complaint" is only, in
one case, myalgia of the chest or abdominal walls near the liver, or, in
the other, of the back and loins near the kidneys. Chronic liver disease
is comparatively rare in the Northern States, and pain in the side is not
a prominent symptom; while certain diseases of the kidneys, which are as
surely fatal as pulmonary consumption, are not attended by pain in the
back opposite these organs.--WEY.] It may be so moderate as to produce
only a "lame back," or so severe as to disable, as in the case of what is
popularly termed a "crick in the back." Strong swimmers who sometimes
drown without apparent cause are supposed to be seized in this way.

7. _A Ganglion_, or what is vulgarly called a "weak" or "weeping"
sinew, is the swelling of a bursa. [Footnote: A bursa is a small sack
containing a lubricating fluid to prevent friction where tendons play over
hard surfaces. There is one shaped like an hourglass on the wrist, just at
the edge of the palm. By pressing back the liquid it contains, this bursa
may be clearly seen.] It sometimes becomes so distended by fluid as to be
mistaken for bone. If on binding something hard upon it for a few days it
does not disappear, a physician will remove the liquid by means of a
hypodermic syringe, or perhaps cause it to be absorbed by an external
application of iodine.

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. What class of lever is the foot when we lift a weight on the toes?

2. Explain the movement of the body backward and forward, when resting
upon the thigh bone as a fulcrum.

3. What class of lever do we use when we lift the foot while sitting down?

4. Explain the swing of the arm from the shoulder.

5. What class of lever is used in bending our fingers?

6. What class of lever is our foot when we tap the ground with our toes?

7. What class of lever do we use when we raise ourselves from a stooping
position?

8. What class of lever is the foot when we walk?

9. Why can we raise a heavier weight with our hand when lifting from the
elbow than from the shoulder?

10. What class of lever do we employ when we are hopping, the thigh bone
being bent up toward the body and not used?

11. Describe the motions of the bones when we are using a gimlet.

12. Why do we tire when we stand erect?

13. Why does it rest us to change our work?

14. Why and when is dancing a beneficial exercise?

15. Why can we exert greater force with the back teeth than with the front
ones?

16. Why do we lean forward when we wish to rise from a chair?

17. Why does the projection of the heel bone make walking easier?

18. Does a horse travel with less fatigue over a flat than a hilly
country?

19. Can you move your upper jaw?

20. Are people naturally right or left-handed?

21. Why can so few persons move their ears by the muscles?

22. Is the blacksmith's right arm healthier than the left?

23. Boys often, though foolishly, thrust a pin into the flesh just above
the knee. Why is it not painful?

24. Will ten minutes' practice in a gymnasium answer for a day's exercise?

25. Why would an elastic tendon be unfitted to transmit the motion of a
muscle?

26. When one is struck violently on the head, why does he instantly fall?

27. What is the cause of the difference between light and dark meat in a
fowl?




III.


THE SKIN.

A protection from the outer world, it is our only means of communicating
with it. Insensible itself, it is the organ of touch. It feels the
pressure of a hair, yet bears the weight of the body. It yields to every
motion of that which it wraps and holds in place. It hides from view the
delicate organs within, yet the faintest tint of a thought shines through,
while the soul paints upon it, as on a canvas, the richest and rarest of
colors.

ANALYSIS OF THE SKIN.

_
_                  | 1. The Cutis; its Composition and Character.
| 1. THE STRUCTURE  | 2. The Cuticle; its Composition and Character.
|     OF THE SKIN.  | 3. The Value of the Cuticle.
|                   |_4. The Complexion.
|                                      _
|                                     | a. _Description._
|                    _                | b. _Method of Growth._
|                   | 1. The Hair.....| c. _As an Instrument of
|                   |                 |        Feeling._
| 2. THE HAIR AND   |                 | d. _Indestructibility of
|     THE NAILS.    |                 |_       the Hair._
|                   |                  _
|                   |_2. The Nails....| a. _Uses._
|                                     |_b. _Method of Growth._
|                    _
| 3. THE MUCOUS     | 1. The Structure.
|     MEMBRANE      | 2. Connective Tissue.
|                   |_3. Fat.
|                    _
|                   | 1. Number and Kinds of Teeth.
|                   |                  _
|                   | 1. The Two Sets.| 1. _The Milk Teeth._
|                   |                 |_2. _The Permanent Teeth._
|                   |
| 4. THE TEETH.     | 2. Structure of the Teeth.
|                   | 3. The Setting of the Tooth in the Jaw.
|                   | 4. The Decay of the Teeth.
|                   |_5. The Preservation of the Teeth.
|                    _                  _
|                   | 1. The Two Kinds.| 1. _Oil Glands._
|                   |                  |_2. _Perpiratory Glands._
|                   |
| 5. THE GLANDS     | 2. The Perspiration.
|                   | 3. The Absorbing Power of the Skin. (See
|                   |_       Lymphatics.)
|                    _
|                   | 1. About Washing and Bathing.
|                   | 2. The Reaction.
|                   | 3. Sea Bathing.    _
| 6. HYGIENE        |                   | a. _General Principles._
|                   |                   | b. _Linen._
|                   |                   | c. _Cotton._
|                   |_4. Clothing.......| d. _Woolen._
|                                       | e. _Flannel._
|                                       | f. _Color of Clothing._
|                                       | g. _Structure of
|                                       |      Clothing._
|                                       | h. _Insufficient
|                    _                  |_     Clothing._
|                   | 1. Erysipelas.
|                   | 2. Salt Rheum.
|_7. DISEASES.      | 3. Corns.
| 4. Ingrowing Nails.
| 5. Warts.
|_6. Chilblains.

THE SKIN.

THE SKIN is a tough, thin, close-fitting garment for the protection of the
tender flesh. Its perfect elasticity beautifully adapts it to every motion
of the body. We shall learn hereafter that it is more than a mere
covering, being an active organ, which does its part in the work of
keeping in order the house in which we live. It oils itself to preserve
its smoothness and delicacy, replaces itself as fast as it wears out, and
is at once the perfection of use and beauty.

1. STRUCTURE OF THE SKIN.

CUTIS AND CUTICLE.--What we commonly call the skin--viz., the part raised
by a blister--is only the cuticle [Footnote: _Cuticula_, little skin.
It is often styled the scarfskin, and also the epidermis (_epi_,
upon; and _derma_, skin).] or covering of the cutis or true skin. The
latter is full of nerves and blood vessels, while the former neither
bleeds [Footnote: We notice this in shaving; for if a razor goes below the
cuticle, it is followed by pain and blood. So insensible is this outer
layer that we can run a pin through the thick mass at the roots of the
nails without discomfort.] nor gives rise to pain, neither suffers from
heat nor feels the cold.

The cuticle is composed of small, flat cells or scales. These are
constantly shed from the surface in the form of scurf, dandruff, etc., but
are as constantly renewed from the cutis [Footnote: We see how rapidly
this change goes on by noticing how soon a stain of any kind disappears
from the skin. A snake throws off its cuticle entire, and at regular
intervals.] below.

Under the microscope, we can see the round cells of the cuticle, and how
they are flattened and hardened as they are forced to the surface. The
immense number of these cells surpasses comprehension. In one square inch
of the cuticle, counting only those in a single layer, there are over a
billion horny scales, each complete in itself.--HARTING.

FIG. 22.

[Illustration: A _represents a vertical section of the Cuticle._ B,
_lateral view of the cells._ C, _flat side of scales like_ d,
_magnified 250 diameters, showing the nucleated cells transformed into
broad scales._]

VALUE OF THE CUTICLE.--In the palm of the hand, the sole of the foot, and
other parts especially liable to injury, the cuticle is very thick. This
is a most admirable provision for their protection. [Footnote: We can hold
the hand in strong brine with impunity, but the smart will quickly tell us
when there is even a scratch in the skin. Vaccine matter must be inserted
beneath the cuticle to take effect. This membrane doubtless prevents many
poisonous substances from entering the system.] By use, it becomes callous
and horny. The boy who goes out barefoot for the first time, "treading as
if on eggs," can soon run where he pleases among thistles and over stones.
The blacksmith handles hot iron without pain, while the mason lays stones
and works in lime, without scratching or corroding his flesh.

THE COMPLEXION.--In the freshly made cells on the lower side of the
cuticle, is a pigment composed of tiny grains. [Footnote: These grains are
about 1/2000 of an inch in diameter, and, curiously enough, do not appear
opaque, but transparent and nearly colorless.--MARSHALL.] In the varying
tint of this coloring matter, lies the difference of hue between the
blonde and the brunette, the European and the African. In the purest
complexion, there is some of this pigment, which, however, disappears as
the fresh, round, soft cells next the cutis change into the old, flat,
horny scales at the surface.

Scars are white, because this part of the cuticle is not restored. The sun
has a powerful effect upon the coloring matter, and so we readily "tan" on
exposure to its rays. If the color gathers in spots, it forms freckles.
[Footnote: This action of the sun on the pigment of the skin is very
marked. Even among the Africans, the skin is observed to lose its intense
black color in those who live for many months in the shades of the forest.
It is said that Asiatic and African women confined within the walls of the
harem, and thus secluded from the sun, are as fair as Europeans. Among the
Jews who have settled in Northern Europe, are many of light complexion,
while those who live in India are as dark as the Hindoos. Intense heat
also increases this coloring matter, and thus a furnace-man's skin, even
where protected by clothing, becomes completely bronzed. The black pigment
has been known to disappear during severe illness, and a lighter color to
be developed in its place. Among the negroes, are sometimes found people
who have no complexion, _i. e._, there is no coloring matter in their
skin, hair, or the iris of their eyes. These persons are called Albinos.]

II. HAIR AND NAILS.

The Hair and the Nails are modified forms of the cuticle.

FIG. 23.

[Illustration: A _Hair, magnified 600 diameters._ S, _the sac
(follicle);_ P, _the papilla, showing the cells and the blood
vessels:_ V.]

THE HAIR is a protection from heat and cold, and shields the head from
blows. It is found on nearly all parts of the body, except the palms of
the hands and the soles of the feet. The outside of a hair is hard and
compact, and consists of a layer of colorless scales, which overlie one
another like the shingles of a house; the interior is porous, [Footnote:
In order to examine a hair, it should be put on the slide of the
microscope, and covered with a thin glass, while a few drops of alcohol
are allowed to flow between the cover and the slide. This causes the air,
which fills the hair and prevents our seeing its structure, to escape.]
and probably conveys the liquids by which it is nourished.

Each hair grows from a tiny bulb (papilla), which is an elevation of the
cutis at the bottom of a little hollow in the skin. From the surface of
this bulb, the hair is produced, like the cuticle, by the constant
formation of new cells at the bottom. When the hair is pulled out, this
bulb, if uninjured, will produce a new one; but, when once destroyed, it
will never grow again. [Footnote: Hair grows at the rate of about five to
seven inches in a year. It is said to grow after death. This appearance is
due to the fact that by the shrinking of the skin the part below the
surface is caused to project, which is especially noticeable in the
beard.] The hair has been known to whiten in a single night by fear,
fright, or nervous excitement. When the color has once changed, it can not
be restored. [Footnote: Hair dyes, or so-called "hair restorers," are
almost invariably deleterious substances, depending for their coloring
properties upon the action of lead or lunar caustic. Frequent instances of
hair poisoning have occurred, owing to the common use of such dangerous
articles. If the growth of the hair be impaired, the general constitution
or the skin needs treatment. This is the work of a skillful physician, and
not of a patent remedy. Dame Fashion has her repentant freaks as well as
her ruinous follies, and it is a healthful sign that the era of universal
hair dyeing has been blotted out from her present calendar, and the gray
hairs of age are now honored with the highest place in "style" as well as
in good sense and cleanliness.] (See p. 285.)

Wherever hair exists, tiny muscles are found, interlaced among the fibers
of the skin. These, when contracting under the influence of cold or
electricity, pucker up the skin, and cause the hair to stand on end.
[Footnote: In horses and other animals which are able to shake the whole
skin, this muscular tissue is much more fully developed than in man.] The
hairs themselves are destitute of feeling. Nerves, however, are found in
the hollows in which the hair is rooted, and so one feels pain when it is
pulled. [Footnote: These nerves are especially abundant in the whiskers of
the cat, which are used as feelers.] Thus the insensible hairs become
wonderfully delicate instruments to convey an impression of even the
slightest touch.

FIG. 24.

[Illustration: A, _a perspiratory tube with its gland;_ B, _a hair
with a muscle and two oil glands;_ C, _cuticle;_ D, _the
papillæ;_ and E, _fat cells._]

Next to the teeth and bones, the hair is the least destructible part of
the body, and its color is often preserved for many years after the other
portions have gone to decay. [Footnote: Fine downy hairs, such as are
general upon the body, have been detected in the little fragments of skin
found beneath the heads of the nails by which, centuries ago, certain
robbers were fastened to the church doors, as a punishment for their
sacrilege.]

THE NAILS protect the ends of the tender finger, and toe, and give us
power more firmly to grasp and easily to pick up any object we may desire.
They enable us to perform a hundred little, mechanical acts which else
were impossible. At the same time, their delicate color and beautiful
outline give a finish of ornament to that exquisite instrument, the hand.
The nail is firmly set in a groove (matrix) in the cuticle, from which it
grows at the root in length [Footnote: By making a little mark on the nail
near the root we can see, week by week, how rapidly this process goes on,
and so form some idea of what a multitude of cells must be transformed
into the horny matter of the nail.] and from beneath in thickness. So long
as the matrix at the root is uninjured, the nail will be replaced after
any accident. (See p. 288.)

III. THE MUCOUS MEMBRANE.

STRUCTURE.--At the edges of the openings into the body, the skin seems to
stop and give place to a tissue which is redder, more sensitive, more
liable to bleed, and is moistened by a fluid, or mucus, as it is called.
Really, however, the skin does not cease, but passes into a more delicate
covering of the same general structure, viz., an outer, hard, bloodless,
insensible layer, and an inner, soft, sanguine, nervous one. [Footnote:
With a dull knife, we can scrape from the mucous membrane which lines the
mouth some of the cuticle for examination under the microscope. In a
similar way, we can obtain cuticle from the surface of the body for study
and comparison.] Thus every part of the body is wrapped in a kind of
double bag, made of tough skin on the outside, and tender mucous membrane
on the inside.

CONNECTIVE TISSUE.--The cutis and the corresponding layer of the mucous
membrane consist chiefly of a fibrous substance interlaced, like felt. It
is called connective tissue, because it connects all the different parts
of the body. It spreads from the cutis, invests muscles, bones, and
cartilages, and thence passes into the mucous membrane. So thoroughly does
it permeate the body, that, if the other tissues were destroyed, it would
give a perfect model of every organ. [Footnote: It is curious to notice
how our body is wrapped in membrane. On the outside, is the skin
protecting from exterior injury, and, on the inside, is the mucous
membrane reaching from the lips to the innermost air cell of the lungs.
Every organ is enveloped in its membrane. Every bone has its sheath. Every
socket is lined. Even the separate fibers of muscles have their covering
tissue. The brain and the spinal cord are triply wrapped, while the eye is
only a membranous globe filled with fluid. These membranes protect and
support the organs they enfold, but, with that wise economy so
characteristic of nature everywhere, they have also an important function
to perform. They are the _filters_ of the body. Through their pores
pass alike the elements of growth, and the returning products of waste. On
one side, bathed by the blood, they choose from it suitable food for the
organ they envelop, and many of them in their tiny cells, by some
mysterious process, form new products,--put the finishing touches, as it
were, upon the material ere it is deposited in the body.] It can be seen
in a piece of meat as a delicate substance lying between the layers of
muscle, where it serves to bind together the numerous fibers of which they
are composed.

Connective tissue yields gelatine on boiling, and is the part which tans
when hides are manufactured into leather. It is very elastic, so that when
you remove your finger after pressing upon the skin, no indentation is
left. [Footnote: In dropsy, this elasticity is lost by distension, and
there is a kind of "pitting," as it is called, produced by pressure.] It
varies greatly in character,--from the mucous membrane, where it is soft
and tender, to the ligaments and tendons which it largely composes, where
it is strong and dense. [Footnote: The leather made from this tissue
varies as greatly, from the tough, thick oxhide, to the soft, pliable kid
and chamois skin.]

FAT is deposited as an oil in the cells [Footnote: So tiny are these
cells, that there are over sixty-five million in a cubic inch of fat. As
they are kept moist, the liquid does not ooze out, but, on drying, it
comes to the surface, and thus a piece of fat feels oily when exposed to
the air. The quantity of fat varies with the state of nutrition. In
corpulent persons, the masses of fat beneath the skin, in the mesentery,
on the surface of the heart and great vessels, between the muscles, and in
the neighborhood of the nerves, are considerably increased. Conversely, in
the emaciated we sometimes find beneath the skin nucleated cells, which
contain only one oil drop. Many masses of fat which have an important
relation to muscular actions--such as the fat of the orbit or the cheek--
do not disappear in the most emaciated object. Even in starvation, the
fatty substances of the brain and spinal cord are retained.--VALENTIN.] of
this tissue, just beneath the skin (Fig. 24), giving roundness and
plumpness to the body, and acting as an excellent nonconductor for the
retention of heat. It collects as pads in the hollows of the bones, around
the joints, and between the muscles, causing them to glide more easily
upon each other. As marrow, it nourishes the skeleton, and also
distributes the shock of any jar the limb may sustain.

It is noticeable, however, that fat does not gather within the cranium,
the lungs, or the eyelids, where its accumulation would clog the organs.

IV. THE TEETH.

THE TEETH [Footnote: Although the teeth are always found in connection
with the skeleton, and are, therefore, figured as a part of it (Fig. 1),
yet they do not properly belong to the bones of the body, and are merely
set in the solid jaw to insure solidity. They are hard, and resemble bony
matter, yet they are neither true bone nor are they formed in the same
manner. "They are properly appendages of the mucous membrane, and are
developed from it."--LEIDY. "They belong to the Tegumentary System, which,
speaking generally of animals, includes teeth, nails, horns, scales, and
hairs."--MARSHALL. They are therefore classed with the mucous membrane, as
are the nails and hair with the skin.] are thirty-two in all,--there being
eight in each half jaw, similarly shaped and arranged. In each set of
eight, the two nearest the middle of the jaw have wide, sharp, chisel-like
edges, fit for cutting, and hence are called _incisors_. The next one
corresponds to the great tearing or holding tooth of the dog, and is
styled the _canine_, or eye-tooth. The next two have broader crowns,
with two points, or cusps, and are hence termed the _bicuspids_. The
remaining three are much broader, and, as they are used to crush the food,
are called the _grinders_, or _molars_. The incisors and
eyeteeth have one fang, or root; the others have two or three fangs.

THE MILK TEETH.--We are provided with two sets of teeth. The first, or
milk teeth, are small and only twenty in number. In each half jaw there
are two incisors, one canine, and two molars. The middle incisors are
usually cut about the age of seven months, the others at nine months, the
first molars at twelve months, the canines at eighteen months, and the
remaining molars at two or three years of age. The lower teeth precede the
corresponding upper ones. The time often varies, but the order seldom.

THE PERMANENT TEETH.--At six years, when the first set is usually still
perfect, the jaws contain the crowns of all the second, except the wisdom
teeth. About this age, to meet the wants of the growing body, the crowns
of the permanent set begin to press against the roots of the milk teeth,
which, becoming absorbed, leave the loosened teeth to drop out, while the
new ones rise and occupy their places. [Footnote: If the milk teeth, do
not promptly loosen on the appearance of the second set, the former should
be at once removed to permit the permanent teeth to assume their natural
places. If any fail to come in regularly, or if they crowd the others, a
competent dentist should be consulted.]

FIG. 25.

[Illustration: _The teeth at the age of six and one half years._ I,
_the incisors;_ O, _the canine;_ M, _the molars; the last
molar is the first of the permanent teeth;_ F, _sacs of the permanent
incisors;_ C, _of the canine;_ B, _of the bicuspids;_ N,
_of the second molar; the sac of the third molar is empty._--
MARSHALL.]

The central incisors appear at about seven years of age; the others at
eight; the first bicuspids at nine, the second at ten; the canines at
eleven or twelve; the second [Footnote: The first molar appears much
earlier. (See Fig. 25.)] molars at twelve or thirteen, and the last, or
wisdom teeth, are sometimes delayed until the twenty-second year, or even
later.

STRUCTURE OF THE TEETH.--The interior of the tooth consists principally of
_dentine_, a dense substance resembling bone. [Footnote: In the tusk
of the elephant this is known as ivory.] The crown of the tooth, which is
exposed to wear, is protected by a sheath of _enamel_. This is a
hard, glistening, white substance, containing only two and a half per cent
of animal matter. The fang is covered by a thin layer of true bone
(cement).

FIG. 26.

[Illustration: _Vertical section of a Molar Tooth, moderately
magnified._ a, _enamel of the crown, the lines of which indicate the
arrangement of its columns;_ b, _dentine;_ c, _cement;_ d,
_pulp cavity._]

At the center of the tooth is a cavity filled with a soft, reddish-white,
pulpy substance full of blood vessels and nerves. This pulp is very
sensitive, and toothache is caused by its irritation.

THE FITTING OF THE TOOTH INTO THE JAW is a most admirable contrivance. It
is not set like a nail in wood, having the fang in contact with the bone;
but the socket is lined with a membrane which forms a soft cushion. While
this is in a healthy state, it deadens the force of any shock, but, when
inflamed, it becomes the seat of excruciating pain.

THE DECAY OF THE TEETH [Footnote: Unlike the other portions of the body,
there is no provision made for any change in the permanent teeth. That
part, however, which is thus during life most liable to change, after
death resists it the longest. In deep-sea dredgings teeth are found when
all traces of the frame to which they belonged have disappeared. Yet hard
and incorruptible as they seem, their permanence is only relative. Exposed
to injury and disease, they break or decay. Even if they escape accident,
they yet wear at the crown, are absorbed at the fang, and, in time, drop
out, thus affording another of the many signs of the limitations
Providence has fixed to the endurance of our bodies and the length of our
lives.] is commonly caused (1) by portions of the food which become
entangled between them, and, on account of the heat and moisture, quickly
decompose; and (2) by the saliva, as it evaporates, leaving on the teeth a
sediment, which we call tartar. This collects organic matter that rapidly
changes, and also affords a soil in which a sort of fungus speedily
springs up. From both these causes, the breath becomes offensive, and the
teeth are injured.

PRESERVATION OF THE TEETH.--Children should early be taught to brush their
teeth at least every morning with tepid water, and twice a week with white
castile soap and powdered orris root, or with some dentifrice recommended
by a responsible dentist. They should also be instructed to remove the
particles of food from between the teeth, after each meal, by means of a
quill or wooden toothpick.

The enamel once injured is never restored, and the whole interior of the
tooth is exposed to decay. We should not, therefore, crack hard nuts, bite
thread, or use metal toothpicks, gritty tooth powders, or any acid which
"sets the teeth on edge," _i. e._. that acts upon the enamel. It is
well also to have the teeth examined yearly by a dentist, that any small
orifice may be filled, and further decay prevented.

V. THE GLANDS OF THE SKIN.

1. THE OIL GLANDS are clusters of tiny sacs which secrete an oil that
flows along the duct to the root of the hair, and thence oozes out on the
cuticle (Fig. 24). [Footnote: This secretion is said to vary in different
persons, and on that account the dog is enabled to trace his master by the
scent.] This is nature's efficient hair-dressing, and also keeps the skin
soft and flexible. These glands are not usually found where there is no
hair, as on the palm of the hand, and hence at those points only can water
readily soak through the skin into the body. They are of considerable size
on the face, especially about the nose. When obstructed, their contents
become hard and dark-colored, and are vulgarly called "worms." [Footnote:
Though they are not alive, yet, under the microscope, they are sometimes
found to contain a curious parasite, called the pimple mite, which is
supposed to consume the superabundant secretion.]

II. THE PERSPIRATORY GLANDS are fine tubes about 1/300 of an inch in
diameter, and a quarter of an inch in length, which run through the cutis,
and then coil up in little balls (Fig. 24). They are found in all parts of
the body, and in almost incredible numbers. In the palm of the hand, there
are about two thousand eight hundred in a single square inch. On the back
of the neck and trunk, where they are fewest, there are yet four hundred
to the square inch. The total number on the body of an adult is estimated
at about two and a half million. If they were laid end to end, they would
extend nearly ten miles. [Footnote: The current statement, that they would
extend twenty-eight miles, is undoubtedly an exaggeration. Krause
estimates the total number at 2,381,248, and the length of each coil, when
unraveled, at 1/10 of an inch, which would make the total length much less
than even the statement in the text. Seguin states that the proportion of
impurities thrown off by the skin and the lungs, is eleven to seven.] The
mouths of these glands--"pores," as we commonly call them--may be seen
with a pocket lens along the fine ridges which cover the palm of the hand.

THE PERSPIRATION.--From these openings, there constantly passes a vapor,
forming what we call the insensible perspiration. Exercise or heat causes
it to flow more freely, when it condenses on the surface in drops. The
perspiration consists of about ninety-nine parts water, and one part solid
matter. The amount varies greatly, but on the average is, for an adult,
not far from two pounds per day. Any suppression of this constant drainage
will lead to disagreeable and even dangerous results. If it be entirely
and permanently checked, death will inevitably ensue. [Footnote: Once, on
an occasion of great solemnity at Rome, a child was, it is said,
completely covered with gold leaf, closely applied to the skin, so as to
represent, according to the idea of that age, the golden glory of an angel
or seraph. In a few hours, after contributing to this pageant, the child
died; the cause being suffocation, from stopping the exhalation of the
skin; although, in the ignorance of the common people of those days, the
death was attributed to the anger of the Deity, and looked upon as a
circumstance of evil omen.]

THE ABSORBING POWER OF THE SKIN.--We have already described two uses of
the skin: (1) Its _protective_, (2) its _exhaling_, and now we
come to (3) its _absorbing_ power. This is not so noticeable as the
others, and yet it can be illustrated. Persons frequently poison their
hands with the common wood ivy. Contagious diseases are taken by touching
a patient, or even his clothing, especially if there be a crack in the
cuticle. [Footnote: If one is called upon to handle a dead body, it is
well, especially if the person has died of a contagious disease, to rub
the hand with lard or olive oil. Poisonous matter has been fatally
absorbed through the breaking of the cuticle by a hangnail, or a simple
scratch. There is a story that Bonaparte, when a lieutenant of artillery,
in the heat of battle, seized the rammer and worked the gun of an
artilleryman who had fallen. From the wood which the soldier had used,
Bonaparte absorbed a poison that gave him a skin disease, by which he was
annoyed the remainder of his life.] Painters absorb so much lead through
the pores of their hands that they are attacked with colic. [Footnote:
Cosmetics, hair dyes, etc., are exceedingly injurious, not only because
they tend to fill the pores of the skin, but because they often contain
poisonous matters that may be absorbed into the system, especially if they
are in a solution.] Snuff and lard are frequently rubbed on the chest of a
child suffering with the croup, to produce vomiting. It is said that
seamen in want of water drench their clothing in salt spray, when the skin
will absorb enough moisture to quench thirst (see Lymphatic System).

By carefully conducted experiments, it has been found that the skin acts
in the same way as the lungs (see Respiration) in absorbing oxygen from
the air, and giving off carbonic acid to a small but appreciable amount.
Indeed, the skin has not inaptly been styled the third lung. Hence, the
importance of absolute cleanliness and a frequent ablution of the entire
body.

VI. HYGIENE.

HINTS ABOUT WASHING AND BATHING.--The moment of rising from bed is the
proper time for the full wash or bath with which one should commence the
day. The body is then warm, and can endure moderately cold water better
than at any other time; it is relaxed, and needs bracing; and the nerves,
deadened by the night's repose, require a gentle stimulus. If the system
be strong enough to resist the shock, cold water is the most invigorating;
if not, a tepid bath will answer. [Footnote: Many persons have not the
conveniences for a bath. To them, the following plan, which the author has
daily employed for years, is commended. The necessities are: a basin full
of soft water, a mild soap, a large sponge or a piece of flannel, and two
towels--one soft, the other rough. The temperature of the water should
vary with the season of the year--cold in summer and tepid in winter. Rub
quickly the entire body with the wet sponge or flannel. (If more
agreeable, wash and wipe only a part at a time, protecting the rest in
cold weather with portions of clothing.) Dry the skin gently with a soft
towel, and when quite dry, with the rough towel or flesh brush rub the
body briskly four or five minutes till the skin is all aglow. The chest
and abdomen need the principal rubbing. The roughness of the towel should
be accommodated to the condition of the skin. Enough friction, however,
must be given to produce at least a gentle warmth, indicative of the
reaction necessary to prevent subsequent chill or languor. An invalid will
find it exceedingly beneficial if a stout, vigorous person produce the
reaction by rubbing with the hands.]

Before dressing, the whole body should be thoroughly rubbed with a coarse
towel or flesh brush. At first, the friction may be unpleasant, but this
sensitiveness will soon be overcome, and the keenest pleasure be felt in
the lively glow which follows. A bath should not be taken just before nor
immediately after a meal, as it will interfere with the digestion of the
food. Soap should be employed occasionally, but its frequent use tends to
make the skin dry and hard.

REACTION.--After taking a cold bath, there should be a prompt reaction.
When the surface is chilled by cold water, the blood sets to the heart and
other vital organs, exciting them to more vigorous action, and then, being
thrown back to the surface, it reddens, warms, and stimulates the skin to
an unwonted degree. This is called the reaction, and in it lies the
invigorating influence of the cold bath. When, on the contrary, the skin
is heated by a hot bath, the blood is drawn to the surface, less blood
goes to the heart, the circulation decreases, and languor ensues. A dash
of cold water is both necessary and refreshing at the close of a hot bath.
[Footnote: The Russians are very fond of vapor baths, taken in the
following manner. A large room is heated by stoves. Red-hot stones being
brought in, water is thrown upon them, filling the room with steam. The
bathers sit on benches until they perspire profusely, when they are rubbed
with soapsuds and dashed with cold water. Sometimes, while in this state
of excessive perspiration, they run out of doors and leap into snow
banks.]

If, after a cold bath, there be felt no glow of warmth, but only a
chilliness and depression, we are thereby warned that either proper means
were not taken to bring on this reaction, or that the circulation is not
vigorous enough to make such a bath beneficial. The general effect of a
cool bath is exhilarating, and that of a warm one depressing. [Footnote:
The sudden plunge into a cold bath is good for the strong and healthy, but
too severe for the delicate. One should always wet first the face, neck,
and chest. It is extremely injurious to stand in a bath with only the feet
and the lower limbs covered by the water, for the blood is thus sent from
the extremities to the heart and internal organs, and they become so
burdened that reaction may be out of their power. A brisk walk, or a
thorough rubbing of the skin, before a cold bath or swim, adds greatly to
its value and pleasure.] Hence the latter should not ordinarily be taken
oftener than once a week, while the former may be enjoyed daily. (See p.
289.)

SEA BATHING is exceedingly stimulating, on account of the action of the
salt and the exciting surroundings. Twenty minutes is the utmost limit for
bathing or swimming in salt or fresh water. A chilly sensation should be
the signal for instant removal. It is better to leave while the glow and
buoyancy which follow the first plunge are still felt. Gentle exercise
after a bath is beneficial.

CLOTHING in winter, to keep us warm, should repel the external cold and
retain the heat of the body. In summer, to keep us cool, it should not
absorb the rays of the sun, and should permit the passage of the heat of
the body. At all seasons, it should be porous, to give ready escape to the
perspiration, and a free admission of air to the skin. We can readily
apply these essential conditions to the different kinds of clothing.

_Linen_ is soft to the touch, and is a good conductor of heat. Hence
it is pleasant for summer wear, but, being apt to chill the surface too
rapidly, it should not be worn next the skin.

_Cotton_ is a poorer conductor of heat and absorber of moisture, and
is therefore warmer than linen. It is sufficiently cool for summer wear,
and affords better protection against sudden changes.

_Woolen_ absorbs moisture slowly, and contains much air in its pores.
It is therefore a poor conductor of heat, and guards the wearer against
the vicissitudes of our climate.

The outer clothing may be adapted largely to ornament, and may be varied
to suit our fancy and the requirements of society. The underclothing
should always be sufficient to keep us warm. Woolen should be worn next
the skin at all times; light gossamer garments in the heat of summer, and
warm, porous flannels in midwinter.

Light-colored clothing is not only cooler in summer, but warmer in winter.
As the warmth of clothing depends greatly on the amount of air contained
in its fibers, fine, loose, porous cloth with a plenty of nap is best for
winter wear. Firm and heavy goods are not necessarily the warmest. Furs
are the perfection of winter clothing, since they combine warmth with
lightness. Two light woolen garments are warmer than one heavy one, as
there is between them a layer of nonconducting air.

All the body except the head should be equally protected by clothing.
Whatever fashion may dictate, no part covered to-day can be uncovered
tonight or to-morrow, except at the peril of health. It is a most
barbarous and cruel custom to leave the limbs of little children
unprotected, when adults would shiver at the very thought of exposure.
Equally so is it for children to be thinly clad for the purpose of
hardening them. To go shivering with cold is not the way to increase one's
power of endurance. The system is made more vigorous by exercise and food;
not by exposure. In winter, we should wear warm shoes with thick soles,
and rubbers when it is damp. At night, and after exercise, we require
extra clothing. (See p. 295.)

DISEASES, ETC.--l. _Erysipelas_ is an inflammation (see Inflammation)
of the skin, and often begins in a spot not larger than a pin head, which
spreads with great rapidity. It is very commonly checked by the
application of a solution of iodine. The burning and contracting sensation
may be relieved by cloths wrung out of hot water.

2. _Eczema_ (Salt Rheum, etc.) is of constitutional origin. It is
characterized by an itching, burning, reddened eruption, in which a serous
discharge exudes and dries into crusts or scales. 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. If the cause be removed, the corn will not
return.

4. _Ingrowing Nails_ are caused by pressure, which forces the edge of
the toe nail into the flesh. They may be cured by carefully cutting away
the part which has mal-grown, and then scraping the back of the nail till
it is thin, making a small incision in the center, at the top. The two
portions, uniting, will draw away the nail from the flesh at the edge.
Ingrowing nails may be prevented by wearing broad-toed shoes.

5. _Warts_ are overgrown papillæ (Fig. 24). They may generally be
removed by the application of glacial acetic acid, or a drop of nitric
acid, repeated until the entire structure is softened. Care must be taken
to keep the acid from touching the neighboring skin. The capricious
character of warts has given rise to the popular delusion concerning the
influence of charms upon them.

6. _Chilblain_ is a local inflammation affecting generally the feet,
the hands, or the lobes of the ear. Liability to it usually passes away
with manhood. It is not caused by "freezing the feet," as many suppose,
though attacks are brought on, or aggravated, by exposure to cold,
followed by sudden warming. Chilblain is subject to daily congestion (see
Congestion), manifested by itching, soreness, etc., commonly occurring at
night. The best preventive is a uniform temperature, and careful
protection against the cold by warm clothing, especially for the feet.

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. If a hair be plucked out, will another grow in its place?

2. What causes the hair to "stand on end" when we are frightened?

3. Why is the skin roughened by riding in the cold?

4. Why is the back of a washerwoman's hand less water-soaked than the
palm?

5. What would be the length of the perspiratory tubes in a single square
inch of the palm, if placed end to end?

6. What colored clothing is best adapted to all seasons?

7. What is the effect of paint and powder on the skin?

8. Is waterproof clothing healthful for constant wear?

9. Why are rubbers cold to the feet?

10. Why does the heat seem oppressive when the air is moist?

11. Why is friction of the skin invigorating after a cold bath?

12. Why does the hair of domestic animals become roughened in winter?

13. Why do fowls spread their feathers before they perch for the night?

14. How can an extensive burn produce congestion of the lungs?

15. Why do we perspire so profusely after drinking cold water?

16. How can we best prevent skin diseases, colds, and rheumatism?

17. What causes the difference between the hard hand of a blacksmith and
the soft hand of a woman?

18. Why should a painter avoid getting paint on the palm of his hand?

19. Why should we not use the soap or the soiled towel at a hotel?

20. Which teeth cut like a pair of scissors?

21. Which teeth cut like a chisel?

22. Which should be clothed the warmer, a merchant or a farmer? 23. Why
should we not crack nuts with our teeth?

24. Do the edges of the upper and the lower teeth meet?

25. When fatigued, would you take a cold bath?

26. Why is the outer surface of a kid glove finer than the inner?

27. Why will a brunette endure the sun's rays better than a blonde?

28. Does patent leather form a healthful covering for the feet?

29. Why are men more frequently bald than women?

30. On what part of the head does baldness commonly occur? Why?

31. What does the combination in our teeth of canines and grinders suggest
as to the character of our food?

32. Is a staid, formal promenade suitable exercise?

33. Is there any danger in changing the warm clothing of our daily wear
for the thin one of a party?

34. Should we retain our overcoat, shawl, or furs when we come into a warm
room?

35. Which should bathe the oftener, students or outdoor laborers?

36. Is abundant perspiration injurious?

37. How often should the ablution of the entire body be performed?

38. Why is cold water better than warm, for our daily ablution?

39. Why should our clothing always fit loosely?

40. Why should we take special pains to avoid clothing that is colored by
poisonous dyestuffs? (See p. 296.)

41. What general principles should guide us as to the length and frequency
of baths In salt or fresh water?

42. What is the beneficial effect of exercise upon the functions of the
skin?

43. How can we best show our admiration and respect for the human body?

44. Why is the scar of a severe wound upon a negro sometimes white?




IV.


RESPIRATION AND THE VOICE.

"The smooth soft air with pulse-like waves
Flows murmuring through its hidden caves,
Whose streams of brightening purple rush,
Fired with a new and livelier blush;
While all their burden of decay
The ebbing current steals away."

ANALYSIS OF RESPIRATION AND THE VOICE.

_
| 1. The Larnyx.
_                       | 2. The Vocal Cords.
| 1. ORGANS OF VOICE.....| 3. Different Tones of Voice.
|                        | 4. Speech.
|                        |_5. Formation of Vocal Sounds.
|                         _
|                        | 1. The Trachea.
|                        | 2. The Bronchial Tubes.
| 2. ORGANS OF RESPIRA-  | 3. The Cells.
|           TION.........| 4. The Lung Wrapping.
|                        |_5. The Cilia.
|                         _
|                        | 1. Inspiration.
| 3. HOW WE BREATHE......|_2. Expiration.
|                         _
|                        | 1. Sighing.
|                        | 2. Coughing.
|                        | 3. Sneezing.
| 4. MODIFICATIONS OF    | 4. Snoring.
|       THE BREATH.......| 5. Laughing, and Crying.
|                        | 6. Hiccough.
|                        |_7. Yawning.
|
| 5. CAPACITY OF THE LUNGS.
|                         _
|                        | 1. The Need of Air.
|                        | 2. Action of Air in the Lungs.
|                        | 3. Tests of the Breath.
|                        | 4. Analysis of Expired Air.
|                        | 5. Effect of Rebreathed Air.
|                        |                _
| 6. HYGIENE.............|               | a. _The Sources of
|                        |               |         Impurity._
|                        |               | b. _The Sick Room._
|                        | 6. Concerning | c. _The Sitting Room._
|                        |   the Need of | d. _The Bedroom._
|                        |_  Ventilation.| e. _The Church._
|                                        | f. _The Schoolroom._
|                                        | g. _How we should
|                                        |_        Ventilate._
|
| 7. THE WONDERS OF RESPIRATION.
|                         _
|                        | 1. Constriction of the Lungs.
|                        | 2. Bronchitis.
|                        | 3. Pleurisy.
|                        | 4. Pneumonia.
|_8. DISEASES............| 5. Consumption
| 6. Asphyxia.
| 7. Diptheria.
| 8. Croup.
|_9. Stammering.

RESPIRATION AND THE VOICE.

The Organs of Respiration and the Voice are the _larynx_, the
_trachea_, and the _lungs_.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANS OF THE VOICE.--l. _The Larynx_.--In the
neck, is a prominence sometimes called Adam's apple. It is the front of
the _larynx_. This is a small triangular, cartilaginous box, placed
just below the root of the tongue, and at the top of the windpipe. The
opening into it from the throat is called the _glottis_; and the
cover, the _epiglottis_ (_epi_, upon; _glotta_, the tongue). The
latter is a spoon-shaped lid, which opens when we breathe, but, by
a nice arrangement, shuts when we try to swallow, and so lets our
food slip over it into the _œsophagus_ (e-sof'-a-gus), the tube leading
from the pharynx to the stomach (Fig. 27).

If we laugh or talk when we swallow, our food is apt to "go the wrong
way," _i. e._, little particles pass into the larynx, and the
tickling sensation which they produce forces us to cough in order to expel
the intruders.

2. _The Vocal Cords_.--On each side of the _glottis_ are the so-
called _vocal cords_. They are not really cords, but merely elastic
membranes projecting from the sides of the box across the opening.
[Footnote: The cartilages and vocal cords may be readily seen in the
larynx of an ox or sheep. If the flesh be cut off, the cartilages will
dry, and will keep for years.] When not in use, they spread apart and
leave a V-shaped orifice (Fig. 28), through which the air passes to and
from the lungs. If the cords are tightened, the edges approach sometimes
within 1/100 of an inch of each other, and, being thrown into vibration,
cause corresponding vibrations in the current of air. Thus sound is
produced in the same manner as by the vibrations of the tongues of an
accordion, or the strings of a violin, only in this case the strings are
scarcely an inch long.

FIG. 27.

[Illustration: _Passage to the Œsophagus and Windpipe._ c, _the
tongue;_ d, _the soft palate, ending in_ g, _the uvula;_ h,
_the epiglottis;_ i, _the glottis;_ I, _the œsophagus;_ f,
_the pharynx._]

DIFFERENT TONES OF THE VOICE.--The higher tones of the voice are produced
when the cords are short, tight, and closely in contact; the lower, by the
opposite conditions. Loudness is regulated by the quantity of air and
force of expulsion. A falsetto voice is thought to be the result of a
peculiarity in the pharynx (Fig. 27) at the back part of the nose; it is
more probably produced by some muscular maneuver not yet fully understood.
When boys are about fourteen years of age, the larynx enlarges, and the
cords grow proportionately longer and coarser; hence, the voice becomes
deeper, or, as we say, "changes." The peculiar harshness of the voice at
this time seems to be due to a congestion of the mucous membrane of the
cords. The change may occur very suddenly, the voice breaking in a single
night.

FIG. 28.

[Illustration: e, e, _the vocal cords;_ d, _the epiglottis._]

Speech is voice modulated by the lips, tongue, [Footnote: The tongue is
styled the "unruly member," and held responsible for all the tattling of
the world; but when the tongue is removed, the adjacent organs in some way
largely supply the deficiency, so that speech is still possible. Huxley
describes the conversation of a man who had two and one half inches of his
tongue preserved in spirits, and yet could converse intelligibly. Only the
two letters _t_ and _d_ were beyond his power; the articulation
of these involves the employment of the tip of the tongue; hence, "tin" he
converted into "fin," and "dog" into "thog."] palate, and teeth.
[Footnote: An artificial larynx may be made by using elastic bands to
represent the vocal cords, and by placing above them chambers which by
their resonance will produce the same effect as the cavities lying above
the larynx. An artificial speaking machine was constructed by Kempelen,
which could pronounce such sentences as, "I love you with all my heart,"
in different languages, by simply touching the proper keys.] Speech and
voice are commonly associated, but speech may exist without the voice, for
when we whisper we articulate the words, although there is no
vocalization, _i. e._, no action of the larynx. [Footnote: We can
observe this by placing the hand on the throat, and noticing the absence
of vibrations when we whisper, and their presence when we talk. The
difference between vocalization and non-vocalization is seen in a sigh and
a groan, the latter being the former vocalized. Whistling is a pure mouth
sound, and does not depend on the voice. Laughter is vocal, being the
aspirated vowels, a, e, or o, convulsively repeated.] (See p. 297.)

FIG. 29.

[Illustration: _The Lungs, showing the Larynx._ A, _the
windpipe;_ B, _the bronchial tubes._]

FORMATION OF VOCAL SOUNDS.--The method of modulating voice into speech may
be seen by producing the pure vowel sounds _a, e_, etc., from one
expiration, the mouth being kept open while the form of the aperture is
changed for each vowel by the tongue and the lips. _H_ is only an
explosion, or forcible throwing of a vowel sound from the mouth.
[Footnote: When, in sounding a vowel, the sound coincides with a sudden
change in the position of the vocal cords from one of divergence to one of
approximation, the vowel is pronounced with the _spiritus asper_.
When the vocal cords are brought together before the blast of air begins,
the vowel is pronounced with the _spiritus lenis._--FOSTER.]

The consonants, or short sounds, may also be made without interrupting the
current of air, by various modifications of the vocal organs. In sounding
singly any one of the letters, we can detect its peculiar requirements.
Thus _m_ and _n_ can be made only by blocking the air in the
mouth and sending it through the nose; _l_ lets the air escape at the
sides of the tongue; _r_ needs a vibratory movement of the tongue;
_b_ and _p_ stop the breath at the lips; _k_ and _g_ (hard), at the
back of the palate. Consonants like _b_ and _d_ are abrupt, or, like
_l_ and _s_, continuous. Those made by the lips are termed _labials_;
those by pressing the tongue against the teeth, _dentals_; those by the
tongue, _linguals_.

The child gains speech slowly, first learning to pronounce the vowel
_a_, the consonants _b, m_, and _p_, and then their unions --_ba, ma, pa_.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANS OF RESPIRATION.--Beneath the larynx is the
windpipe, or _trachea_ (see Fig. 29), so called because of its
roughness. It is strengthened by C-shaped cartilages with the openings
behind, where they are attached to the œsophagus. At the lower end, the
trachea divides into two branches, called the right and left
_bronchi_. These subdivide in the small bronchial tubes, which ramify
through the lungs like the branches of a tree, the tiny twigs of which at
last end in clusters of cells so small that there are six hundred million
in all. This cellular structure renders the lungs exceedingly soft,
elastic, and sponge-like. [Footnote: The lungs of slaughtered animals are
vulgarly called "lights," probably on account of their lightness. They are
similar in structure to those of man. They will float on water, and if a
small piece be forcibly squeezed between the fingers (notice the creaking
sound it gives), it will retain sufficient air to make it buoyant.]

FIG. 30.

[Illustration: _Bronchial Tubes, with clusters of cells._]

The stiff, cartilaginous rings, so noticeable in the rough surface of the
trachea and the bronchi, disappear as we reach the smaller bronchial
tubes, so that while the former are kept constantly open for the free
admission of air, the latter are provided with elastic fibers by which
they may be almost closed.

WRAPPING OF THE LUNGS.--The lungs are invested with a double covering--the
_pleura_--one layer being attached to the lungs and the other to the
walls of the chest. It secretes a fluid which lubricates it, so that the
layers glide upon each other with perfect ease. [Footnote: These pleural
sacs are distinct and closed; hence, when the ribs are raised, a partial
vacuum being formed in the sacs, air rushes in, and distends the pulmonary
lobules.] The lungs are lined with mucous membrane, exceedingly delicate
and sensitive to the presence of anything except pure air. We have all
noticed this when we have breathed any thing offensive.

FIG. 31.

[Illustration: A, _the heart;_ B, _the lungs drawn aside to show
the internal organs;_ C, _the diaphragm;_ D, _the liver;_ E,
_the gall cyst;_ F, _the stomach;_ G,_ the small intestines;_ H,
_the transverse colon._]

THE CILIA.--Along the air passages are minute filaments (_cilia_,
Fig. 32), which are in constant motion, like a field of grain stirred by a
gentle breeze. They serve to fan the air in the lungs, and produce an
outward current, which is useful in catching dust and fine particles swept
inward with the breath.

HOW WE BREATHE.--Respiration consists of two acts--taking in the air, or
_inspiration_, and expelling the air, or _expiration_.

FIG. 32.

[Illustration: B, _a section of the mucous membrane, showing the cilia
rising from the peculiar epithelial cells on the outside of the mucous
membrane lining the tubes;_ A, _a single cell more highly
magnified._]

1. _Inspiration_.--When we draw in a full breath, we straighten the
spine and throw the head and shoulders back, so as to give the greatest
advantage to the muscles. [Footnote: If we examine the bony cage of the
thorax or chest in Fig. 8, we shall see that the position of the ribs may
alter its capacity in two ways.

1. As they run obliquely downward from the spine, if the sternum or
breastbone be lifted in front, the diameter of the chest will be
increased.

2. The ribs are fastened by elastic cartilages, which stretch as the
muscles that lift the ribs contract, and so increase the breadth of the
chest.]

At the same time, the diaphragm [Footnote: The diaphragm is the muscular
partition between the chest and the abdomen. It is always convex toward
the former, and concave toward the latter (Fig. 31). Long muscular fibers
extend from its center toward the ribs in front and the spine at the back.
When these contract, they depress and flatten the diaphragm; when they
relax, it becomes convex again. In the former case, the bowels are pressed
downward and the abdomen pushed outward; in the latter, the bowels spring
upward, and the abdomen is drawn inward.] descends and presses the walls
of the abdomen outward. Both these processes increase the size of the
chest. Thereupon, the elastic lungs expand to occupy the extra space,
while the air, rushing in through the windpipe, pours along the bronchial
tubes and crowds into every cell. [Footnote: It is said that in drawing a
full breath, the muscles exert a force equal to raising a weight of seven
hundred and fifty pounds. When we are about to make a great effort, as in
striking a heavy blow, we naturally take a deep inspiration, and shut the
glottis. The confined air makes the chest tense and firm, and enables us
to exert a greater force. As we let slip the blow, the glottis opens and
the air escapes, often with a curious aspirated sound as is noticeable in
workmen. To make a good shot with a rifle, we should take aim with a full
chest and tight breath, since then the arms will have a steadier support.]

2. _Expiration_.--When we forcibly expel the air from our lungs, the
operation is reversed. We bend forward, draw in the walls of the abdomen,
and press the diaphragm upward, while the ribs are pulled downward,--all
together diminishing the size of the chest, and forcing the air outward.

Ordinary, quiet breathing is performed mainly by the diaphragm,--one
breath to every four beats of the heart, or eighteen per minute. (See p.
299.)

MODIFICATIONS OF THE BREATH.--_Sighing_ is merely a prolonged
inspiration followed by an audible expiration. _Coughing_ is a
violent expiration in which the air is driven through the mouth.
_Sneezing_ differs from coughing, the air being forced through the
nose. _Snoring_ is produced by the passage of the breath through the
pharynx when the tongue and soft palate are in certain positions.
[Footnote: The soft palate must have fallen back in such a manner as
nearly or quite to close the entrance to the nasal cavity from the throat,
and the tongue must also be thrown back so far as to leave only a narrow
opening between it and the soft palate. The noise is produced by the air
being forced either inward or outward through this opening. A snore
results also when, with a closed mouth, the air is forced between the soft
palate and the back wall of the pharynx into the nasal cavity. With deep
breathing, perhaps accompanied by a variation in the position of the soft
palate, a rattling noise may be heard in addition to the snoring, which is
due to a vibration of the soft palate.--F. A. FERNALD, in "How we Sneeze,
Laugh, Stammer, and Sigh."--_Popular Science Monthly_, Feb., 1884.]
_Laughing_ and _crying_ are very much alike. The expression of
the face is necessary to distinguish between them. The sounds are produced
by short, rapid contractions of the diaphragm. _Hiccough_ is confined
to inspiration. It is caused by a contraction of the diaphragm and a
constriction of the glottis; the current of air just entering, as it
strikes the closed glottis, gives rise to the well-known sound.
_Yawning_, or _gaping_, is like sighing. [Footnote: The
usefulness of a yawn lies in bringing up the arrears, as it were, of
respiration, when it has fallen behindhand, either through fatigue or
close attention to other occupation. The stretching of the jaws and limbs
may also serve to equalize the nervous influence, certain muscles having
become uneasy on account of being stretched or contracted for a long
time.] It is distinguished by a wide opening of the mouth and a deep,
profound inspiration. Both processes furnish additional air, and therefore
probably meet a demand of the system for more oxygen. Frequently, however,
they are like laughing, sobbing, etc., merely a sort of contagion, which
runs through an audience, and seems almost irresistible.

THE CAPACITY OF THE LUNGS.--If we take a deep inspiration, and then
forcibly exhale all the air we can expel from the lungs, this amount,
which is termed the _breathing capacity_, will bear a very close
correspondence to our stature. For a man of medium height (five feet eight
inches) it will be about two hundred and thirty cubic inches, [Footnote:
Of this amount, one hundred cubic inches can be forced in only by an extra
effort, and is available for emergencies, or for purposes of training, as
in singing, climbing, etc. It is of great importance, since, if the
capacity of the lungs only equaled our daily wants, the least obstruction
would prove fatal.] or a gallon, and for each inch of height between five
and six feet there will be an increase of eight cubic inches. In addition,
it is found that the lungs contain about one hundred cubic inches which
can not be expelled, thus making their entire contents about three hundred
and thirty cubic inches, or eleven pints. The extra amount always on hand
in the lungs is of great value, since thereby the action of the air goes
on continuously, even during a violent expiration. In ordinary breathing,
only about twenty or thirty cubic inches (less than a pint) of air pass in
and out.

THE NEED OF AIR.--The body needs food, clothing, sunshine, bathing, and.
drink; but none of these wants is so pressing as that for air. The other
demands may be met by occasional supplies, but air must be furnished every
moment or we die. Now the vital element of the atmosphere is oxygen gas.
[Footnote: See "Steele's Popular Chemistry," p. 30. The atmosphere
consists of one fifth oxygen and four fifths nitrogen. The former is the
active element; and the latter, the passive. Oxygen alone would be too
stimulating, and must be restrained by the neutral nitrogen. Separately,
either element of the air would kill us.] This is a stimulating, life-
giving principle. No tonic will so invigorate as a few full, deep breaths
of cold, pure air. Every organ will glow with the energy of the fiery
oxygen.

ACTION OF THE AIR IN THE LUNGS.--In the delicate cells of the lungs, the
air gives up its oxygen to the blood, and receives in turn carbonic-acid
[Footnote: More properly _Carbon dioxide_.] gas and water, foul with
waste matter which the blood has picked up in its circulation through the
body. The blood, thus purified and laden with the inspiring oxygen, goes
bounding through the system, while the air we exhale carries off the
impurities. In this process, the blood changes from purple to red. If we
examine our breath, we can readily see what it has removed from the blood.

TESTS OF THE BREATH.--1. Breathe into a jar, and on lowering into it a
lighted candle, the flame will be instantly extinguished; thus indicating
the presence of carbonic-acid gas. 2. Breathe upon a mirror, and a film of
moisture will show the vapor. [Footnote: There is a close relation between
the functions of the skin, the lungs, and the kidneys--the scavengers of
the body. They all carry off water from the blood, and when the function
of one of the three is, in this respect, interfered with, the others are
called upon to perform its functions. When the function of perspiration is
deranged, the lungs and kidneys are required to perform heavier duty, and
this may lead to disease (see p. 62).] 3. If breath be confined in a
bottle, the animal matter will decompose and give off an offensive odor.

ANALYSIS OF THE EXPIRED AIR shows that it has lost about twenty-five per
cent of its oxygen, and gained an equal amount of carbonic-acid gas,
besides moisture, and organic impurities. Our breath, then, is air robbed
of its vitality, and containing in its place a gas as fatal to life
[Footnote: Carbonic-acid gas can not be breathed when undiluted, as the
glottis closes and forbids its passage into the lungs. Air containing only
three or four per cent acts as a narcotic poison (MILLER), and a much
smaller proportion will have an injurious effect. The great danger,
however, lies in the organic particles constantly exhaled from the lungs
and the skin, which, it is believed, are often direct and active poisons.]
as it is to a flame, and effete matter which is disagreeable to the smell,
injurious to the health, and which may contain the germs of serious
disease.

THE EVIL EFFECT OF REBREATHING the air can not be overestimated. We take
back into our bodies that which has just been rejected. The blood
thereupon leaves the lungs, bearing, not the invigorating oxygen, but
refuse matter to obstruct the whole system. We soon feel the effect. The
muscles become inactive. The blood stagnates. The heart acts slowly. The
food is undigested. The brain is clogged. The head aches. Instances of
fatal results are only too frequent. [Footnote: During the English war in
India, in the eighteenth century, one hundred and forty-six prisoners were
shut up in a room scarcely large enough to hold them. The air could enter
only by two narrow windows. At the end of eight hours, but twenty-three
persons remained alive, and these were in a most deplorable condition.
This prison is well called "The Black Hole of Calcutta."--Percy relates
that after the battle of Austerlitz, three hundred Russian prisoners were
confined in a cavern, where two hundred and sixty of them perished in a
few hours.--The stupid captain of the ship _Londonderry_, during a
storm at sea, shut the hatches. There were only seven cubic feet of space
left for each person, and in six hours ninety of the passengers were
dead.] The constant breathing of even the slightly impure air of our
houses can not but tend to undermine the health. The blood is not
purified, and is thus in a condition to receive the seeds of disease at
any time. The system uninspired by the energizing oxygen is sensitive to
cold. The pale cheek, the lusterless eye, the languid step, speak but too
plainly of oxygen starvation. In such a soil, catarrh, scrofula, and
kindred diseases run riot. [Footnote: One not very strong, or unable
powerfully to resist conditions unfavorable to health, and with a
predisposition to lung disease, will be sure, sooner or later, by partial
lung starvation and blood poisoning, to develop pulmonary consumption.
_The lack of what is so abundant and so cheap--good, pure air--is
unquestionably the one great cause of this terrible disease_.--BLACK'S
_Ten Laws of Health_.]

CONCERNING THE NEED FOR VENTILATION.--The foul air which passes off from
the lungs and through the pores of the skin does not fall to the floor,
but diffuses itself through the surrounding atmosphere. A single breath
will to a trifling but certain extent taint the air of a whole room.
[Footnote: This grows out of a well-known philosophical principle called
the Diffusion of Gases, whereby two gases tend to mix in exact
proportions, no matter what may be the quantity of each.--STEELE'S
_Popular Chemistry,_ p. 86, and _Popular Physics,_ p. 52.] A
light will vitiate as much air as a dozen persons. Many breaths and lights
therefore rapidly unfit the air for our use.

The perfection of ventilation is reached when the air of a room is as pure
as that out of doors. To accomplish this result, it is necessary to allow
for each person six hundred cubic feet of space, while ventilation is
still going on in the best manner known.

In spite of these well-known facts, scarcely any pains are taken to supply
fresh air, while the doors and windows where the life-giving oxygen might
creep in are hermetically stopped.

How often is this true of the sick room. Yet here the danger of bad air is
intensified. The expired breath of the patient is peculiarly threatening
to himself as well as to others. Nature is seeking to throw off the poison
of the disease. The scavengers of the body are all at work. The breath and
the insensible perspiration are loaded with impurities. [Footnote: The
floating dust in the air, revealed to us by the sunbeam shining through a
crack in the blinds, shows the abundance of these impurities, and also the
presence of germs which, lodging in the lungs, may implant disease, unless
thrown off by a vigorous constitution. "On uncovering a scarlet fever
patient, a cloud of fine dust is seen to rise from the body--contagious
dust, that for days will retain its poisonous properties."--YOUMANS. (See
p. 300.)] The odor is oftentimes exceedingly offensive. Sick and well
alike need an abundance of fresh air. But, too often, it is the only want
not supplied.

Our sitting rooms, heated by furnaces or red-hot stoves, generally have no
means of ventilation, or, if provided, they are seldom used. A window is
occasionally dropped to give a little relief, as if pure air were a
rarity, and must be doled out to the suffering lungs in morsels, instead
of full and constant draughts. The inmates are starved by scanty lung
food, and stupefied by foul air. The process goes on year by year. The
weakened and poisoned body at last succumbs to disease, while we, in our
blindness and ignorance, talk of the mysterious Providence which thus
untimely cuts down the brightest intellects. The truth is, death is often
simply the penalty for violating nature's laws. Bad air begets disease;
disease begets death.

In our churches, the foul air left by the congregation on Sunday is shut
up during the week, and heated for the next Lord's day, when the people
assemble to rebreathe the polluted atmosphere. They are thus forced, with
every breath they take, to violate the physical laws of Him whom they meet
to worship,--laws written not three thousand years ago upon Mount Sinai on
tables of stone, but to-day engraved in the constitution of their own
living, breathing bodies. On brains benumbed and starving for oxygen, the
purest truth and the highest eloquence fall with little force.

We sleep in a small bedroom from which every breath of fresh air is
excluded, because we believe night air to be unhealthy, [Footnote: There
is a singular prejudice against the night air. Yet, as Florence
Nightingale aptly says, what other air can we breathe at night? We then
have the choice between foul air within and pure air without. For, in
large cities especially, the night air is far more wholesome than that of
the daytime. To secure fresh air at night, we must open the windows of our
bedroom.] and so we breathe its dozen hogsheads of air over and over
again, and then wonder why we awaken in the morning so dull and
unrefreshed! Return to our room after inhaling the fresh, morning air, and
the fetid odor we meet on opening the door, is convincing proof how we
have poisoned our lungs during the night.

Each room should be supplied with two thousand feet of fresh air per hour
for every person it contains. Our ingenuity ought to find some way of
doing this advantageously and pleasantly. A moiety of the care we devote
to delicate articles of food, drink, and dress would abundantly meet this
prime necessity of our bodies.

Open the windows a little at the top and the bottom. Put on plenty of
clothing to keep warm by day and by night, and then let the inspiring
oxygen come in as freely as God has given it. Pure air is the cheapest
necessity and luxury of life. Let it not be the rarest!

SCHOOLROOM VENTILATION.--Who, on going from the open air of a clear,
bracing winter's day, into a crowded schoolroom, late in the session, has
not noticed the disagreeable odor, and been for a moment nauseated and
half stifled by the oppressive atmosphere! It is not strange. See how many
causes here combine to pollute the air. If the room is heated by a stove,
quantities of carbonic-oxide and carbonic-acid gases, as well as other
products of combustion, driven by downward drafts in the flue, escape
through seams and cracks and the occasionally opened door of the stove. In
the case of a furnace, the same effect is too often experienced, and the
odor of coal gas is a common one, especially when the fire is replenished.
The insensible perspiration is more active in children than in adults;
they, moreover, rush in with their clothing saturated with the
perspiration induced by their sports; so that, on the average, each pupil,
during school hours, loads the air with about half a pint of aqueous
vapor. The children come, oftentimes, from homes that are close, ill-
ventilated, and uncleanly; and frequently from sick rooms, bringing in
their clothing the germs of disease. (See p. 304.) Some of the pupils may
even bear traces of illness, or have unsound organs, and so their breath
and exhalations be poisonous.

In addition to all this, the air is filled with dust brought in and kept
astir by many busy feet; with ashes floating from the stove or furnace;
and especially with chalk dust. The modern method of teaching requires a
large amount of blackboard work, and the air of the schoolroom is thus
loaded with chalk particles. These collect in the nasal passages, and the
upper part of the larynx, and irritate the membrane, perhaps laying the
foundation of catarrh.

The usual schoolroom atmosphere bears in the pupils the natural fruit of
frequent headaches, inattention, weariness, and stupor; but in the teacher
its frightful influence is most apparent. His labor is severe, his worry
of mind is constant, and, when he finishes his day's work, he is generally
too tired to take proper physical exercise. He consequently labors on with
impaired health, or is forced to abandon his profession.

Instead of six hundred feet of space being allowed for each pupil, as
perfect ventilation demands--the lowest estimate being two hundred and
fifty feet--often not over one hundred feet are afforded. Instead of two
thousand cubic feet of fresh air being supplied every hour for each
person, and as much foul air removed, which, all physiologists assert, is
needed for perfect health, perhaps no means of ventilation at all are
provided, and none is secured except what an occasionally opened door, or
the benevolent cracks and chinks in the building furnish the suffering
lungs. [Footnote: Imagine fifty pupils put into a class room thirty feet
long, twenty-five feet wide, and ten feet high. This would generally be
considered a very liberal provision. Such a room contains seven thousand
five hundred cubic feet of air. But it furnishes only one hundred and
fifty feet of space for each pupil. Allowing ten cubic feet of air per
pupil each minute, in fifteen minutes after assembling, the entire
atmosphere of the room is tainted, and unfit to be rebreathed. The demand
of health is that at least one thousand five hundred cubic feet of pure
air should be admitted into this room every minute, and as much be
removed.]

HOW SHALL WE VENTILATE?--The usual method of ventilation depends upon the
fact that hot air is lighter than cold air, and so the cold air tends, by
the force of gravity, to fall and compel the warm air to rise. Thus, if we
open the door of a heated room, and hold a lighted candle first at the
top, and then at the bottom, we can see, by the deflection of the flame,
that there is a current of air setting outward at the top, and another
setting inward at the bottom of the opening. A handkerchief held loosely,
or the smoke of a smoldering match, in front of a fireplace will show a
current of air passing up the chimney; this is caused by the difference of
temperature between the air in the room and the outside atmosphere.
_Upon this difference of temperature, all ordinary ventilation is
based_. [Footnote: Public buildings are sometimes ventilated by
mechanical means, _i. e._, immense fans which are turned by
machinery, and thus set the air in motion. Such methods are, however,
expensive, and rarely adopted, except where power is also used for other
purposes.] A proper treatment of this subject and its practical
applications, would require a book by itself. There is room here for only
a few general statements and suggestions.

1. Two openings are always necessary to produce a thorough change of air.
(See "Popular Chemistry," p. 70.) Put a lighted candle in a bottle. The
flame will soon be extinguished. The oxygen of the little air in the
bottle is burned out, and carbonic acid has taken its place. Now place
over the mouth of the bottle a lamp chimney, and insert in the chimney a
strip of cardboard, thus dividing the passage. On relighting the candle,
it will burn freely. The smoke of a bit of smoldering paper will show that
two opposite currents of air are established, one setting into the bottle,
the other outward.

2. In the winter, when our schoolrooms, churches, public halls, etc., are
heated artificially, ventilation is comparatively easy if properly
arranged. [Footnote: For the escape of bad air, Dr. Bell suggests that an
efficient foul-air shaft may be fitted to the commonest of stoves by
simply inclosing the stovepipe in a jacket--that is, in a pipe two or
three inches greater in diameter. This should be braced round the
stovepipe and left open at the end next the stove. At its entrance into
the chimney, a perforated collar should separate it from the stovepipe.]
The required difference of temperature is kept up with little difficulty.
The fresh air admitted to the room should then be heated [Footnote:
Ventilation is change of air, and, unless scientifically arranged, and
especially unless the incoming volume of air be warmed in cold weather,
such change of atmosphere means cold currents, with their attendant train
of catarrhs, bronchitis, neuralgia, rheumatism, and all the evils that
spring from these diseases. The raw, damp, frosty air of our ever-changing
winter temperature ought not to have uncontrolled and constant ingress to
our dwellings. Air out of doors is suited to out of door habits. It is
healthy and bracing when the body is coated and wrapped, and prepared to
meet it, and when exercise can be taken to keep up the circulation; but to
live under cover is to live artificially, and such essential conditions
must be observed as suit an abnormal state. All the evils attaching to
ventilation, as it is generally effected, spring from the neglect of this
consistency.--_Westminster Review_.] either by a furnace, or by
passing over a stove, or through a coil of steam pipes. This cold air
should always be taken directly from out of doors, and not from a cellar,
or from under a piazza, where contamination is possible.

3. In order to remove the impure air, there should be ventilators provided
at or near the floor, opening into air shafts, or pipes leading upward
through the roof, with proper orifices at the top. These ventilating pipes
should be heated artificially so as to produce a draught. They may form
one of the flues of a chimney in which there is a constant fire; or be
carried upward in a large flue through the center of which runs the smoke
pipe of the furnace or stove; [Footnote: This plan has been adopted in the
newer school buildings of Elmira, N. Y. The older buildings were provided
with ventilating pipes, not heated artificially, and hence of no service.
These pipes are rendered effective, however, by conducting them into a
small room in the garret, heated by a coal stove. From this room, a large
exit pipe leads to the roof, where it terminates in an Emerson's
ventilator. So strong a draught is thus established that throughout the
building air is taken from the floors, and consequently the cooler portion
of the rooms, at a velocity of three to five feet per second or one
hundred and eighty to three hundred cubic feet per minute for each square
foot of flue opening. In perpendicular flues, heated throughout with a
smoke flue from the furnace, ten feet per second is attained.] or the
ventilating pipe be itself conveyed through the center of the larger
chimney flue. If the register for hot air be on the floor at one side of
the room, two or more ventilators may be placed near the floor on the
opposite side. The warm air will thus make the complete circuit of the
room, and thoroughly warm it before passing out.

If the ventilating shaft be not heated artificially; the ventilator must
be placed at the top of the room in order that the hot air may escape
through it, thus producing an upward draught. But the objection to this
method is that it allows the warmer air to escape, while economy requires
that the cooler air at the bottom of the room should be removed and the
warm air be made to descend, thus securing uniformity of temperature.

4. In the summer, ventilation may be commonly provided for by opening
windows _at the top and the bottom_, on the sheltered side of the
building, so as to avoid draughts of air injurious to the occupants. On a
dull, still, hot day, when there is little difference of temperature
between the inner and the outer air, ventilation can be secured only by
having a fire provided in the ventilating shaft; this, by exhausting the
air from the room, will cause a fresh current to pour in through the open
windows. At recess, all the children should, if the weather permit, be
sent out of doors, to allow their clothing to be exposed to the purifying
influence of the open air; meantime, the windows should be thrown wide
open, that the room may be thoroughly ventilated during their absence. In
bad weather, rapid marching or calisthenic exercises will furnish
exercise, and also permit the airing of the room.

5. The school and the church are the centers for spreading contagious
diseases. The former offers especially dangerous facilities for scattering
disease germs. Great pains, therefore, should be taken to exclude pupils
attacked by or recovering from diphtheria, scarlet fever, whooping cough,
etc., and even those who live in houses where such sickness exists.

6. In our houses [Footnote: The air of our homes is often contaminated by
decaying vegetables and other filth in the cellar; by bad air drawn up
from the soil into the cellar, by the powerful draughts that our fires
create; by defective gas and waste pipes that let the foul air from
cesspool or sewer spread through the house; and by piles of refuse, or
puddles of slops emptied at the back door. Too often, also, the water in
our wells, or in the streams that supply our towns and cities, receives
the drainage from outhouses and barnyards, and so introduces into our
systems, in the liquid--and thus easily assimilated--form, the most
dangerous poisons. The question of sanitary precautions is one that
presses upon every observant mind, and demands constant and thoughtful
attention. (See p. 305.)] open fireplaces are efficient ventilators, and
they should never be closed for any cause. Fresh air admitted by a hot-air
register and impure air passed out by a chimney, form a simple and
thorough system. Our sleeping apartments demand especial care. As soon as
the occupants leave the room, the bedclothes should be removed, and laid
on the backs of chairs to air; the bed be shaken up; and the windows
thrown open. In the summer, the windows may be closed before the sun is
high; the house is then left filled with the cool morning air. In damp and
cold weather, a fire should be lighted in sleeping apartments,
particularly if used by children [Footnote: In winter, children should
always be given a moderately warm, well-ventilated bedroom, with light,
fleecy bed coverings. Says a recent English writer: "The loving care which
prescribes for children a cold bedroom and a hot, sweltering bed is of the
nature that kills. Buried in blankets, their delicate skins become
overheated and relaxed, while they are irritated by perspiration; at the
same time, the most delicate tissues of all, in the lungs, are dealing
with air abnormally frigid. The poor little victims of combined ignorance
and kindness thus toss and dream, feverish and troubled, under a mass of
bedclothes, while the well-meaning mother, soothed by a bedroom fire,
slumbers peacefully through this working out of the sad process of the
'survival of the fittest.'"] or delicate persons, to dry the bedclothing,
and also to prevent a chill on the part of the occupants. It is not
necessary to go shivering to bed in order to harden one's constitution.

WONDERS OF RESPIRATION.--The perfection of the organs of respiration
challenges our admiration. So delicate are they that the least pressure
would cause exquisite pain, yet tons of air surge to and fro through their
intricate passages, and bathe their innermost cells. We yearly perform at
least seven million acts of breathing, inhaling one hundred thousand cubic
feet of air, and purifying over three thousand five hundred tons of blood.
This gigantic process goes on constantly, never wearies or worries us, and
we wonder at it only when science reveals to us its magnitude. In
addition, by a wise economy, the process of respiration is made to
subserve a second use no less important, and the air we exhale, passing
through the organs of voice, is transformed into prayers of faith, songs
of hope, and words of social cheer.

FIG. 33.

[Illustration: A, _the natural position of the internal organs._ B
_when deformed by tight lacing Marshall says that the liver and the
stomach have, in this way, been forced downward almost as low as the
pelvis._]

DISEASES, ETC.--1. _Constriction of the Lungs_ is produced by tight
clothing. The ribs are thus forced inward, the size of the chest is
diminished, and the amount of inhaled air decreased. Stiff clothing, and
especially a garment that will not admit of a full breath without
inconvenience, will prevent that free movement of the ribs so essential to
health. Any infraction of the laws of respiration, even though it be
fashionable, will result in diminished vitality and vigor, and will be
fearfully punished by sickness and weakness through the whole life.

2. _Bronchitis_ (bron-ki'-tis) is an inflammation (see Inflammation)
of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes. It is accompanied by an
increased secretion of mucus, and consequent coughing.

3. _Pleurisy_ is an inflammation of the pleura. It is sometimes
caused by an injury to the ribs, and results in a secretion of water
within the membrane.

4. _Pneumonia_ (_pneuma_, breath) is an inflammation of the
lungs, affecting chiefly the air cells.

5. _Consumption_ is a disease which destroys the substance of the
lungs. Like other lung difficulties, it is caused largely by a want of
pure air, a liberal supply of which is the best treatment that can be
prescribed for it. [Footnote: If I were seriously ill of consumption, I
would live outdoors day and night, except in rainy weather or midwinter;
then I would sleep in an unplastered log house. Physic has no nutriment,
gaspings for air can not cure you, monkey capers in a gymnasium can not
cure you, stimulants can not cure you. What consumptives want is pure air,
not physic, plenty of meat and plenty of bread.--DR. MARSHALL HALL.]

6. _Asphyxia_ (as-fix'-i-a).--When a person is drowned, strangled, or
choked in any way, what is called asphyxia occurs. The face turns black;
the veins become turgid; insensibility and often convulsions ensue. If
relief is not secured within a few minutes, death will be inevitable.
[Footnote: The lack of oxygen, and the presence of carbonic-acid gas, are
the combined causes. Oxygen starvation and carbonic-acid poisoning, each
fatal in itself, work together to destroy life.] (See p. 264.)

7. _Diphtheria_ (_diphthera_, a membrane) is characterized by
fever, debility, and a peculiar sore throat, in which exuding fibrinous
matter forms a grayish white membrane, which afterward decomposes with a
fetid odor. Its sudden and insidious approach, contagious character, and
frequent fatality, render it an exceedingly dreaded disease. A
diphtheritic patient should be quarantined, and everything connected with
the sick room thoroughly disinfected.

8. _Croup_, which often attacks young children, is an inflammation of
the mucous membrane of the larynx and trachea. It is commonly preceded by
a cold. The child sneezes, coughs, and is hoarse, but the attack
frequently comes on suddenly, and usually in the night. It is accompanied
by a peculiar "brassy," ringing cough, which, once heard, can never be
mistaken. It may prove fatal within a few hours. (See p. 260.)

9. _Stammering_ depends, not on defects of the muscles, but on a want
of due control of the mind. When a stammerer is not too conscious of his
lack, and tries to form his words slowly, he speaks plainly, and may sing
well, for then his words must follow one another in rhythmic time. Many
persons who stammer in common conversation can talk with fluency when
making a speech. The stammerer should seek to discover the cause of his
difficulty, and to overcome it by vocal and respiratory exercise,
especially by speaking only after a full inspiration, and during a long,
slow expiration.

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. What is the philosophy of "the change of voice" in a boy?

2. Why can we see our breath on a frosty morning?

3. When a law of health and a law of fashion conflict, which should we
obey?

4. If we use a "bunk" bed, should we pack away the clothes when we first
rise in the morning?

5. Why should a clothespress be well ventilated?

6. Should the weight of our clothing hang from the waist, or the shoulder?

7. Describe the effects of living in an overheated room.

8. What habits impair the power of the lungs?

9. For full, easy breathing in singing, should we use the diaphragm and
lower ribs, or the upper ribs alone?

10. Why is it better to breathe through the nose than the mouth?

11. Why should not a speaker talk while returning home on a cold night
after a lecture?

12. What part of the body needs the loosest clothing?

13. What part needs the warmest?

14. Why is a "spare bed" generally unhealthful?

15. Is there any good in sighing?

16. Should a hat be thoroughly ventilated? How?

17. Why do the lungs of people who live in cities become of a gray color?

18. How would you convince a person that a bedroom should be aired?
[Footnote: "If the condensed breath collected on the cool windowpanes of a
room where a number of persons have been assembled, be burned, a smell as
of singed hair will show the presence of organic matter; and if the
condensed breath be allowed to remain on the windows for a few days, it
will be found, on examination by the microscope, that it is alive with
animalculæ."]

19. What persons are most liable to catarrhs, consumption, etc.?

20. If a person is plunged under water, will it enter his lungs?

21. Are bed curtains healthful?

22. Why do some people take "short breaths" after a meal?

23 What is the special value of public parks?

24. Can a person become used to bad air, so that it will not injure him?

25. Why do we gape when we are sleepy?

26. Is a fashionable waist a model of art in sculpture or painting?

27. Should a fireplace be closed? [Footnote: Thousands of lives would be
saved if all fireplaces were kept open. If you are so fortunate as to have
a fireplace in your room, paint it when not in use, put a bouquet of fresh
flowers in it every morning, if you please, or do anything to make it
attractive, but never _close it_; better use the fireboards for
kindling wood. It would be scarcely more absurd to take a piece of
elegantly-tinted court-plaster and stop up the nose, trusting to the
accidental opening and shutting of the mouth for fresh air, because you
thought it spoiled the looks of your face to have two such great, ugly
holes in it, than to stop your fireplace with elegantly-tinted paper, or a
Japanese fan, because it looks better.--Leeds.]

28. Why does embarrassment or fright cause a stammerer to stutter still
more painfully?

29. In the organs of voice, what parts have somewhat the same effect as
the case of a violin and the sounding-board of a piano?

30. Why should we be careful not to "take the breath of a sick person"?

31. What special care should be taken with regard to keeping a cellar
clean?

32. How is the air strained as it passes into the lungs?

33. Can one really "draw the air into his lungs"?

34. How often do we breathe?

35. Describe some approved method of ventilation.

36. What is at once the floor of the chest and the roof of the abdomen?

37. What would you do in a case of apparent death by drowning, or by coal
gas? (See p. 264.)

38. What would you do in a case of croup, while the doctor was coming?
(See p. 260.)

39. How would you treat a severe burn? (See p. 257.)

40. Describe the various ways in which the water in a well is liable to
become unwholesome.

FIG. 34.

[Illustration]




V.


THE CIRCULATION.

"No rest this throbbing slave may ask,
Forever quivering o'er his task,
While far and wide a crimson jet
Leaps forth to fill the woven net,
Which in unnumber'd crossing tides
The flood of burning life divides,
Then, kindling each decaying part,
Creeps back to find the throbbing heart."

HOLMES.

ANALYSIS OF THE CIRCULATION

_
_                   | 1. Its Composition.
| 1. THE BLOOD       | 2. Its Uses.
|                    | 3. Transfusion.
|                    |_4. Coagulation
|                                _
|                               | 1. _Description._
|                               | 2. _Movements._
|                               | 3. _Auricles and Ventricles._
|                     _         |                 _
|                    | 1. The   |                | a. Need of.
|                    |    Heart.|                | b. Tricuspid and
|                    |          |                |     Bicuspid.
|                    |          | 4. _The      | c. The Strengthen-
|                    |          |    Valves._ |     ing of the
|                    |          |                |     Valves.
|                    |          |                | d. Semilunar
|                    |          |_               |_    Valves.
|                    |           _
| 2. ORGANS OF THE   | 2. The   | 1. _Description._
|     CIRCULATION    | Arteries | 2. _The Arterial System._
|                    |          |_3. _The Pulse._
|                    |           _
|                    | 3. The   | 1. _General Description._
|                    |    Veins |_2. _Valves._
|                    |           _
|                    | 4. The   | 1. _Description._
|                    |  Capilla-| 2. _Use._
|                    |_   ries  |_3. _Under the Microscope._
|                     _
|                    | 1. The Lesser.
| 3. THE CIRCULATION.| 2. The Greater.
|                    |_3. The Velocity of the Blood.
|                     _
| 4. THE HEAT OF THE | 1. Distribution.
|        BODY.       |_2. Regulation.
|
| 5. LIFE BY DEATH.
|
| 6. CHANGE OF OUR BODIES.
|
| 7. THE THREE VITAL ORGANS.
|
| 8. WONDERS OF THE HEART.
|                     _
|                    | 1. Description
| 9. THE LYMPHATIC   | 2. The Glands.
|      CIRCULATION.  | 3. The Lymph.
|                    |_4. The Office of the Lymphatics.
|                     _
|                    | 1. Congestion.
|                    | 2. Inflammation.
|                    | 3. Bleeding.
| 10. DISEASES.      | 4. Scrofula.
|                    | 5. A Cold.
|                    |_6. Catarrh.
|                     _
|                    | 1. Effect of Alcohol upon the Circulation.
| 11. ALCOHOLIC      | 2. Effect of Alcohol upon the Heart.
|     DRINKS AND     | 3. Effect of Alcohol upon the Membrane.
|_    NARCOTICS.     | 4. Effect of Alcohol upon the Blood.
|_5. Effect of Alcohol upon the Lungs.

THE CIRCULATION.

THE ORGANS OF THE CIRCULATION are the _heart_, the _arteries_,
the _veins_, and the _capillaries_.

FIG. 35.

[Illustration: A, _corpuscles of human blood, highly magnified;_ B,
_corpuscles in the blood of an animal (a non mammal)._]

THE BLOOD is the liquid by means of which the circulation is effected. It
permeates every part of the body, except the cuticle, nails, hair, etc.
The average quantity in each person is about eighteen pounds. [Footnote:
It is difficult to estimate the exact amount, and therefore authorities
disagree. Foster places it at about one thirteenth of the body weight.] It
is composed of a thin, colorless liquid, the _plasma_, filled with
red disks or cells, [Footnote: There is also one white globular cell to
every three or four hundred red ones. The blood is no more red than the
water of a stream would be if you were to fill it with little red fishes.
Suppose the fishes to be very, very small--as small as a grain of sand--
and closely crowded together through the whole depth of the stream; the
water would look quite red, would it not? And this is the way in which,
blood looks red--only observe one thing; a grain of sand is a mountain in
comparison with the little red fishes in the blood. If I were to tell you
they measured about 1/3500 of an inch in diameter, you would not be much
wiser; so I prefer saying (by way of giving you a more perfect idea of
their minuteness) that there would be about a million in such a drop of
blood as would hang on the point of a needle. I say so on the authority of
a scientific microscopist--M. Bouillet. Not that he has ever counted
them, as you may suppose, any more than I have done; but this is as near
an approach as can be made by calculation to the size of 1/3500 part of an
inch in diameter.--JEAN MACE.] so small that about three thousand five
hundred placed side by side would measure only an inch, and it would take
sixteen thousand laid flatwise upon one another to make a column of that
height. Under the microscope, they are found to be rounded at the edge and
concave on both sides. [Footnote: By pricking the end of the finger with a
needle, we can obtain a drop for examination. Place it on the slide, cover
with a glass, and put it at once under the microscope. The red disks will
be seen to group themselves in rows, while the white disks will seem to
draw apart, and to be constantly changing their form. After a gradual
evaporation, the crystals (Fig. 36) may be seen. In animals, they have
various, though distinctive forms.] They have a tendency to collect in
piles like rolls of coin. The size and shape vary in the blood of
different animals. [Footnote: Authorities differ greatly in their estimate
of the size of the disks (corpuscles) in human blood. The fact is that the
size varies in different persons, probably also in the same individual.
Many of the best microscopists therefore hesitate to state whether a
particular specimen of blood belonged to a human being or to an animal.
Others claim that they can distinguish with accuracy. Evidently, the
question is one of great uncertainty. The following statement of the size
of the cells in different animals is taken from Gulliver's tables: Cat,
1/4404 of an inch in diameter; whale, 1/3100; mouse, 1/3614; hog, 1/4230;
camel, 1/3123; sheep, 1/3352; horse, 1/4800; Virginia deer, 1/5038; dog-
faced baboon, 1/4861; brown baboon, 1/3493; red monkey, 1/3396; black
monkey, 1/3530.] Disks are continually forming in the blood, and are
constantly dying--twenty million at every breath.--DRAPER.

The plasma also contains fibrin, [Footnote: it is usual to say that fibrin
is contained in the blood. It probably does not exist as such, but there
are present in the blood certain substances known as _paraglobulin_
and _fibrinogen_, which by the action of a third substance, _fibrin
ferment_ under certain circumstances, form fibrin and so cause
coagulation. The exact nature of the process by which fibrin is produced
by these three factors is not understood--See Foster's _Text Book of
Physiology_, p 22.] albumin--which is found nearly pure in the white of
an egg--and various mineral substances, as iron, [Footnote: Enough iron
has been found in the ashes of a burned body to form a mourning ring.]
lime, magnesia, phosphorus, potash, etc.

FIG. 36.

[Illustration: _Blood Crystals_]

USES OF THE BLOOD.--The blood has been called "liquid flesh"; but it is
more than that, since it contains the materials for making every organ.
The plasma is rich in mineral matter for the bones, and in albumen for the
muscles. The red disks are the air cells of the blood. They contain the
oxygen so essential to every operation of life. Wherever there is work to
be done or repairs to be made, there the oxygen is needed. It stimulates
to action, and tears down all that is worn out. In this process, it
combines with and actually burns out parts of the muscles and other
tissues, as wood is burned in the stove. [Footnote: For the sake of
simplicity, perhaps to conceal our own ignorance, we call this process
"burning." The simile of a fire is good so far as it goes. But as to the
real nature of the change which the physiologist briefly terms
"oxidation," we know nothing. This much only can be asserted positively. A
stream of oxygen is carried by the blood to the muscles (in fact to every
tissue in the body), while, from the muscles the blood carries away a
stream of carbonic acid and water. But what takes place in the muscles,
when and what chemical change occurs, no one can tell. We see the first
and the last stage. We know that contraction of the muscles somehow comes
about, oxygen disappears, carbonic acid appears, energy is released, and
force is exhibited as motion, heat, and electricity. But the intermediate
step is hidden.

There are certain theories advanced, however, that are worth considering.
Some physiologists hold that the muscle has the power of taking up the
oxygen from the _hemoglobin_ (a body that comprises ninety per cent
of the red corpuscles when dried, and is the oxygen carrier of the blood),
and fixing it, as well as the raw material (food) furnished by the blood,
thus forming a true contractile substance. The breaking down or
decomposition of this contractile substance in the muscle, sets free its
potential energy. The process is gentle so long as the muscle is at rest,
but becomes excessive and violent when contraction occurs. (See "Foster's
Physiology," p. 118.) It is also believed by some that the chemical change
in the muscle partakes of a fermentive character; that, under the
influence of the proper ferments, the substances break up into other and
simpler products, thus setting free heat and force; and that this chemical
change is followed by a secondary oxidation by the oxygen in the arterial
blood, thereby forming carbonic acid and water, as in all putrefactive
processes. But these and other views are not as yet fully understood;
while they utterly fail to tell us how a collection of simple cells,
filled merely with a semifluid mass of matter, can contract and set free
muscular power. The commonness of this act hides from us its wonderful
nature. But here, hidden in the cell--Nature's tiny laboratory--lies the
mystery of life. Before its closed door we ponder in vain, confessing the
unskillfulness of our labor, and fearing all the while lest the _Secret
of the Cell_ will always elude our search.] The blood, now foul with
the burned matter, the refuse of this fire, is caught up by the
circulation, and whirled back to the lungs, where it is purified, and
again sent bounding on its way.

There are then two different kinds of the blood in the body: the red or
arterial, and the dark or venous.

TRANSFUSION.--As the blood is really the "vital fluid" it would seem that
feeble persons might be restored to vigor by infusing healthy blood into
their veins. This hypothesis, so valuable in its possible results in
prolonging human life, has been carefully tested. Animals which have
ceased to breathe have thus had their vitality recalled. In the
seventeenth century the theory became a subject of special investigation.
A maniac was restored to reason by the blood of a calf, and the most
extravagant hopes were entertained. But many fatal accidents occurring,
experiments upon human beings were forbidden by law, and transfusion soon
fell into disuse. It has, however, been successfully practiced in several
cases within the last few years, and is a method still in repute for
saving lives.

COAGULATION.--When blood is exposed to the air, it coagulates. This is
caused by the solidifying of the fibrin, which entangling the disks, forms
the "clot." The remaining clear, yellow liquid is the _serum_. The
value of this peculiar property of the blood can hardly be overestimated.
The coagulation soon checks all ordinary cases of bleeding. [Footnote: In
the case of the lower animals, which have no means of stopping hemorrhages
as we have, the coagulation is generally still more rapid. In some species
of birds it takes place almost instantaneously.] When a wound is made, and
bleeding commences, the fibrin forms a temporary plug, as it were, which
is absorbed when the healing process is finished. Thus we see how a Divine
foresight has provided not only for the ordinary wants of the body, but
also for the accidents to which it is liable. [Footnote: The fibrin is not
an essential ingredient of the blood. All the functions of life are
regularly performed in people whose blood lacks fibrin; and, in cases of
transfusion, where blood deprived of its fibrin was used, the vivifying
influence seemed to be the same. Its office, therefore, must mainly be to
stanch any hemorrhage which may occur.--FLINT.]

FIG. 37.

[Illustration: _The Heart._ A, _the right ventricle;_ B, _the
left ventricle;_ C, _the right auricle;_ D, _the left auricle._]

THE HEART is the engine which propels the blood. It is a hollow, pear-
shaped muscle, about the size of the fist. It hangs, point downward, just
to the left of the center of the chest. (See Fig. 31.) It is inclosed in a
loose sac of serous membrane, [Footnote: The mucous membrane lines the
open cavities of the body; the serous, the closed. The pericardium is a
sac composed of two layers--a fibrous membrane on the outside, and a
serous one on the inside. The latter covers the external surface of the
heart, and is reflected back upon itself in order to form, like all the
membranes of this nature, a sac without an opening. The heart is thus
covered by the pericardial sac, but not contained inside its cavity. A
correct idea may be formed of the disposition of the pericardium around
the heart by recalling a very common and very convenient, though now
discarded headdress, the cotton nightcap. The pericardium incloses the
heart exactly as this cap covered the heads of our forefathers.--
_Wonders of the Human Body_.] called the pericardium (_peri_,
about; and _kardia_, the heart). This secretes a lubricating fluid,
and is smooth as satin.

THE MOVEMENTS OF THE HEART consist of an alternate contraction and
expansion. The former is called the _sys'-to-le_, and the latter the
_di-as'-to-le_. During the diastole, the blood flows into the heart,
to be expelled by the systole. The alternation of these movements
constitutes the beating of the heart which we hear so distinctly between
the fifth and sixth ribs. [Footnote: Two sounds are heard if we put our
ear over the heart,--the first and longer as the blood is leading the
organ, the second as it falls into the pockets of the two arteries, and
the valves then striking together cause it. The first sound is mainly the
noise made by the muscular tissue. During the first, the two ventricles
contract; during the second the two auricles do so. The hand may feel the
heart striking the ribs as it contracts,--a feeling called the impulse,
or, if quicker and stronger than usual, palpitation. This is not always a
sign of disease, but in hypochondriacs is often an effect of the mind on
the nerves of the heart.--MAPOTHER]

FIG. 38.

[Illustration: _Chambers of the Heart_ A, _right ventricle;_ B,
_left ventricle,_ C, _right auricle,_ D, _left auricle,_ E,
_tricuspid valve,_ F, _bicuspid valve;_ G, _semilunar valves,_ H,
_valve of the aorta;_ I, _inferior vena cava,_ K, _superior vena
cava,_ L, L, _pulmonary veins._]

THE AURICLES AND VENTRICLES--The heart is divided into four chambers. In
an adult, each holds about a wineglassful. The upper ones, from appendages
on the outside resembling the ears of a dog, are called _auricles
(aures_, ears). are termed _ventricles_. The auricle and ventricle
on each side communicate with each other, but the right and left halves of
the heart are entirely distinct, and perform different offices. The left
side propels the red blood; and the right, the dark. The auricles are
merely reservoirs to receive the blood (the left auricle, as it filters in
bright and pure from the lungs; the right, as it returns dark and foul
from the tour of the body), and to furnish it to the ventricles as they
need. Their work being so light, their walls are comparatively thin and
weak. On the other hand, the ventricles force the blood (the left, to all
parts of the body; the right, to the lungs), and are, therefore, made very
strong. As the left ventricle drives the blood so much farther than the
right, it is correspondingly thicker and stronger.

NEED OF VALVES IN THE HEART.--As the auricles do not need to contract with
much force simply to empty their contents into the ventricles below them,
there is no demand for any special contrivance to prevent the blood from
setting back the wrong way. Indeed, it would naturally run down into the
ventricle, which is at that moment open to receive it. But, when the
strong ventricles contract, especially the left one, which must drive the
blood to the extremities, some arrangement is necessary to prevent it from
returning into the auricle. Besides, when they expand, the "suction power"
would tend to draw back again from the arteries all the blood just forced
out. This difficulty is obviated by means of little doors, or valves,
which will not let it go the wrong way. [Footnote: The heart of an ox or a
sheep may be used to show the chambers and valves. The aorta should be cut
as far as possible from the heart, and then by pumping in water the
perfection of these valves will be finely exhibited. Cutting the heart
across near the middle will show the greater thickness of the left
ventricle.]

THE TRICUSPID AND BICUSPID VALVES.--At the opening into the right
ventricle, is a valve consisting of three folds or flaps of membrane,
whence it is called the _tricuspid_ valve (_tri_, three; and
_cuspides_, points), and in the left ventricle, one containing two
flaps, and named the _bicuspid_ valve. These hang so loosely as to
oppose no resistance to the passage of the blood into the ventricles; but,
if any attempts to go the other way, it gets between the flaps and the
walls of the heart, and, driving them outward, closes the orifice.

FIG. 39.

[Illustration: _Diagram showing the peculiar Fibrous Structure of the
Heart and the Shape of the Valves._ A, _tricuspid valve,_ B,
_bicuspid valve;_ C, _semilunar valves of the aorta;_ D,
_semilunar valves of the pulmonary artery._]

THESE FLAPS ARE STRENGTHENED like sails by slender cords, which prevent
their being pressed back through the opening. If the cords were attached
directly to the walls of the heart, they would be loosened in the systole,
and so become useless when most needed. They are, therefore, fastened to
little muscular pillars projecting from the sides of the ventricle; when
that contracts, the pillars contract also, and thus the cords are held
tight.

THE SEMILUNAR VALVES.--In the passages outward from the ventricles, are
valves, called from their peculiar half-moon shape _semilunar_ valves
(_semi_, half; _Luna_, Moon). Each consists of three little
pocket-shaped folds of membrane, with their openings in the direction
which the blood is to take. When it sets back, they fill, and, swelling
out, close the passage (Fig. 40).

THE ARTERIES [Footnote: _Aer,_ air; and _tereo,_ I contain--so
named because after death they contain air only, and hence the ancients
supposed them to be air tubes leading through the body.] are the tube-like
canals which convey the blood _from_ the heart. They carry the red
blood (see note, p. 119). They are composed of an elastic tissue, which
yields at every throb of the heart, and then slowly contracting again,
keeps up the motion of the blood until the next systole. The elasticity of
the arteries acts like the air chamber of a fire engine, which converts
the intermittent jerks of the brakes or pump into the steady stream of the
hose nozzle.

The arteries sometimes communicate by means of branches or by meshes of
loops, so that if the blood be blocked in one, it can pass round through
another, and so get by the obstacle. [Footnote: This occurs especially
about the joints, where it serves to maintain the circulation during the
bending of a limb, or when the main artery is obstructed by disease or
injury, or has been tied by the surgeon. In the last case, the small
adjacent arteries gradually enlarge, and form what is called a collateral
circulation.] When an artery penetrates a muscle, it is often protected by
a sheath or by fibrous rings, which prevent its being pulled out of place
or compressed by the play of the muscles.

The arteries are generally located as far as possible beneath the surface,
out of harm's way, and hence are found closely hugging the bones or
creeping through safe passages provided for them. They are generally
nearly straight, and take the shortest routes to the parts which they are
to supply with blood.

THE ARTERIAL SYSTEM starts from the left ventricle by a single trunk--the
_aorta_--which, after giving off branches to the head, sweeps back of
the chest with a bold curve--the _arch of the aorta_ (_c_, Fig.
34)--and thence runs downward (_f_), dividing and subdividing, like a
tree, into numberless branches, which, at last, penetrate every nook and
corner of the body.

THE PULSE.--At the wrist (_k_, radial artery) and on the temple
(temporal artery) we can feel the expansion of the artery by each little
wave of blood set in motion by the contraction of the heart. In health,
there are about seventy-two [Footnote: This number varies much with age,
sex, and individuals. Napoleon's pulse is said to have been only forty,
while it is not infrequent to find a healthy pulse at one hundred or over.
In general, the pulse is quicker in children and in old people than in the
middle-aged; in short persons than in tall; in women than in men. Shame
makes the heart send more blood to the blushing cheek, and fear almost
stops it. The will can not check the heart. There is said, however, to
have been a notable exception to this in the case of one Colonel Townsend,
of Dublin, who, after having succeeded several times in stopping the
pulsation, at last lost his life in the act.] pulsations per minute. They
increase with excitement or inflammation, weaken with loss of vigor, and
are modified by nearly every disease. The physician, therefore, finds the
pulse a good index of the state of the system and the character of the
disorder. (See p. 314.)

THE VEINS are the tube-like canals which convey the blood _to_ the
heart. [Footnote: There is one exception to the general course of the
veins. The _portal_ vein carries the blood from the digestive organs
to the liver, where it is acted upon, thence poured into the ascending
vena cava, and goes back to the heart.] They carry the dark or venous
blood (note, p. 119). As they do not receive the direct impulse of the
heart, their walls are made much thinner and less elastic than those of
the arteries. At first small, they increase in size and diminish in number
as they gradually pour into one another, like tiny rills collecting to
form two rivers, the vena cava ascending and the vena cava descending
(_l, m_, Fig. 34), which empty into the right auricle.

Some of the veins creep along under the skin, where they can be seen, as
in the back of the hand; while others accompany the arteries, some of
which have two or more of these companions.

VALVES similar in construction to those already described (the semilunar
valves of the heart, page 114) are placed at convenient intervals, in
order to guide the blood in its course, and prevent its setting backward.
[Footnote: Too much standing, or tight elastics, often cause the veins in
the leg to swell, so that the valves can not work; the veins then become
_varicose_, or permanently enlarged, and, if they burst, the bleeding
may be profuse and even dangerous. Raising the leg and pressing the finger
on the bleeding spot will stay it. Walking does not encourage this
disease, for the active muscles force on the venous blood. Clerks who are
subject to varicose veins should have seats behind the counters where they
may rest when not actually employed. A deep breath helps the flow in the
veins, and a wound may suck in air with fatal effect. A maimed horse is
most mercifully killed by blowing a bubble of air into the veins of his
neck. As the deep-sea pressure would burst valves, the whale has none;
hence a small wound by the harpoon causes him to bleed to death.--
MAPOTHER.] We can easily examine the working of these valves. On baring
the arm, blue veins may be seen running along the arm toward the hand.
Their diameter is tolerably even, and they gradually decrease in size. If
now the finger be pressed on the upper part of one of these veins, and
then passed downward so as to drive its blood backward, swellings like
little knots will make their appearance. Each of these marks the location
of a valve, which is closed by the blood we push before our finger. Remove
the pressure, and the valve will swing open, the blood set forward, and
the vein collapse to its former size.

FIG. 40.

[Illustration: _Valves of the Veins._]

THE CAPILLARIES (_capillus,_ a hair) form a fine network of tubes,
connecting the ends of the arteries with the veins. They blend, however,
with the extremities of these two systems, so that it is not easy to tell
just where an artery ends and a vein begins. So closely are they placed,
that we can not prick the flesh with a needle without injuring, perhaps,
hundreds of them. The air cells of the blood deposit there their oxygen,
and receive carbonic acid, while in the delicate capillaries of the lungs
[Footnote: The capillary tubes are there so fine that the disks of the
blood have to go one by one, and are sadly squeezed at that. However,
their elasticity enables them to resume their old shape as soon as they
have escaped from this labyrinth.] they give up their load of carbonic
acid in exchange for oxygen.

FIG. 41.

[Illustration: _Circulation of the Blood in the Web of a Frog's Foot,
highly magnified._ A, _an artery;_ B, _capillaries crowded with
disks, owing to a rupture just above, where the disks are jammed into an
adjacent mesh;_ C, _a deeper vein; the black spots are pigment
cells._]

If, by means of a microscope, we examine the transparent web of a frog's
foot, we can trace the route of the blood. [Footnote: With small splints
and twine, a frog's foot can be easily stretched and tied so that the
transparent web can be placed on the table of the microscope.] It is an
experiment of wonderful interest. The crimson stream, propelled by the
heart, rushes through the arteries, until it reaches the intricate meshes
of the capillaries. Here it breaks into a thousand tiny rills. We can see
the disks winding in single file through the devious passages, darting
hither and thither, now pausing, swaying to and fro with an uncertain
motion, and anon dashing ahead, until, at last, gathered in the veins, the
blood sets steadily back on its return to the heart.

THE CIRCULATION [Footnote: The circulation of the blood was discovered by
Harvey in 1619. For several years, he did not dare to publish his belief.
When it became known, he was bitterly persecuted, and his practice as a
physician greatly decreased in consequence. He lived, however, to see his
theory universally adopted, and his name honored. Harvey is said to have
declared that no man over forty years of age accepted his views.] consists
of two parts--the _lesser_, and the _greater_.

FIG. 42.

[Illustration: _Diagram illustrating the Circulation of the Blood._--
MARSHALL. A, _vena cava descending (superior);_ Z, _vena cava
ascending (inferior);_ C, _right auricle;_ D, _right ventricle;_ E,
_pulmonary artery;_ F P, _lungs and pulmonary veins;_ G, _left auricle;_
H, _left ventricle;_ I, K, _aorta._]

1. _The Lesser Circulation_.--The dark blood from the veins collects
in the right auricle, and, going through the tricuspid valve, empties into
the right ventricle. Thence it is driven past the semilunar valves,
through the pulmonary artery, to the lungs. After circulating through the
fine capillaries of the air cells contained in the lungs, it is returned,
bright and red, through the four pulmonary veins, [Footnote: It is
noticeable that the pulmonary set of veins circulates red blood, and the
pulmonary set of arteries circulates dark blood. Both are connected with
the lungs.] to the left auricle.

2. _The Greater Circulation_.--From the left auricle, the blood is
forced past the bicuspid valve to the left ventricle; thence it is driven
through the semilunar valves into the great aorta, the main trunk of the
arterial system. Passing through the arteries, capillaries, and veins, it
returns through the venæ cavæ, ascending and descending, gathers again in
the right auricle, and so completes the "grand round" of the body. Both
these circulations are going on constantly, as the two auricles contract,
and the two ventricles expand simultaneously, and _vice versa_.

THE VELOCITY OF THE BLOOD varies so much in different parts of the body,
and is influenced by so many circumstances, that it can not be calculated
with any degree of accuracy. It has been estimated that a portion of the
blood will make the tour of the body in about twenty-three seconds
(FLINT), and that the entire mass passes through the heart in from one to
two minutes. [Footnote: The total amount of blood in an adult of average
weight is about eighteen pounds. Dividing this by five ounces, the
quantity discharged by the left ventricle at each systole, gives fifty-
eight pulsations as the number necessary to transmit all the blood in the
body. This, however, is an extremely unreliable basis of calculation, as
the rapidity of the blood is itself so variable. Chauvreau has shown by
experiments with his instrument that, corresponding to the first dilation
of the vessels, the blood moves with immense rapidity; following this, the
current suddenly becomes nearly arrested; this is succeeded by a second
acceleration in the current, not quite so rapid as the first; and after
this there is a gradual decline in the rapidity to the time of the next
pulsation.] (See p. 314.)

DISTRIBUTION AND REGULATION OF THE HEAT OF THE BODY.--1.
_Distribution_.--The natural temperature is not far from 98°.
[Footnote: The average temperature is, however, easily departed from.
Through some trivial cause the cooling agencies may be interfered with,
and then, the heating processes getting the superiority, a high
temperature or fever comes on. Or the reverse may ensue. In Asiatic
cholera, the constitution of the blood is so changed that its disks can no
longer carry oxygen into the system, the heat-making processes are put a
stop to, and, the temperature declining, the body becomes of a marble
coldness, characteristic of that terrible disease.--DRAPER.] This is
maintained, as we have already seen, by the action of the oxygen within
us. Each capillary tube is a tiny stove, where oxygen is combining with
the tissues of the body (see note, p. 107). Every contraction of a muscle
develops heat, the latent heat being set free by the breaking up of the
tissue. The warmth so produced is distributed by the circulation of the
blood. Thus the arteries, veins, and capillaries form a series of hot-
water pipes, through which the heated liquid is forced by a pump--the
heart--while the heat is kept up, not by a central furnace and boiler, but
by a multitude of little fires placed here and there along its course.

2. _Regulation_.--The temperature of the body is regulated by means
of the pores of the skin and the mucous membrane in the air passages. When
the system becomes too warm, the blood vessels on the surface expand, the
blood fills them, the fluid exudes into the perspiratory glands, pours out
upon the exterior, and by evaporation cools the body. [Footnote: Just as
water sprinkled on the floor cools a room.--_Popular Physics_, p.
255.] When the temperature of the body is too low, the vessels contract,
less blood goes to the surface, the perspiration decreases, and the loss
of heat by evaporation diminishes. [Footnote: Thus one is enabled to go
into an oven where bread is baking, or into the arctic regions where the
mountains are snow and the rivers ice. Even by these extremes the
temperature of the blood will be but slightly affected. In the one case,
the flood gates of perspiration will be opened and the superfluous heat
expended in turning the water to vapor; and, in the other, they will be
tightly closed and all the heat retained.]

LIFE BY DEATH.--The body is being incessantly corroded, and portions borne
away by the tireless oxygen. The scales of the epidermis are constantly
falling off and being replaced by secretion from the cutis. The disks of
the blood die, and new ones spring into being. On the continuance of this
interchange depend our health and vigor. Every act is a destructive one.
Not a bend of the finger, not a wink of the eye, not a thought of the
brain but is at some expense of the machine itself. Every process of life
is thus a process of death. The more rapidly this change goes on, and
fresh, vigorous tissue takes the place of the old, the more elasticity and
strength we possess.

CHANGE OF OUR BODIES.--There is a belief that our bodies change once in
seven years. From the nature of the case, the rate must vary with the
labor we perform; the organs most used altering oftenest. Probably the
parts of the body in incessant employment are entirely reorganized many
times within a single year. [Footnote: To use a homely simile, our bodies
are like the Irishman's knife, which, after having had several new blades,
and at least one new handle, was yet the same old knife.]

THE THREE VITAL ORGANS.--Death is produced by the stoppage of the action
of any one of the three organs--the heart, the lungs, or the brain. They
have, therefore, been termed the "Tripod of Life." Really, however, as
Huxley has remarked, "Life has but two legs to stand upon." If respiration
and circulation be kept up artificially, the removal of the brain will not
produce death. [Footnote: When death really does take place, _i. e._,
when the vital organs are stopped, it is noticeable that the tissues do
not die for some time thereafter. If suitable stimulants be applied, as
the galvanic battery, transfusion of blood, etc., the muscles may be made
to contract, and many of the phenomena of life be exhibited. Dr. Brown-
Sequard thus produced muscular action in the hand of a criminal, fourteen
hours after his execution.]

WONDERS OF THE HEART.--The ancients thought the heart to be the seat of
love. There were located the purity and goodness as well as the evil
passions of the soul. [Footnote: Our common words, hearty, large-hearted,
courage (_cor_, the heart), are remains of this fanciful theory.]
Modern science has found the seat of the mental powers to be in the brain.
But while it has thus robbed the heart of its romance, it has revealed
wonders which eclipse all the mysteries of the past. This marvelous little
engine throbs on continually at the rate of one hundred thousand beats per
day, forty millions per year, often three billions without a single stop.
It is the most powerful of machines. "Its daily work is equal to one third
that of all the muscles. If it should expend its entire force in lifting
its own weight vertically, it would rise twenty thousand feet in an hour."
[Footnote: "The greatest exploit ever accomplished by a locomotive, was to
lift itself through less than one eighth of that distance." Vast and
constant as is this process, so perfect is the machinery, that there are
persons who do not even know where the heart lies until disease or
accident reveals its location.] Its vitality is amazing. The most tireless
of organs while life exists, it is one of the last to yield when life
expires. So long as a flutter lingers at the heart, we know the spark of
being is not quite extinguished, and there is hope of restoration. During
a life such as we sometimes see, it has propelled half a million tons of
blood, yet repaired itself as it has wasted, during its patient,
unfaltering labor. The play of its valves and the rhythm of its throb have
never failed until, at the command of the great Master Workman, the
"wheels of life have stood still." [Footnote: Our brains are seventy-five-
year clocks. The Angel of Life winds them up once for all, then closes the
case, and gives the key into the hand of the Angel of the Resurrection.
Ticktack! Ticktack! go the wheels of thought; our will can not stop them,
they can not stop themselves; sleep can not stop them; madness only makes
them go faster; death alone can break into the case, and, seizing the
ever-swinging pendulum which we call the heart, silence at last the
clicking of the terrible escapement we have carried so long beneath our
wrinkled foreheads.--HOLMES.]

FIG. 43.

[Illustration: _Lymphatics of the Head and Neck, showing the Glands,
and,_ B, _the thoracic duct as it empties into the left innominate
vein at the junction of the left jugular and subclavian veins._]

THE LYMPHATIC CIRCULATION is intimately connected with that of the blood.
It is, however, more delicate in its organization, and less thoroughly
understood. Nearly every part of the body is permeated by a second series
of capillaries, closely interlaced with the blood capillaries already
described, and termed the Lymphatic system. The larger number converge
into the thoracic duct--a small tube, about the size of a goose quill,
which empties into the great veins of the neck (Fig. 43). Along their
course the lymphatics frequently pass through _glands_,--hard,
pinkish bodies of all sizes, from that of a hemp seed to an almond. These
glands are often enlarged by disease, and then are easily felt.

_The Lymph_, which circulates through the lymphatics like blood
through the veins, is a thin, colorless liquid, very like the serum. This
fluid, probably in great measure an overflow from the blood vessels, is
gathered up by the lymphatics, undergoes in the glands some process of
preparation not well understood, and is then returned to the circulation.

FIG. 44.

[Illustration: _Lymphatics in the Leg, with Glands at the Hip_.]

OFFICE OF THE LYMPHATICS.--It is thought that portions of the waste matter
of the body capable of further use are thus, by a wise economy, retained
and elaborated in the system.

The _lacteals_, a class of lymphatics which will be described under
Digestion (p. 166), aid in taking up the food; after a meal they become
milk white. In the lungs, the lymphatics are abundant; sometimes absorbing
the poison of disease, and diffusing it through the system. [Footnote:
Persons have thus been poisoned by tiny particles of arsenic which
evaporate from green wall paper, and float in the air.]

The lymphatics of the skin we have already spoken of as producing the
phenomena of absorption, [Footnote: Pain is often relieved by injecting
under the cuticle a solution of morphine, which is taken up by the
absorbents, and so carried through the system.] Nature in her effort to
heal a cut deposits an excess of matter to fill up the breach. Soon, the
lymphatics go to work and remove the surplus material to other parts of
the body.

Animals that hibernate are supported during the winter by the fat which
their absorbents carry into the circulation from the extra supply they
have laid up during the summer. In famine or in sickness, a man
unconsciously consumes his own flesh.

DISEASES, ETC.--l. _Congestion_ is an unnatural accumulation of blood
in any part of the body. The excess is indicated by the redness. If we put
our feet in hot water, the capillaries will expand by the heat, and the
blood will set that way to fill them. The red nose and purplish face of
the drunkard show a congestion of the capillaries. Those vessels have lost
their power of contraction, and so are permanently increased in size and
filled with blood. Blushing is a temporary congestion. The capillaries
being expanded only for an instant by the nervous excitement, contract
again and expel the blood. [Footnote: Blushing is a purely local
modification of the circulation of this kind, and it will be instructive
to consider how a blush is brought about. An emotion--sometimes
pleasurable, sometimes painful--takes possession of the mind; thereupon a
hot flush is felt, the skin grows red, and according to the intensity of
the emotion these changes are confined to the cheeks only, or extend to
the "roots of the hair," or "all over." What is the cause of these
changes? The blood is a red and a hot fluid; the skin reddens and grows
hot, because its vessels contain an increased quantity of this red and hot
fluid; and its vessels contain more, because the small arteries suddenly
dilate, the natural moderate contraction of their muscles being superseded
by a state of relaxation. In other words, the action of the nerves which
cause this muscular contraction is suspended. On the other hand, in many
people, extreme terror causes the skin to grow cold, and the face to
appear pale and pinched. Under these circumstances, in fact, the supply of
blood to the skin is greatly diminished, in consequence of an excessive
stimulation of the nerves of the small arteries, which causes them to
contract and so to cut off the supply of blood more or less completely.--
Huxley's _Physiology_.]

2. _Inflammation_ means simply a burning. If there is irritation or
an injury at any spot, the blood sets thither and reddens it. This extra
supply, both by its presence and the friction of the swiftly moving
currents, produces heat. The pressure of the distended vessels upon the
nerves frets them, and produces pain. The swelling stretches the walls of
the blood vessels, and the serum or lymph oozes through. The four
characteristics of an inflammation are redness, heat, pain, and swelling.

3. _Bleeding_, if from an artery, will be of red blood, and will come
in jets; [Footnote: The elasticity of the arteries (p. 114) is a physical
property, as may easily be shown by removing one from a dead body. If they
were rigid and unyielding, a considerable portion of the heart's force
would be uselessly expended against their walls. Their expansion is a
passive state, and depends on the pressure of the blood within them; but
their vital contractility is an active property.--The intermittent
movement of the blood through the arteries is strikingly shown in the
manner in which they bleed when wounded. When an artery is cut across, the
blood spurts out with great force to a distance of several feet, but the
flow is not continuous. It escapes in a series of jets, the long, slender
scarlet stream rising and falling with each beat of the heart, and this
pulsation of the blood stream tells at once that it comes from a wounded
artery. But as the blood traverses these elastic tubes, the abruptness of
the heart's stroke becomes gradually broken and the current equalized, so
that the greater the distance from the heart the less obvious is the
pulsation, until at length in the capillaries the rate of the stream
becomes uniform.] if from the veins, it will be of dark blood, and will
flow in a steady stream. If only a small vessel be severed, it may be
checked by a piece of cloth held or bound firmly upon the wound. If a
large trunk be cut, especially in a limb, make a knot in a handkerchief
and tie it loosely about the limb; then, placing the knot on the limb,
with a short stick twist the handkerchief tightly enough to stop the flow.
If you have a piece of cloth to use as a pad, the knot will be
unnecessary. If it be an artery that is cut, the pressure should be
applied between the wound and the heart; if a vein, beyond the wound. If
you are alone, and are severely wounded, or in an emergency, like a
railroad accident, use the remedy which has saved many a life upon the
battlefield--bind or hold a handful of dry earth upon the wound, elevate
the part, and await surgical assistance.

4. _Scrofula_ is generally inherited. It is a disease affecting the
lymphatic glands, most commonly those of the neck, forming "kernels," as
they are called. It is, however, liable to attack any organ. Persons
inheriting this disease can hope to ward off its insidious approaches only
by the utmost care in diet and exercise; by the use of pure air and warm
clothing, and by avoiding late hours and undue stimulus of all kinds.
Probably the most fatal and common excitants of the latent seeds of
scrofula are insufficient or improper food, and want of ventilation.

5. _A COLD_.--We put on a thinner dress than usual, or, when heated,
sit in a cool place. The skin is chilled, and the perspiration checked.
The blood, no longer cleansed and reduced in volume by the drainage
through the pores, sets to the lungs for purification. That organ is
oppressed, breathing becomes difficult, and the extra mucus secreted by
the irritated surface of the membrane is thrown off by coughing. The
mucous membrane of the nasal chamber sympathizes with the difficulty, and
we have "a cold in the head," or a catarrh. In general, the excess of
blood seeks the weakest point, and develops there any latent disease
[Footnote: A party go out for a walk and are caught in a rain, or, coming
home heated from some close assembly, throw off their coats to enjoy the
deliciously cool breeze. The next day, one has a fever, another a slight
headache, another pleurisy, another pneumonia, another rheumatism, while
some of the number escape without any ill feeling whatever. The last had
vital force sufficient to withstand the disturbance, but in the others
there were various weak points, and to these the excess of blood has gone,
producing congestion.] Where one person has been killed in battle,
thousands have died of colds.

To restore the equipoise must be the object of all treatment. We put the
feet in hot water and they soon become red and gorged with the blood which
is thus called from the congested organs. Hot footbaths have saved
multitudes of lives. It is well in case of a sudden cold to go immediately
to bed, and with hot drinks and extra clothing open the pores, and induce
free perspiration. This calls the blood to the surface, and, by equalizing
and diminishing the volume of the circulation, affords relief. [Footnote:
Severe colds may often be relieved in their first stages by using lemons
freely during the day, and taking at night fifteen or twenty grains of
sodium bromide. Great care, however, should be observed in employing the
latter remedy, except under the advice of a physician.]

6. _Catarrh_ commonly manifests itself by the symptoms known as those
of a "cold in the head," and is produced by the same causes. It is an
inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the nasal and bronchial
passages. One going out from the hot dry air of a furnace-heated room into
the cold damp atmosphere of our climate can hardly avoid irritating and
inflaming this tender membrane. If our rooms were heated less intensely,
and ventilated more thoroughly, so that we had not the present hothouse
sensitiveness to cold air, this disease would be far less universal, and
perhaps would disappear entirely. [Footnote: Dr. Gray gives the following
table:

=====================================================================
Rooms Occupied by Letter-press Printers.  |   Number   |  Subject to
|   per cent |  Catarrh
|   Spitting |
|   Blood.   |
------------------------------------------+------------+-------------
104 men having less than 500 cubic feet   |            |
of air to breathe                       |     12.50  |   12.50
|            |
115 men having from 500 to 600 cubic feet |            |
of air to breathe                       |      4.35  |    3.58
|            |
101 men having more than 600 cubic feet   |            |
of air to breathe                       |      3.96  |    1.98
---------------------------------------------------------------------]
(See p. 315.)

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND NARCOTICS.

1. ALCOHOL.

That we may understand fully the effect of alcohol upon the human system,
let us first consider its nature and the process by which harmless fruits
and grains are made to produce a substance so unlike themselves in its
deleterious effects.

HOW ALCOHOL IS MADE.--When any substance containing sugar, as fruit juice,
is caused to ferment, the elements of which the sugar is composed, viz.,
hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, so rearrange themselves as to form carbon
dioxide (carbonic acid), alcohol, and certain volatile oils and ethers.
[Footnote: The precise relation between chemical phenomena and the
physiological functions of the organic ferment is still to be discovered;
and all that has been said, written, and brought forward to decide the
question, need experimental proof.--SCHÜTZENBERGER.] The carbonic acid
partly evaporates and partly remains in the liquor; the alcohol is the
poisonous or intoxicating principle, while the oils and ethers impart the
peculiar flavor and odor. Thus wine is fermented grape juice, and cider is
fermented apple juice, each having its distinctive taste and smell, and
each containing, as one product of fermentation, more or less of the
inebriating alcohol. Wines are also made from other fruits and vegetables,
such as oranges, currants, tomatoes, and rhubarb, but the alcohol which
they contain is of the same nature in all cases, whether the fermented
liquor has been manufactured in great quantities, by large presses, or by
a simple domestic process for home consumption. It is important to
remember this fact, as many people do not associate alcohol with such
beverages as domestic wines and home-brewed ales, whereas it is always
present with the same treacherous qualities which attach to it everywhere.
An apple is a wholesome and useful fruit, and its simple juice, fragrant
and refreshing, is a delight to the palate; but apple juice converted into
cider and allowed to enter upon alcoholic fermentation, loses its
innocence, and becomes a dangerous drink, because it is the nature of the
alcohol it now contains to create an appetite for more alcohol. (See p.
185.)

WHAT IS A FERMENT?--Ferments, of which there are many varieties in nature,
are minute living organisms analogous to the microscopic objects called
bacteria or microbes, [Footnote: There is no well-defined limit between
ferments and bacteria, any more than between ferments and fungi, or again,
between fungi and bacteria. Their smaller size is the principal difference
which separates bacteria from ferments, although there are bacteria of
large size, such as are so frequently found in the mouth of even a healthy
man, and which much resemble in their mode of growth some of the lower
fungi.--Trouessart.] of which we have heard much in late years, especially
in connection with the famous researches and experiments of the great
French investigator, M. Pasteur. He tells us that "Every fermentation has
its specific ferment. This minute being produces the transformation which
constitutes fermentation by breathing the oxygen of the substance to be
fermented, or by appropriating for an instant the whole substance, then
destroying it by what may be termed the secretion of the fermented
products." [Footnote: What we call spontaneous fermentation often occurs,
as when apple juice turns to hard cider by simple exposure to the air.
Science teaches us, however, that this change is always effected by the
action of the busy little ferments which, wandering about, drop into the
liquid, begin their rapid propagation, and, in the act of growing, evolve
the products of the fermentation. "If the above liquids be left only in
contact with air which has been passed through a red-hot platinum tube,
and thus the living sporules destroyed; or if the air be simply filtered
by passing through cotton wool, and the sporules prevented from coming
into the liquid, it is found that these fermentable liquids may be
preserved for any length of time without undergoing the slightest
change."--Roscoe.] The effect, therefore, of fermentation is to change
entirely the character of the substance upon which it acts; hence it is an
error to assume that fermented liquors, as beer, wine, and cider, are safe
drinks because the grains or fruits from which they are produced are
healthful foods.

YEAST is a ferment which causes alcoholic fermentation. It consists of
microscopic plants, which increase by the formation of multitudes of tiny
cells not more than 1/2400 of an inch in diameter. In the brewing of beer
they grow in great abundance, making common brewer's yeast. Ferments or
their spores float in the air ready to enter any fermentable liquid, and
under favorable conditions they multiply with great activity and energy.
The favorable conditions include the presence of oxygen or sugar;
[Footnote: Yeast, like ordinary plants, buds and multiplies even in the
absence of fermentable sugar, when it is furnished with free oxygen. This
multiplication, however, is favored by the presence of sugar, which is a
more appropriate element than non-fermentable hydrocarbon compounds. Yeast
is also able to bud and multiply in the absence of free oxygen, but in
this case a fermentable substance is indispensable.--SCHÜTZENBERGER'S
_Fermentation_.] oxygen being, as we know, necessary for the
development and the reproduction of all cell life (p. 107), and ferments
having the power to resolve sugar, which penetrates by endosmose into the
interior of the cell, into alcohol, carbonic acid, glycerine, succinic
acid, and oxygen.

BEER.--The barley used for making beer is first malted, _i. e._,
sprouted, to turn a part of its starch into sugar. When this process has
gone far enough, it is checked by heating the grain in a kiln until the
germ is destroyed. The malt is then crushed, steeped, and fermented with
hops and yeast. The sugar gradually disappears, alcohol is formed, and
carbonic acid escapes into the air. The beer is then put into casks, where
it undergoes a second, slower fermentation, and the carbonic acid gathers;
when the liquor is drawn, this gas bubbles to the surface, giving to the
beer its sparkling, foamy look.

WINE is generally made from the juice of the grape. The juice, or
_must_, as it is called, is placed in vats in the cellar, where the
low temperature favors a slow fermentation. If all the sugar be converted
into alcohol and carbonic-acid gas, a dry wine will remain; if the
fermentation be checked, a sweet wine will result; and if the wine be
bottled while the change is still going on, a brisk effervescing liquor
like champagne, will be formed. All these are dangerous beverages because
of the alcohol they contain.

DISTILLATION.--Alcohol is so volatile that, by the application of heat, it
can be driven off as a vapor from the fermented liquid in which it has
been produced. Steam and various fragrant substances will accompany it,
and, if they are collected and condensed in a cool receiver, a new and
stronger liquor will be formed, having a distinctive odor.

In this way whiskey is distilled from fermented corn, rye, barley, or
potatoes; the alcohol of commerce is distilled from whiskey; brandy, from
wine; rum, from fermented molasses; and gin, from fermented barley and
rye, afterward distilled with juniper berries.

VARIETIES AND PROPERTIES OF ALCOHOL.--There are several varieties of
alcohol produced from distillation of various substances. Thus Methyl
Alcohol is obtained from the decomposition of hard wood when exposed to
intense heat with little or no oxygen present. It is a light, volatile
liquid, which closely resembles ordinary alcohol in all its properties. It
is used in the manufacture of aniline dyes, in making varnishes, and for
burning in spirit lamps. Amyl Alcohol [Footnote: The odor of amylic
alcohol is sweet, nauseous, and heavy. The sensation of its presence
remains long. In taste it is burning and acrid, and it is itself
practically insoluble in water. When it is diluted with common alcohol it
dissolves freely in water, and gives a soft and rather unctuous flavor, I
may call it a fruity flavor, something like that of ripe pears. Amyl
alcohol, introduced as an adulterant, is an extremely dangerous addition
to ordinary alcohol, in whatever form it is presented. From the quantities
of it imported into this country, it is believed to be employed largely in
the adulteration of wines and spirits.--RICHARDSON.] is the chief
constituent of "fusel oil," found in whiskey distilled from potatoes. It
is often present in common alcohol, giving a slightly unpleasant odor when
it evaporates from the hand. Fusel oil is extremely poisonous and lasting
in its effects, so that when contained in liquors it greatly increases
their destructive and intoxicating properties.

Ethyl Alcohol, which is that which we have described as obtained from
fermentation of fruits and grains, is the ordinary alcohol of commerce. We
have spoken of its volatility. This property permits it to pass into vapor
at 56° Fahr. It boils at 173° Fahr. (Water boils at 212°.) Like Methyl
Alcohol, it burns without smoke and with great heat, [Footnote: Pour a
little alcohol into a saucer and apply an ignited match. The liquid will
suddenly take fire, burning with intense heat, but feeble light. In this
process, alcohol takes up oxygen from the air, forming carbonic-acid gas,
and water.--Hold a red-hot coil of platinum wire in a goblet containing a
few drops of alcohol, and a peculiar odor will be noticed. It denotes the
formation of _aldehyde_--a substance produced in the slow oxidation
of alcohol. Still further oxidized, the alcohol would be changed into
_acetic acid_--the sour principle of vinegar.--Put the white of an
egg--nearly pure albumen--into a cup, and pour upon it some alcohol, or
even strong brandy; the fluid albumen will coagulate, becoming hard and
solid. In this connection, it is well to remember that albumen is
contained in our food, while the brain is largely an albuminous
substance.] and is therefore of much value in the arts. Its great solvent
power over fats and mixed oils renders it a useful agent in many
industrial operations. It is also a powerful antiseptic, and no one who
visits a museum of natural history will be likely to forget the rows of
bottles within which float reptilian and batrachian specimens, preserved
in alcohol.

To alcohol, also, we are indebted for various anæsthetic agents, which,
when not abused (p. 340), are of inestimable value. Thus, if certain
proportions of alcohol and nitric acid be mixed together and heated,
nitrite of amyl, so serviceable in relieving the agonizing spasms peculiar
to that dread disease, angina pectoris, will be obtained. If, instead of
nitric, we use sulphuric acid, we shall get ether; if chlorine be passed
through alcohol, hydrate of chloral is the result; and, if chloride of
lime and alcohol be treated together, the outcome is chloroform.

One of the most striking properties of alcohol, and one which we shall
hereafter consider in its disastrous effects upon the tissues of our body,
is its affinity for water. [Footnote: Suppose, then, a certain measure of
alcohol be taken into the stomach, it will be absorbed there, but,
previous to absorption, it will have to undergo a proper degree of
dilution with water; for there is this peculiarity respecting alcohol when
it is separated by an animal membrane from a watery fluid like the blood,
that it will not pass through the membrane until it has become charged, to
a given point of dilution, with water. Alcohol is itself, in fact, so
greedy for water that it will pick it up from watery textures, and deprive
them of it until, by its saturation, its power of reception is exhausted,
after which it will diffuse into the current of circulating fluid.

To illustrate this fact of dilution I perform a simple experiment. Into a
bladder is placed a mixture consisting of equal parts of alcohol and
distilled water. Into the neck of the bladder a long glass tube is
inserted and firmly tied. Then the bladder is immersed in a saline fluid
representing an artificial serum of blood. The result is, that the alcohol
in the bladder absorbs water from the surrounding saline solution, and
thereby a column of fluid passes up into the glass tube. A second mixture
of alcohol and water, in the proportion this time of one part of alcohol
to two of water, is put into another bladder immersed in like manner in an
artificial serum. In this instance a little fluid also passes from the
outside into the bladder, so that there is a rise of water in the tube,
but less than in the previous instance. A third mixture, consisting of one
part of alcohol with three parts of water, is placed in another little
bladder, and is also suspended in the artificial serum. In this case there
is, for a time, a small rise of fluid in the tube connected with the
bladder; but after a while, owing to the dilution which took place, a
current from within outward sets in, and the tube becomes empty. Thus each
bladder charged originally with the same quantity of fluid contains at
last a different quantity. The first contains more than it did originally,
the second only a little more, the third a little less. From the third,
absorption takes place, and if I keep changing and replacing the outer
fluid which surrounds the bladder with fresh serum, I can in time, owing
to the double current of water into the bladder through its coats, and of
water and alcohol out of the bladder into the serum, remove all the
alcohol. In this way it is removed from the stomach into the circulating
blood after it has been swallowed. When we dilute alcohol with water
before drinking it, we quicken its absorption. If we do not dilute it
sufficiently, it is diluted in the stomach by transudation of water in the
stomach, until the required reduction for its absorption; the current then
sets in toward the blood, and passes into the circulating canals by the
veins.--RICHARDSON.] When strong alcohol is exposed to the air, it absorbs
moisture and becomes diluted; at the same time, the spirit itself
evaporates. The commercial or proof spirit is about one half water; the
strongest holds five per cent; and to obtain absolute or waterless
alcohol, requires careful distillation in connection with some substance,
as lime, that has a still greater affinity for water, and so can despoil
the alcohol.

ALCOHOL IN ITS DESTRUCTIVE RELATION TO PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE.--If we pour
a little quantity of strong spirits upon a growing plant in our garden or
conservatory, we shall soon see it shrivel and die. If we apply it to
insects or small reptiles which we may have captured for specimens in our
cabinet, the same potent poison will procure for them a speedy death. If
we force one of our domestic animals to take habitual doses of it, the
animal will not only strongly protest against the unnatural and nauseous
potion, but it will gradually sicken and lose all power for usefulness.
"If I wished," says a distinguished English physician, "by scientific
experiment to spoil for work the most perfect specimen of a working
animal, say a horse, without inflicting mechanical injury, I could choose
no better agent for the purpose of the experiment than alcohol."
[Footnote: "The effects produced by alcohol are common, so far as I can
discover, to every animal. Alcohol is a universal intoxicant, and in the
higher orders of animals is capable of inducing the most systematic
phenomena of disease. But it is reserved for man himself to exhibit these
phenomena in their purest form, and to present, through them, in the
morbid conditions belonging to his age, a distinct pathology. Bad as this
is, it might be worse; for if the evils of alcohol were made to extend
equally to animals lower than man, we should soon have none that were
tamable, none that were workable, and none that were eatable."]

ALCOHOL IN WINE, BEER, AND CIDER IDENTICAL WITH ALCOHOL IN ARDENT
SPIRITS.--In all liquors the active principle is alcohol. It comprises
from six to eight per cent of ale and porter, seven to seventeen per cent
of wine, and forty to fifty per cent of brandy and whiskey. All these may
therefore be considered as alcohol more or less diluted with water and
flavored with various aromatics. The taste of different liquors--as
brandy, gin, beer, cider, etc.--may vary greatly, but they all produce
certain physiological effects, due to their common ingredient--alcohol.
"In whatever form it enters," says Dr. Richardson, "whether as spirit,
wine, or ale, matters little when its specific influence is kept steadily
in view. To say this man only drinks ale, that man only drinks wine, while
a third drinks spirits, is merely to say, when the apology is unclothed,
that all drink the same danger." In other words, the poisonous nature of
alcohol, and the effects which result when it is taken into the stomach,
are definite and immutable facts, which are not dependent upon any
particular name or disguise under which the poison finds entrance.

We shall learn, as we study the influence of alcohol upon the human
system, that one of its most subtle characteristics is the progressive
appetite for itself (p. 185) which it induces, an appetite which, in many
cases, is formed long before its unhappy subject is aware of his danger.
The intelligent pupil, who knows how to reason from cause to effect, needs
hardly to be told, in view of this physical truth, of the peril that lies
in the first draught of _any_ fermented liquor, even though it be so
seemingly harmless as a glass of home-brewed beer or "slightly-beaded"
cider. Few of us really understand our own inherent weakness or the
hereditary proclivities (p. 186) that may be lurking in our blood, ready
to master us when opportunity invites; but we may be tolerably certain
that if we resolutely refuse to tamper with cider, beer, or wine, we shall
not fall into temptation before rum, gin, or brandy. Since we know that in
all fermented beverages there is present the same treacherous element,
alcohol, we are truly wise only when we decline to measure arms in any way
with an enemy so seductive in its advances, so insidious in its influence,
and so terrible in its triumph. [Footnote: Aside from all considerations
of physical, mental, and moral injury wrought by the use of alcoholic
drinks, every young man may well take into account the damaging effect of
such a dangerous habit upon his business prospects. Careful business men
are becoming more and more unwilling to take into their employ any person
addicted to liquor drinking. Within the past few years the officers of
several railroads, having found that a considerable portion of their
losses could be directly traced to the drinking habits of some one or more
of their employés, have ordered the dismissal of all persons in their
service who were known to use intoxicants, with the additional provision
that persons thus discharged should never be reinstated. Many Eastern
manufactories have adopted similar rules. All mercantile agencies now
report the habits of business men in this respect, and some life insurance
companies refuse to insure habitual drinkers, regarding such risks as
"extra-hazardous."]

Let us now consider the physiological effects of alcohol upon the organs
immediately connected with the circulation of the blood.

GENERAL EFFECT OF ALCOHOL UPON THE CIRCULATION.--During the experiment
described on page 118, the influence of alcohol upon the blood may be
beautifully tested. Place on the web of the frog's foot a drop of dilute
spirit. The blood vessels immediately expand--an effect known as
"_Vascular enlargement_." Channels before unseen open, and the blood
disks fly along at a brisker rate. Next, touch the membrane with a drop of
pure spirit. The blood channels quickly contract; the cells slacken their
speed; and, finally, all motion ceases. The flesh shrivels up and dies.
The circulation thus stopped is stopped forever. The part affected will in
time slough off. Alcohol has killed it.

The influence of alcohol upon the human system is very similar. When
strong, as in spirits, it acts as an irritant, narcotic poison (p. 142,
note). Diluted, as in fermented liquors, it dilates the blood vessels,
quickens the circulation, hastens the heart throbs, and accelerates the
respiration.

THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL UPON THE HEART.--What means this rapid flow of the
blood? It shows that the heart is overworking. The nerves that lead to the
minute capillaries and regulate the passage of the vital current through
the extreme parts of the body, are paralyzed by this active narcotic. The
tiny blood vessels at once expand. This "Vascular enlargement" removes the
resistance to the passage of the blood, and a rapid beating of the heart
results. [Footnote: Dr. B. W. Richardson's experiments tend to prove that
this apparently stimulating action of alcohol upon the heart is due to the
paralysis of the nerves that control the capillaries (Note, p. 208), which
ordinarily check the flow of the blood (p. 117). The heart, like other
muscles under the influence of alcohol, really loses power, and contracts
less vigorously (p. 183). Dr. Palmer, of the University of Michigan, also
claimed that alcohol, in fact, diminishes the strength of the heart. Prof.
Martin, of Johns Hopkins University, from a series of carefully conducted
experiments upon dogs, concluded that blood containing one fourth per cent
of alcohol almost invariably diminishes within a minute the work done by
the heart; blood containing one half per cent always diminishes it, and
may reduce the amount pumped out by the left ventricle so that it is not
sufficient to supply the coronary arteries. One hundred years ago, alcohol
was always spoken of as a stimulant. Modern experiment and investigation
challenged that definition, and it is now classified as a narcotic. There
are, however, able physicians who maintain that, taken in small doses, and
under certain physical conditions, it has the effect of a stimulant. All
agree that, when taken in any amount, it tends to create an appetite for
more.]

Careful experiments show that two ounces of alcohol--an amount contained
in the daily potations of a very moderate ale or whiskey drinker--increase
the heart beats six thousand in twenty-four hours;--a degree of work
represented by that of lifting up a weight of seven tons to a height of
one foot. Reducing this sum to ounces and dividing, we find that the heart
is driven to do extra work equivalent to lifting seven ounces one foot
high one thousand four hundred and ninety-three times each hour! No wonder
that the drinker feels a reaction, a physical languor, after the earliest
effects of his indulgence have passed away. The heart flags, the brain and
the muscles feel exhausted, and rest and sleep are imperatively demanded.
During this time of excitement, the machinery of life has really been
"running down." "It is hard work," says Richardson, "to fight against
alcohol; harder than rowing, walking, wrestling, coal heaving, or the
treadmill itself."

All this is only the first effect of alcohol upon the heart. Long-
continued use of this disturbing agent causes a "Degeneration of the
muscular fiber," [Footnote: This "Degeneration" of the various tissues of
the body, we shall find, as we proceed, is one of the most marked effects
of alcoholized blood. The change consists in an excess of liquid, or, more
commonly, in a deposit of fat. This fatty matter is not an increase of the
organ, but it takes the place of a part of its fiber, thus weakening the
structure, and reducing the power of the tissue to perform its function.
Almost everywhere in the body we thus find cells--muscle cells, liver
cells, nerve cells, as the case may be--changing one by one, under the
influence of this potent disorganizer, into unhealthy fat cells. "Alcohol
has been well termed," says the _London Lancet_, "the 'Genius of
Degeneration.'"

The cause of this degeneration can be easily explained. The increased
activity of the circulation compels a correspondingly increased activity
of the cell changes: but the essential condition of healthful change--the
presence of additional oxygen--is wanting (see p. 143), and the operation
is imperfectly performed.--BRODIE.] so that the heart loses its old power
to drive the blood, and, after a time, fails to respond even to the spur
of the excitant that has urged it to ruin.

INFLUENCE UPON THE MEMBRANES.--The flush of the face and the bloodshot
eye, that are such noticeable effects of even a small quantity of liquor,
indicate the condition of all the internal organs. The delicate linings of
the stomach, heart, brain, liver, and lungs are reddened, and every tiny
vein is inflamed, like the blushing nose itself. If the use of liquor is
habitual, this "Vascular enlargement," that at first slowly passed away
after each indulgence, becomes permanent, and now the discolored, blotched
skin reveals the state of the entire mucous membrane.

We learned on page 55 what a peculiar office the membrane fills in
nourishing the organs it enwraps. Anything that disturbs its delicate
structure must mar its efficiency. Alcohol has a wonderful affinity for
water. To satisfy this greed, it will absorb moisture from the tissues
with which it comes in contact, as well as from their lubricating juices.
The enlargement of the blood vessels and their permanent congestion must
interfere with the filtering action of the membrane. In time, all the
membranes become dry, thickened, and hardened; they then shrink upon the
sensitive nerve, or stiffen the joint, or enfeeble the muscle. The
function of these membranes being deranged, they will not furnish the
organs with perfected material, and the clogged pores will no longer
filter their natural fluids. Every organ in the body will feel this
change.

EFFECT UPON THE BLOOD. [Footnote: Alcohol acts upon the oxygen carrier,
the coloring matter of the red corpuscles, causing it to settle in one
part of the globule, or even to leave the corpuscle, and deposit itself in
other elements of the blood. Thus the red corpuscle may become colorless,
distorted, shrunken, and even entirely broken up--Dr. G. B. HARRIMAN.]--
From the stomach, alcohol passes directly into the circulation, and so, in
a few minutes, is swept through the entire system. If it be present in
sufficient amount and strength, its eager desire for water will lead it to
absorb moisture from the red corpuscles, causing them to shrink, change
their form, harden, and lose some of their ability to carry oxygen; it may
even make them adhere in masses, and so hinder their passage through the
tiny capillaries.--RICHARDSON.

With most persons who indulge freely in alcoholic drinks, the blood is
thin, the avidity of alcohol for water causing the burning thirst so
familiar to all drinkers, and hence the use of enormous quantities of
water, oftener of beer, which unnaturally dilutes the blood. The blood
then easily flows from a wound, and renders an accident or surgical
operation very dangerous.

When the blood tends, as in other cases of an excessive use of spirits, to
coagulate in the capillaries, [Footnote: The blood is rendered unduly
thin, or is coagulated, according to the amount of alcohol that is carried
into the circulatory system. "The spirit may fix the water with the
fibrin, and thus destroy the power of coagulation; or it may extract the
water so determinately as to produce coagulation. This explains why, in
acute cases of poisoning by alcohol, the blood is sometimes found quite
fluid, at other times firmly coagulated in the vessels."--B. W.
RICHARDSON.]

Reckless persons have sometimes drunk a large quantity of liquor for a
wager, and, as the result of their folly, have died instantly. The whole
of the blood in the heart having coagulated, the circulation was stopped,
and death inevitably ensued.] there is a liability of an obstruction to
the flow of the vital current through the heart, liver, lungs, etc., that
may cause disease, and in the brain may lay the foundation of paralysis,
or, in extreme cases, of apoplexy.

Wherever the alcoholized blood goes through the body, it bathes the
delicate cells with an irritating narcotic poison, instead of a bland,
nutritious substance.

EFFECT UPON THE LUNGS.--Here we can see how certainly the presence of
alcohol interferes with the red corpuscles in their task of carrying
oxygen. "Even so small a quantity as one part of alcohol to five hundred
of the blood will materially check the absorption of oxygen in the lungs."

The cells, unable to take up oxygen, retain their carbonic-acid gas, and
so return from the lungs, carrying back, to poison the system, the refuse
matter the body has sought to throw off. Thus the lungs no longer furnish
properly oxygenized blood.

The rapid stroke of the heart, already spoken of, is followed by a
corresponding quickening of the respiration. The flush of the cheek is
repeated in the reddened mucous membrane lining the lungs.

When this "Vascular enlargement" becomes permanent, and the highly
albuminous membrane of the air cells is hardened and thickened as well as
congested, the Osmose of the gases to and fro through its pores can no
longer be prompt and free as before. Even when the effect passes off in a
few days after the occasional indulgence, there has been, during that
time, a diminished supply of the life-giving oxygen furnished to the
system; weakness follows, and, in the case of hard drinkers, there is a
marked liability to epidemics. [Footnote: There is no doubt that alcohol
alters and impairs tissues so that they are more prone to disease.--DR. G.
K. SABINE. A volume of statistics could be filled with quotations like the
following: "Mr. Huber, who saw in one town in Russia two thousand one
hundred and sixty persons perish with the cholera in twenty days, said:
'It is a most remarkable circumstance that persons given to drink have
been swept away like flies. In Tiflis, with twenty thousand inhabitants,
every drunkard has fallen,--all are dead, not one remaining.'"]

Physicians tell us, also, that there is a peculiar form of consumption
known as Alcoholic Phthisis caused by long-continued and excessive use of
liquor. It generally attacks those whose splendid physique has enabled
them to "drink deep" with apparent impunity. This type of consumption
appears late in life and is considered incurable. Severe cases of
pneumonia are also generally fatal with inebriates. [Footnote: The
Influence of Alcohol is continued in the chapter on Digestion.]

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. Why does a dry, cold atmosphere favorably affect catarrh?

2. Why should we put on extra covering when we lie down to sleep?

3. Is it well to throw off our coats or shawls when we come in heated from
a long walk?

4. Why are close-fitting collars or neckties injurious?

5. Which side of the heart is the more liable to inflammation?

6. What gives the toper his red nose?

7. Why does not the arm die when the surgeon ties the principal artery
leading to it?

8. When a fowl is angry, why does its comb redden?

9. Why does a fat man endure cold better than a lean one?

10. Why does one become thin, during a long sickness?

11. What would you do if you should come home "wet to the skin"?

12. When the cold air strikes the face, why does it first blanch and then
flush?

13. What must be the effect of tight lacing upon the circulation of the
blood?

14. Do you know the position of the large arteries in the limbs, so that
in case of accident you could stop the flow of blood?

15. When a person is said to be good-hearted, is it a physical truth?

16. Why does a hot footbath relieve the headache?

17. Why does the body of a drowned or strangled person turn blue?

18. What are the little "kernels" in the armpits?

19. When we are excessively warm, would the thermometer show any rise of
temperature in the body?

20. What forces besides that of the heart aid in propelling the blood?

21. Why can the pulse be best felt in the wrist?
22. Why are starving people exceedingly sensitive to any jar?

23. Why will friction, an application of horse-radish leaves, or a blister
relieve internal congestion?

24. Why are students very liable to cold feet?

25. Is the proverb that "blood is thicker than water" literally true?

26. What is the effect upon the circulation of "holding the breath"?

27. Which side of the heart is the stronger?

28. How is the heart itself nourished? [Footnote: The coronary artery,
springing from the aorta just after its origin, carries blood to the
muscular walls of the heart; the venous blood comes back through the
coronary veins, and empties directly into the right auricle.]

29. Does any venous blood reach the heart without coming through the venæ
cavæ?

30. What would you do, in the absence of a surgeon, in the case of a
severe wound? (See p. 258.)

31. What would you do in the case of a fever? (See p. 263.)

32. What is the most injurious effect of alcohol upon the blood?

33. Are our bodies the same from day to day?

34. Show how life comes by death.

35. Is not the truth just stated as applicable to moral and intellectual,
as to physical life?

36. What vein begins and ends with capillaries? _Ans_. The portal
vein commences with capillaries in the digestive organs, and ends with the
same kind of vessels in the liver. (See p. 166.)

37. By what process is alcohol always formed? Does it exist in nature?

38. What percentage of alcohol is contained in the different kinds of
liquor?

39. Does cider possess the same intoxicating principle as brandy?

40. Describe the general properties of alcohol.

41. Show that alcohol is a narcotic poison.

42. If alcohol is not a stimulant, how does it cause the heart to
overwork?

43. Why is the skin of a drunkard always red and blotched?

44. What danger is there in occasionally using alcoholic drinks?

45. What is meant by a fatty degeneration of the heart?

46. What keeps the blood in circulation between the beats of the heart?

47. What is the office of the capillaries? (See note, p. 373.)

48. Does alcohol interfere with this function?

49. How does alcohol interfere with the regular office of the membranes?

50. How does it check the process of oxidation?




VI.


DIGESTION AND FOOD.

"A man puts some ashes in a hill of corn and thereby doubles its yield.
Then he says, 'My ashes have I turned into corn.' Weak from his labor, he
eats of his corn, and new life comes to him. Again, he says, 'I have
changed my corn into a man.' This also he feels to be the truth.

"It is the problem of the body, remember, that we are discussing. A man is
more than the body; to confound the body and the man is worse than
confounding the body and the clothing."--JOHN DARBY.

ANALYSIS OF DIGESTION AND FOOD

_
| 1. WHY WE NEED FOOD.
|
| 2. WHAT FOOD DOES.
|                      _                    _
|                     | 1. Nitrogenous.    |_a. _The Sugars._
| 3. KINDS OF FOOD....| 2. Carbonaceous....|_b. _The Fats._
|                     |_3. Minerals
|
| 4. ONE KIND is INSUFFICIENT.
|
| 5. OBJECT OF DIGESTION.
|                      _
|                     |   --General Description
|                     |                      _
|                     | 1. Mastication and  | a. _The Saliva._
|                     |    Insalvation......| b. _Process of
|                     |                     |_      Swallowing._
|                     |                      _
|                     |                     | a. _The Stomach._
|                     | 2. Gastric          | b. _The Gastric
|                     |    Digestion........|       Juice._
|                     |                     |_c. _The Chyme_
| 6. PROCESSES OF     |                      _
|    DIGESTION........|                     |   --Description
|                     |                     | a. _The Bile_
|                     | 3. Intestional      | b. _The Pancreatic
|                     |    Digestion........|       Juice._
|                     |                     | c. _The Small
|                     |                     |_      Intestine._
|                     |                      _
|                     |                     | a. _By the Veins._
|                     | 4. Absorption.......| b. _By the
|                     |_                    |_      Lacteals._
|
| 7. COMPLEXITY OF THE PROCESS OF DIGESTION.
|                      _
|                     | 1. Length of Time required.
|                     |                      _
|                     |                     | a. _Beef._
|                     |                     | b. _Mutton._
|                     |                     | c. _Lamb._
|                     | 2. Value of dif-    | d. _Pork._
|                     |     ferent kinds    | e. _Fish._
|                     |     of food.........| f. _Milk._
|                     |                     | g. _Cheese._
|                     |                     |_h. _Eggs, etc._
|                     |                      _
| 8. HYGIENE..........|                     | a. _Coffee._
|                     | 3. The Stimulants...| b. _Tea._
|                     |                     |_C. _Chocolate._
|                     | 4. Cooking of Food.
|                     | 5. Rapid Eating.
|                     | 6. Quantity and Quality of Food.
|                     | 7. When Food should be taken.
|                     | 8. How Food should be taken.
|                     |_9. Need of a Variety
|
| 9. THE WONDERS OF DIGESTION.
|                      _
|                     | 1. Dyspepsia.
| 10. DISEASES........|_2. The Mumps.
|                      _
|                     | 1. Is Alcohol a Food?
|                     | 2. Effect upon the Digestion.
|                     | 3. Effect upon the Liver.
| 11. ALCOHOLIC       | 4. Effect upon the Kidneys.
|     DRINKS AND      | 5. Does Alcohol impart heat?
|     NARCOTICS.......| 6. Does Alcohol impart strength?
|_                    | 7. The Effect upon the Waste of the Body.
| 8. Alcohol creates a progressive appetite
|     for itself.
|_9. Law of Heredity.

DIGESTION AND FOOD.

WHY WE NEED FOOD.--We have learned that our bodies are constantly giving
off waste matter--the products of the fire, or oxidation, as the chemist
terms the change going on within us (Note, p. 107). A man without food
will starve to death in a few days, _i. e._, the oxygen will have
consumed all the available flesh of his body. [Footnote: The stories
current in the newspapers of persons who live for years without food, are,
of course, untrue. The case of the Welsh Fasting Girl, which excited
general interest throughout Great Britain, and was extensively copied in
our own press, is in point. She had succeeded in deceiving not only the
public, but, as some claim, her own parents. At last a strict watch was
set by day and night, precluding the possibility of her receiving any food
except at the hands of the committee, from whom she steadily refused it.
In a few days she died from actual starvation. The youth of the girl, the
apparent honesty of the parents, and the tragical sequel, make it one of
the most remarkable cases of the kind on record.] To replace the daily
outgo, we need about two and a quarter pounds of food, and three pints of
drink. [Footnote: Every cell in the tissues is full of matter ready to set
free at call its stored-up energy--derived from the meat, bread, and
vegetables we have eaten. This energy will pass off quietly when the
organs are in comparative rest, but violently when the muscles contract
with force. When we send an order through a nerve to any part of the body,
a series of tiny explosions run the entire length of the nerve, just as
fire runs through a train of gunpowder. The muscle receives the stimulus,
and, contracting, liberates its energy. The cells of nerve or muscle,
whose contents have thus exploded, as it were, are useless, and must be
carried off by the blood, just as ashes must be swept from the hearth, and
new fuel be supplied to keep up a fire.]

Including the eight hundred pounds of oxygen taken from the air, a man
uses in a year about a ton and a half of material. [Footnote: The
following is the daily ration of a United States soldier. It is said to be
the most generous in the world:

Bread or flour   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  22 ounces.
Fresh or salt beef (or pork or bacon, 12 oz.)  .    20    "
Potatoes (three times per week)  .   .   .   .   .  16    "
Rice   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .     1.6  "
Coffee (or tea, 0.24 oz.)    .   .   .   .   .   .   1.6  "
Sugar  .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .     2.4  "
Beans    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   0.64 gill.
Vinegar    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .     0.32  "
Salt .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   0.16  "]

Yet during this entire time his weight may have been nearly uniform.
[Footnote: If, however, he were kept on the scale pan of a sensitive
balance, he would find that his weight is constantly changing, increasing
with each meal, and then gradually decreasing.] Our bodies are but molds,
in which a certain quantity of matter, checked for a time on its ceaseless
round, receives a definite form. They may be likened, says Huxley, to an
eddy in the river, which retains its shape for a while, yet every instant
each particle of water is changing.

WHAT FOOD DOES.--We make no force ourselves. We can only use that which
nature provides for us. [Footnote: We draw from Nature at once our
substance, and the force by which we operate upon her; being, so far,
parts of her great system, immersed in it for a short time and to a small
extent. Enfolding us, as it were, within her arms, Nature lends us her
forces to expend; we receive them, and pass them on, giving them the
impress of our will, and bending them to our designs, for a little while;
and then--Yes; then it is all one. The great procession pauses not, nor
flags a moment, for our fall. The powers which Nature lent to us she
resumes to herself, or lends, it may be, to another; the use which we have
made of them, or might have made and did not, is written in her book
forever.--_Health and its Conditions_.] All our strength comes from
the food we eat. Food is force--that is, it contains a latent power which
it gives up when it is decomposed. [Footnote: This force is chemical
affinity. It binds together the molecules which compose the food we eat.
When oxygen tears the molecules to pieces and makes them up into smaller
ones, the force is set free. As we shall learn in Physics, it can be
turned, into heat, muscular motion, electricity, etc. The principle that
the different kinds of force can be changed into one another without loss,
is called the Conservation of Energy, and is one of the grandest
discoveries of modern science.--_Popular Physics_, pages 35, 39,
278.] Oxygen is the magic key which unlocks for our use this hidden store.
[Footnote: We have spoken of the mystery that envelops the process of the
conversion of food force into muscular force (note, p. 107). All
physiologists agree that muscular power has its source in the chemical
decomposition of certain substances whereby their potential energy is
released. Probably some of the food undergoes this chemical change before
it passes out of the alimentary canal; possibly some is broken up by the
oxygen while it is being swept along by the blood; but, probably by far
the largest part is converted into the various tissues of the body, and
finally becomes a waste product only after there takes place in the tissue
itself that chemical disorganization that sets free its stored-up power.--
FOSTER'S _Physiology_.] Putting food into our bodies is like placing
a tense spring within a watch; every motion of the body is only a new
direction given to this food force, as every movement of the hand on the
dial is but the manifestation of the power of the bent spring in the
watch. We use the pent-up energies of meat, bread, and vegetables which
are placed at our service, and transfer them to a higher theater of
action. [Footnote: It is a grand thought that we can thus transform what
is common and gross into the refined and spiritual; that out of waving
wheat, wasting flesh, running water, and dead minerals, we can realize the
glorious possibilities of human life.]

KINDS OF FOOD NEEDED.--From what has been said it is clear that, in order
to produce heat and force, we need something that will burn, _i. e._,
with which oxygen can combine. Experiment has proved that to build up
every organ, and keep the body in the best condition, we require three
kinds of food.

1. _Nitrogenous Food_.--As nitrogen is a prominent constituent of the
tissues of the body, food which contains it is therefore necessary to
their growth and repair. [Footnote: Since this kind of food closely
resembles albumen, it is sometimes called _Albuminous_. The term
Proteid is also used.] The most common forms are whites of eggs--which are
nearly pure albumen; casein--the chief constituent of cheese; lean meat;
and gluten--the viscid substance which gives tenacity to dough. Bodies
having a great deal of nitrogen readily oxidize. Hence the peculiar
character of the quick-changing, force-exciting muscle.

2. _Carbonaceous Food_--_i. e._, food containing much carbon--
consists of two kinds, viz., the _sugars_, and the _fats_.

(1) The _sugars_ contain hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion to
form water, and about the same amount of carbon. They may, therefore, be
considered as water, with carbon diffused through it. In digestion, starch
and gum are changed to sugar, and so are ranked with this class.

(2) The _fats_ are like the sugars in composition, but contain less
oxygen, and not in the proportion to form water. They combine with more
oxygen in burning, and so give off more heat.

The non-nitrogenous elements of the food have, however, other uses than to
develop heat. [Footnote: The heat they produce in burning may be turned
into motion of the muscles, according to the principle of the Conservation
of Energy (p. 153, note); while all the structures of the body in their
oxidation develop heat.] Fat is essential to the assimilation of the food,
while sugar and starch aid in digestion and may be converted into fat.
[Footnote: In Turkey, the ladies of the harem are fed on honey and thick
gruel, to make flesh, which is considered to enhance their beauty. The
negroes on the sugar plantations of the South always grow fat during the
sugar-making season.] Fat and carbonaceous material both enter into the
composition of the various tissues, and when, by the breaking up of the
contractile substance of the muscle, their latent energy is set free, they
become the source of muscular force, as well as heat. While the tendency
of the albuminous food is to excite chemical action, and hence the release
of energy, the fats and carbonaceous food may be laid up in the body to
serve as a storehouse of energy to supply future needs.

3. _Mineral Matters_.--Food should contain water, and certain common
minerals, such as iron, [Footnote: While the body can build up a solid
from liquid materials on the one hand, on the other it can pour iron
through its veins and reduce the hardest textures to blood.--HINTON.]
sulphur, magnesia, phosphorus, salt, and potash. About three pints of
water are needed daily to dissolve the food and carry it through the
circulation, to float off waste matter, to lubricate the tissues, and by
evaporation to cool the system (see p. 317). It also enters largely into
the composition of the body. A man weighing one hundred and fifty-four
pounds contains one hundred pounds of water, about twelve gallons--enough,
if rightly arranged, to drown him. [Footnote: It is said that Blumenbach
had a perfect mummy of an adult Teneriffian, which with the viscera
weighed only seven and a half pounds.]

Iron goes to the blood disks; lime combines with phosphoric and carbonic
acids to give solidity to the bones and teeth; phosphorus is essential to
the activity of the brain. Salt is necessary to the secretion of some of
the digestive fluids, and also to aid in working off from the system its
waste products. These various minerals, except iron--sometimes given as a
medicine, and salt--universally used as a condiment, [Footnote: Animals
will travel long distances to obtain salt. Men will barter gold for it;
indeed, among the Gallas and on the coast of Sierra Leone, brothers will
sell their sisters, husbands their wives, and parents their children for
salt. In the district of Accra, on the gold coast of Africa, a handful of
salt is the most valuable thing upon earth after gold, and will purchase a
slave. Mungo Park tells us that with the Mandingoes and Bambaras the use
of salt is such a luxury that to say of a man "he flavors his food with
salt," it is to imply that he is rich; and children will suck a piece of
rock salt as if it were sugar. No stronger mark of respect or affection
can be shown in Muscovy, than the sending of salt from the tables of the
rich to their poorer friends. In the book of Leviticus it is expressly
commanded as one of the ordinances of Moses, that every oblation of meat
upon the altar shall be seasoned with salt, without lacking; and hence it
is called the Salt of the Covenant of God. The Greeks and Romans also used
salt in their sacrificial cakes; and it is still used in the services of
the Latin church--the "_parva mica_" or pinch of salt, being in the
ceremony of baptism, put into the child's mouth, while the priest says,
"Receive the salt of wisdom, and may it be a propitiation to thee for
eternal life." Everywhere and almost always, indeed, it has been regarded
as emblematical of wisdom, wit, and immortality. To taste a man's salt,
was to be bound by the rites of hospitality; and no oath was more solemn
than that which was sworn upon bread and salt. To sprinkle the meat with
salt was to drive away the devil, and to this day, nothing is more unlucky
than to spill the salt.--LETHEBY, _On Food_.] are contained in
small, but sufficient quantities in meat, bread, and vegetables.

ONE KIND OF FOOD IS INSUFFICIENT.--A person fed on starch alone, would
die. It would be a clear case of nitrogen starvation. On the other hand,
as nitrogenous food contains carbon, the elements of water, and various
mineral matters, life could be supported on that alone. But such a
prodigious quantity of lean meat, for example, would be required to
furnish the other elements, that not only would it be very expensive, but
it is likely that after a time the labor of digestion would be too
onerous, and the system would give up the task in despair. The need of a
diet containing both nitrogenous and carbonaceous elements is shown in the
fact that even in the tropical regions oil is relished as a dressing upon
salad. Instinct everywhere suggests the blending. Butter is used with
bread; rice is boiled with milk; cheese is eaten with macaroni, and beans
are baked with pork.

FIG. 45.

[Illustration: _The Stomach and Intestines._ 1, _stomach;_ 2,
_duodenum;_ 3, _small intestine;_ 4, _termination of the
ileum;_ 5, _cœcum;_ 6, _vermiforn appendix;_ 7, _ascending
colon;_ 8, _transverse colon;_ 9, _descending colon;_ 10,
_sigmoid flexure of the colon;_ 11, _rectum;_ 12, _spleen--a
gland whose action is not understood._--LEIDY'S _Anatomy._]

THE OBJECT OF DIGESTION.--If our food were cast directly into the blood,
it could not be used. For example, although the chemist can not see
wherein the albumen of the egg differs from the albumen of the blood, yet
if it be injected into the veins it is unavailable for the purposes
required, and is thrown out again. In the course of digestion the food is
modified in various ways whereby it is fitted for the use of the body,
into which it is finally incorporated. We call this change of food into
flesh _assimilation_, a name for a work done solely by the vital
organs, and so mysterious in its nature that the wisest physiologist gets
only glimpses here and there of its operations.

THE GENERAL PLAN OF DIGESTION.--Nature has provided for this purpose an
entire laboratory, furnished with a chemist's outfit of knives, mortars,
baths, chemicals, filters, etc. The food is (1) chewed, mixed with the
saliva in the mouth, and swallowed; (2) it is acted upon by the gastric
juice in the stomach; (3) it is passed into the intestines, where it
receives the bile, pancreatic juice, and other liquids which completely
dissolve it; [Footnote: Digestion, says Berzelius, is a process of
rinsing. The digestive apparatus secretes, and again absorbs with the food
which it has dissolved, not less than three gallons of liquid per day.--
BARNARD, BIDDER, SCHMIDT, and others.] (4) the nourishing part is absorbed
in the stomach and intestines, and thence thrown into the blood vessels,
whence it is whirled through the body by the torrent of the circulation.
These processes take place within the _alimentary canal_, a narrow
tortuous tube which commences at the mouth, and is about thirty feet long.
[Footnote: The digestive apparatus is lined with mucous membrane that
possesses functions similar to those of the outer skin. It absorbs certain
substances and rejects waste matter. On account of this close connection
between the inner and the outer skin, it is not surprising to find that in
the lowest animals digestion is performed by means of the external skin.
The amœba, which is merely a gelatinous mass, when it takes its food,
extemporizes a stomach for the occasion. It simply wraps itself around the
morsel, and, like an animated apple dumpling with the apple for food and
the crust for animal, goes on with the process until the operation is
completed, when it unrolls itself again and lets the indigestible residue
escape. The common hydra of our brooks can live when turned inside out,
like a glove; either side serving for skin or stomach, as necessity
requires.]

FIG. 46.

[Illustration: _The Parotid--one of the salivary glands._]

I. MASTICATION AND INSALIVATION.--l. _The Saliva_.--The food while
being cut and ground by the teeth is mixed with the saliva. This is a
thin, colorless, frothy, slightly alkaline liquid, secreted [Footnote: By
secretion is meant merely a separation or picking out from the blood.] by
the mucous membrane lining the mouth, and by three pairs of salivary
glands (parotid, submaxillary, and sublingual) opening into the mouth
through ducts, or tubes. The amount varies, but on the average is about
three pounds per day, and in health is always sufficient to keep the mouth
moist. [Footnote: The presence and often the thought of food will "make
one's mouth water." Fear checks the flow of saliva, and hence the East
Indians sometimes attempt to detect theft by making those who are
suspected chew rice. The person from whom it comes out driest is adjudged
the thief.] It softens and dissolves the food, and thus enables us to get
the flavor or taste of what we eat. It contains a peculiar organic
principle called _ptyalin_, [Footnote: One part of ptyalin will
convert eight thousand parts of starch into sugar.--MIALEE.

The saliva has no chemical action on the fats or the albuminous bodies.
Its frothiness enables it to carry oxygen into the stomach, and this is
thought to be of service. The action of the ptyalin commences with great
promptness, and sugar has been detected, it is said, within half a minute
after the starch was placed in the mouth. The process, however, is not
finished there, but continues after reaching the stomach.--VALENTIN. The
saliva thus prepares a small portion of food for absorption at once, and
so insures at the very beginning of the operation of digestion a supply of
force-producing material for the immediate use of the system.] which,
acting upon the starch of the food, changes it into glucose or grape
sugar.

2. _The Process of Swallowing._--The food thus finely pulverized,
softened, and so lubricated by the viscid saliva as to prevent friction as
it passes over the delicate membranes, is conveyed by the tongue and cheek
to the back of the mouth. The soft palate lifts to close the nasal
opening; the epiglottis shuts down, and along this bridge the food is
borne, without danger of falling into the windpipe or escaping into the
nose. The muscular bands of the throat now seize it and take it beyond our
control. The fibers of the œsophagus contract above, while they are lax
below, and convey the food by a worm-like motion into the stomach.
[Footnote: We can observe the peculiar motion of the œsophagus by watching
a horse's neck when he is drinking.]

II. GASTRIC DIGESTION.--1. _The Stomach_ is an irregular expansion of
the digestive tube. Its shape has been compared to that of a bagpipe. It
holds about three pints, though it is susceptible of some distension. It
is composed of an inner, mucous membrane, which secretes the digestive
fluids; an outer, smooth, well-lubricated serous one, which prevents
friction, and between them a stout, muscular coat. The last consists of
two principal layers of longitudinal and circular fibers. When these
contract, they produce a peculiar churning motion, called the
_peristaltic_ (_peri_, round; _stallein_, to arrange) movement, which
thoroughly mixes the contents of the stomach. At the farther end, the
muscular fibers contract and form a gateway, the _pylorus_ (a gate),
as it is called, which carefully guards the exit, and allows no food
to pass from the stomach until properly prepared. [Footnote: With a
wise discretion, however, it opens for buttons, coins, etc., swallowed
by accident; and when we overload the stomach, it seems to become weary of
constantly denying egress, and, finally, giving up in despair, lets
everything through.]

FIG. 47.

[Illustration: _Diagram of the Digestion of the Food. Notice how the
food is submitted to the action of alkaline, acid, and then alkaline
fluids. (See note, p._ 165.)]

2. _The Gastric Juice_.--The lining of the stomach is soft, velvety,
and of a pinkish hue; but, as soon as food is admitted, the blood vessels
fill, the surface becomes of a bright red, and soon there exudes from the
gastric glands a thin, colorless fluid--the gastric juice. (See p. 319.)
This is secreted to the amount of twelve pounds per day. [Footnote: The
amount secreted by a healthy adult is variously estimated from five to
thirty-seven pounds. As it is reabsorbed by the blood, there is no loss.]
Its acidity is probably due to muriatic or lactic acid--the acid of sour
milk. It contains a peculiar organic principle called _pepsin_
[Footnote: Pepsin is prepared and sold as an article of commerce. The best
is said to be made from the stomachs of young, healthy pigs, which, just
before being killed, are excited with savory food that they are not
allowed to eat. One grain is sufficient to dissolve eight hundred grains
of coagulated white of egg. A temperature of 130° renders pepsin inert.]
(_peptein_, to digest), which acts as a ferment to produce changes in
the food, without being itself modified.

The flow of gastric juice is influenced by various circumstances. Cold
water checks it for a time, and ice for a longer period. Anger, fatigue,
and anxiety delay and even suspend the secretion. The gastric juice has no
effect on the fats or the sugars of the food; its influence being mainly
confined to the albuminous bodies, which it so changes that they become
soluble in water. [Footnote: The question is often asked why the stomach
itself is not digested by the gastric juice, since it belongs to the
albuminous substances. Some have assigned as the probable reason that life
protects that organ, and assert that living tissues can not be digested;
but the fallacy of this has been clearly shown by experiments that have
been made with living tissues in the course of scientific research. The
latest opinion is that the blood which circulates so freely through the
vessels of the lining of the stomach, being alkaline, protects the tissue
against the acidity of the gastric juice.]

The food, reduced by the action of the gastric juice to a grayish, soupy
mass, called _chyme_ (kime), escapes through that jealously guarded
door, the pylorus.

Fig. 48.

[Illustration: _A vertical Section of the Duodenum, highly
magnified._ 1, _a fold-like villus;_ 2, epithelium, or cuticle;_
3, _orifices of intestinal glands;_ 5, _orifice of duodenal glands;_
4, 7, _more highly magnified sections of the cells of a duodenal gland._]

III. INTESTINAL DIGESTION--The structure of the intestines is like that
of the stomach. There is the same outer, smooth, serous membrane
(peritoneum) to prevent friction, the lining of mucous membrane to secrete
the digestive fluids, and the muscular coating to push the food forward.
The intestines are divided into the _small_ and the _large_. The
first part of the former opens out of the stomach, and is called the
_du-o-de'-num_, as its length is equal to the breadth of twelve
fingers. Here the chyme is acted upon by the _bile_, and the
_pancreatic juice_.

FIG. 49.

[Illustration: _The Mucous Membrane of the Ilium, highly magnified._
1, _cellular structure of the epithelium, or outer layer;_ 2, _a
vein;_ 3, _fibrous layer;_ 4, _villi covered with epithelium;_ 5,
_a villus in section, showing its lining of epithelium, with its
blood vessels and lymphatics;_ 6, _a villus partially uncovered;_
7, _a villus stripped of its epithelium;_ 8, _lymphatics or lacteals;_
9, _orifices of the glands opening between the villi;_ 10, 11, 12,
_glands;_ 13, _capillaries surrounding the orifices of the gland._]

1. _The Bile_ is secreted by the liver. This gland weighs about four
pounds, and is the largest in the body. It is located on the right side,
below the diaphragm. The bile is of a dark, golden color, and bitter
taste. About three pounds are secreted per day. When not needed for
digestion, it is stored in the gall cyst. [Footnote: A gall bladder can be
obtained from a butcher, and the contents kept in a bottle for
examination.] Its action on the food, though not fully understood, is
necessary to life. [Footnote: The bile is produced, unlike all the other
animal secretions, from venous blood; that is, the already contaminated
blood of the portal vein. Its complete suppression produces symptoms of
poisoning analogous to those which follow the stoppage of respiration, and
the patient dies, usually in a comatose condition, at the end of ten or
twelve days.--DALTON. The alkaline bile neutralizes the acid contents of
the stomach as they flow into the duodenum, and thus prepares the way for
the pancreatic juice. It has also a slight emulsifying power (note, p.
167).]

2. _The Pancreatic Juice_ is a secretion of the pancreas, or
"sweetbread"--a gland nearly as large as the hand, lying behind the
stomach. It is alkaline, and contains a ferment called _trypsin_.
This juice has the power of changing starch to sugar. Its main work,
however, is in breaking up the globules of fat into myriads of minute
particles, that mix freely with water, and remain suspended in it like
butter in new milk. The whole mass now assumes a milky look, whence it is
termed _chyle_ (kile) and passes on to the small intestine.
[Footnote: It is curious to observe that while the gastric juice is
decidedly acid, the fluids with which the food next comes into contact are
alkaline. It is thus submitted to the operation alternately of alkaline,
acid, and again of alkaline secretions. In the herbivora there is also a
second acid juice. The reason of these alternations is not known, but it
can hardly be doubted that they serve to make the digestion of the food
more perfect. And although the solvent power of the gastric juice is
placed in abeyance when its acidity is neutralized by the alkaline fluids,
yet it appears to be the case here, as in respect to the saliva, that
effects are produced by the mixture of the various secretions which are
poured together into the digestive tube, that would not result from either
alone.--HINTON.]

3. _The Small Intestine_ is an intricately folded tube, about twenty
feet long, and from an inch to an inch and one half in diameter. As the
chyle passes through this tortuous channel, it receives along the entire
route secretions which seem to combine the action of all the previous
ones--starch, fat, and albumen being equally affected.

IV. ABSORPTION is performed in two ways, by the _veins_, and the
_lacteals_. (1.) The veins in the stomach [Footnote: The veins and
the lacteals are separated from the food by a thin, moist membrane,
through the pores of which the fluid food rapidly passes, in accordance
with a beautiful law ("Popular Physics," p. 53) called the _Osmose_
of liquids. If two liquids of different densities are separated by an
animal membrane, they will mix with considerable force. There is a similar
law regulating the interchange of gases through a porous partition, in
obedience to which the carbonic acid of the blood, and the oxygen of the
lungs, are exchanged through the thin membrane of the air cells.]
immediately begin to take up the water, salt, grape sugar, and other
substances that need no special preparation. The starch and the albuminous
bodies are also absorbed as they are properly digested, and this process
continues along the whole length of the alimentary canal. In the small
intestine, there is a multitude of tiny projections (_villi_) from
the folds of the mucous membrane, more than seven thousand to the square
inch, giving it a soft, velvety look. These little rootlets, reaching out
into the milky fluid, drink into their minute blood vessels the nutritious
part of every sort of food. (2.)The lacteals [Footnote: From _lac_,
milk, because of the milky look given to their contents by the chyle.] (p.
126), a set of vessels starting in the villi side by side with the veins,
absorb the principal part of the fat. They convey the chyle through the
lymphatics and the thoracic duct (Fig. 43) to the veins, and so within the
sweep of the circulation.

The Portal Vein [Footnote: So named because it enters the liver by a sort
of gateway.] carries to the liver the food absorbed by the veins of the
stomach and the villi of the intestines. On the way, it is greatly
modified by the action of the blood itself. In the cells of the liver, it
undergoes as mysterious a process as that performed by the lymphatic
glands, and is then cast into the circulation. [Footnote: In these cells,
the sugar is changed into a kind of starch called _glycogen_. This is
insoluble, and so is stored up in the liver, and even in the substance of
the muscles, until it is needed by the body, when it is once more
converted into soluble sugar and taken up by the circulation. The liver
also changes the waste and surplus albuminous matter into bile, and into
urea and uric acid--the forms in which nitrogenized waste is excreted by
the kidneys.] The food, potent with force, is now buried in that river of
life from which the body springs momentarily afresh.

THE COMPLEXITY of the process of digestion, as compared with the
simplicity of respiration and circulation, is very marked. The mechanical
operation of mastication; the lubrication of the food by mucus; the
provision for the security of the respiratory organs; the grasping by the
muscles of the throat; the churning movement of the stomach; the
guardianship of the pylorus; the timely introduction by safe and protected
channels of the saliva, the gastric juice, the bile, the pancreatic juice,
and the intestinal fluids, each with its special adaptation; the curious
peristaltic motion of the intestines; the twofold absorption by the veins
and the lacteals; the final transformation in the lymphatics, the portal
vein, and the liver,--all these present a complexity of detail, the
necessity of which can be explained only when we reflect upon the variety
of the substances we use for food, and the importance of its thorough
preparation before it is allowed to enter the blood.

THE LENGTH OF TIME REQUIRED for digesting a full meal is from two to four
hours. It varies with the kind of food, state of the system, perfection of
mastication, etc. In the celebrated observations made upon Alexis St.
Martin [Footnote: In 1822, Alexis St. Martin, a Canadian in the employ of
the American Fur Company, was accidentally shot in the left side. Two
years after, the wound was entirely healed, leaving, however, an opening
about two and a half inches in circumference into the stomach. Through
this the mucous membrane protruded, forming a kind of valve which
prevented the discharge of food, but could be readily depressed by the
finger, thus exposing the interior. For several years he was under the
care of Dr. Beaumont, a skillful physician, who experimented upon him by
giving various kinds of food, and watching their digestion through this
opening. By means of these observations, and others performed on Katherine
Kutt, a woman who had a similar aperture in the stomach, we have very
important information as to the digestibility of different kinds of food.]
by Dr. Beaumont, his stomach was found empty in two and a half hours after
a meal of roast turkey, potatoes, and bread. Pigs' feet and boiled rice
were disposed of in an hour. Fresh, sweet apples took one and a half
hours; boiled milk, two hours; and unboiled, a quarter of an hour longer.
In eggs, which occupied the same time, the case was reversed,--raw ones
being digested sooner than cooked. Roast beef and mutton required three
and three and a quarter hours respectively; veal, salt beef, and broiled
chicken remained for four hours; and roast pork enjoyed the bad
preeminence of needing five and a quarter hours.

VALUE OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD.--_Beef_ and _Mutton_
possess the greatest nutritive value of any of the meats. _Lamb_ is
less strengthening, but more delicate. Like the young of all animals, it
should be thoroughly cooked, and at a high temperature, properly to
develop its delicious flavor. _Pork_ has much carbon. It sometimes
contains a parasite called trichina, which may be transferred to the human
system, producing disease and often death. The only preventive is thorough
cooking. _Fish_ is more watery than flesh, and many find it difficult
of digestion. Like meat, it loses its mineral constituents and natural
juices when salted, and is much less nourishing. Oysters are highly
nutritious, but are more easily assimilated when raw than when cooked.
_Milk_ is a model food, as it contains albumen, starch, fat, and
mineral matter. No other single substance can sustain life for so long a
time. _Cheese_ is very nourishing--one pound being equal in value to
two of meat, but it is not adapted to a weak stomach. (See p. 322.)
_Eggs_ are most easily digested when the white is barely coagulated
and the yolk is unchanged. _Bread_ [Footnote: Very fresh bread, warm
biscuit, etc., are condensed by mastication into a pasty mass that is not
easily penetrated by the gastric juice, and hence they are not healthful.
In Germany bread is not allowed to be sold at the baker's till it is
twenty-four hours old--a wise provision for those who have not strength to
resist temptation. This rule of eating may well be adopted by every one
who cares more for his health than for a gratification of his appetite.]
should be made of unbolted flour. The bran of wheat furnishes the mineral
matter we need in our bones and teeth, gives the bulk so essential to the
proper distension of the organs, and by its roughness gently stimulates
them to action. _Corn_ is rich in fat. It contains, however, more
indigestible matter than any other grain, except oats, and is less
nutritious than wheat. [Footnote: Persons unaccustomed to the use of corn
find it liable to produce derangement of the digestive organs. This was
made fearfully apparent in the prisons of Andersonville during the late
civil war. The vegetable food of the Federal prisoners had hitherto been
chiefly wheat bread and potatoes--the corn bread so extensively used at
the South being quite new to most of them as a constant article of diet.
It soon became not only loathsome, but productive of serious diseases. On
the other hand, it was the principal article in the rations of the
Confederate soldiers, to whom habit made it a nutritious and wholesome
form of food, as was shown by their endurance.--FLINT, _Physiology of
Man_, Vol. II, page 41.] The _Potato_ is two thirds water,--the
rest being mainly starch. _Ripe Fruits_, and those vegetables usually
eaten raw, dilute the more concentrated food, and also supply the blood
with acids, which are cooling in summer, and useful, perhaps, in
assimilation.

THE STIMULANTS.--_Coffee_ is about half nitrogen, and the rest fatty,
saccharine, and mineral substances. It is, therefore, of much nutritive
value, especially when taken with milk and sugar. Its peculiar stimulating
property is due to a principle called _caffeine_. Its aroma is
developed by browning, but destroyed by burning. No other substance so
soon relieves the sense of fatigue. [Footnote: In the late civil war, the
first desire of the soldiers upon halting after a wearisome march, was to
make a cup of coffee. This was taken without milk, and often without
sugar, yet was always welcome.] Taken in moderation, it clears the
intellect, tranquilizes the nerves, and usually leaves no unpleasant
reaction. It serves also as a kind of negative food, since it retards the
process of waste.

In some cases, however, it produces a rush of blood to the head, and
should be at once discarded. At the close of a full meal it hinders
digestion, and at night produces wakefulness. In youth, when the vital
powers are strong, and the functions of nature prompt in rallying from
fatigue, it is not needed, and may be injurious in stimulating a sensitive
organization.

_Tea_ possesses an active principle called _theine_. When used
moderately, its effects are similar to those of coffee, except that it
exerts an astringent action. It contains tannin, which, if the tea is
strong, coagulates the albumen of the food--_tans_ it--and thus
delays digestion. In excess, tea causes nervous tremor, disturbed sleep,
palpitation of the heart, and indigestion. [Footnote: Tea and coffee
should be made with, boiling water, but should not be boiled afterward.
During the "steeping" process, so customary in this country, the volatile
aroma is lost and a bitter principle extracted. In both England and China
it is usual to infuse tea directly in the urn from which it is to be
drawn. The tannin in tea is shown when a drop falls on a knife blade. The
black spot is a tannate of iron--a compound of the acid in the tea and the
metal.] (See p. 322.)

_Chocolate_ contains much fat, and also nitrogenous matter resembling
albumen. Its active principle, _theobromine_, [Footnote: It is said
that Linnæus, the great botanist, was so fond of chocolate that he named
the cocoa tree "Theobroma," the food of the gods.] has some of the
properties of caffeine and theine.

THE COOKING OF FOOD breaks the little cells, and softens the fibers of
which it is composed. In broiling or roasting meat, it should be exposed
to a strong heat at once, in order to coagulate the albumen upon the
outside, and thus prevent the escape of the nutritious juices. The cooking
may then be finished at a lower temperature. The same principle applies to
boiling meat. In making soups, on the contrary, the heat should be applied
slowly, and should reach the boiling point for only a few moments at the
close. This prevents the coagulation of the albumen. Frying is an
unhealthful mode of cooking food, as thereby the fat becomes partially
disorganized.

RAPID EATING produces many evil results. 1. There is not enough saliva
mixed with the food; 2. The coarse pieces resist the action of the
digestive fluids; 3. The food is washed down with drinks that dilute the
gastric juice, and hinder its work; 4. We do not appreciate the quantity
we eat until the stomach is overloaded; 5. Failing to get the taste of our
food, we think it insipid, and hence use condiments that overstimulate the
digestive organs. In these various ways the appetite becomes depraved, the
stomach vexed, the system overworked, and the foundation of dyspepsia is
laid. [Footnote: When one is compelled to eat in a hurry, as at a railway
station, he would do well to confine himself principally to meat; and to
dilute this concentrated food with fruit, crackers, etc., taken afterward
more leisurely.] (See p. 324.)

THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF FOOD required vary with the age and habits of
each individual. The diet of a child [Footnote: In youth, repair exceeds
waste; hence the body grows rapidly, and the form is plump. In middle
life, repair and waste equal each other, and growth ceases. In old age,
waste exceeds repair; hence the powers are enfeebled and the skin lies in
wrinkles on the shrunken form.] should be largely vegetable, and more
abundant than that of an aged person. A sedentary occupation necessitates
less food than an outdoor life. One accustomed to manual labor, on
entering school, should practice self-denial until his system becomes
fitted to the new order of things. He should not, however, fall into the
opposite error. We read of great men who have lived on bread and water,
and the conscientious student sometimes thinks that, to be great, he, too,
must starve himself. [Footnote: As Dr. Holland well remarks, the
dispensation of sawdust has passed away. If we desire a horse to win the
race, we must give him plenty of oats.] On the contrary, many of the
greatest workers are the greatest eaters. A powerful engine needs a
corresponding furnace. Only, we should be careful not to use more fuel
than is needed to run the machine. (See p. 325.)

The season should modify our diet. In winter, we need highly carbonaceous
food, plenty of meat, fat, etc.; but in summer we should temper the heat
in our corporeal stoves with fruits and vegetables.

The climate also has its necessities. The inhabitants of the frigid north
have an almost insatiable longing for fat. [Footnote: Dr. Hayes, the
arctic explorer, says, that the daily ration of the Esquimaux was from
twelve to fifteen pounds of meat, one third being fat. On one occasion, he
saw a man eat ten pounds of walrus flesh and blubber at a single meal. The
low temperature had a remarkable effect on the members of his own party,
and some of them were in the habit of drinking the contents of the oil
kettle with evident relish. Other travelers narrate the most incredible
stories of the voracity of the inhabitants of arctic regions. Saritcheff,
a Russian admiral, tells of a man who in his presence ate, at a meal, a
mess of twenty-eight pounds of boiled rice and butter, although he had
already partaken of his breakfast. Captain Cochrane further adds, in
narrating this statement, that he has himself seen three of the savages
consume a reindeer at a sitting.] Thus, in 1812, when the Allies entered
Paris, the Cossacks drank all the oil from the lamps, and left the streets
in darkness. In tropical regions, a low, unstimulating diet of fruits
forms the chief dependence. [Footnote: A natural appetite for a particular
kind of food is an expression not only of desire, but of fitness. Thus the
craving of childhood for sugar indicates a need of the system. It is
questionable how far it is proper to force or persuade one to eat that
which he disrelishes, or his stomach loathes. Life within is linked with
life without. Each organ requires its peculiar nutriment, and there is
often a peculiar influence demanded of which we can have no notice except
by natural instinct. Yet, as we are creatures of habit and impulse, we
need common sense and good judgment to correct the too often wayward
promptings of an artificial craving.]

WHEN FOOD SHOULD BE TAKEN.--On taking food, the blood sets at once to the
alimentary canal, and the energies are fixed upon the proper performance
of this work. We should not, therefore, undertake hard study, labor, or
exercise directly after a hearty meal. We should give the stomach at least
half an hour. He who toils with brain or muscle, and thus centers the
blood in any particular organ, before eating should allow time for the
circulation to become equalized. There should be an interval of four to
five hours between our regular meals, and there should be no lunching
between times. With young children, where the vital processes are more
rapid, less time may intervene. As a general rule, nothing should be eaten
within two or three hours of retiring. (See p 336.)

HOW FOOD SHOULD BE TAKEN.--A good laugh is the best of sauces. The
mealtime should be the happiest hour of the day. Care and grief are the
bitter foes of digestion. A cheerful face and a light heart are friends to
long life, and nowhere do they serve us better than at the table. God
designed that we should enjoy eating, and that, having stopped before
satiety was reached, we should have the satisfaction always attendant on a
good work well done.

NEED OF VARIETY.--Careful investigations have shown that any one kind of
food, however nutritious in itself, fails after a time to preserve the
highest working power of the body. Our appetite palls when we confine our
diet to a regular routine. Nature demands variety, and she has furnished
the means of gratifying it. [Footnote: She opens her hand, and pours forth
to man the treasures of every land and every sea, because she would give
to him a wide and vigorous life, participant of all variety. For him the
cornfields wave their golden grain--wheat, rye, oats, maize, or rice, each
different, but alike sufficing. Freely for him the palm, the date, the
banana, the breadfruit tree, the pine, spread out a harvest on the air;
and pleasant apple, plum, or peach solicit his ready hand. Beneath his
foot lie stored the starch of the potato, the gluten of the turnip, the
sugar of the beet; while all the intermediate space is rich with juicy
herbs.

Nature bids him eat and be merry; adding to his feast the solid flesh of
bird, and beast, and fish, prepared as victims for the sacrifice: firm
muscle to make strong the arm of toil, in the industrious temperate zone;
and massive ribs of fat to kindle inward fires for the sad dwellers under
arctic skies.--_Health and its Conditions_.--HINTON.]

THE WONDERS OF DIGESTION.--We can understand much of the process of
digestion. We can look into the stomach and trace its various steps.
Indeed, the chemist can reproduce in his laboratory many of the
operations; "a step further," as Fontenelle has said, "and he would
surprise nature in the very act." Just here, when he seems so successful,
he is compelled to pause. At the threshold of life the wisest physiologist
reverently admires, wonders, and worships.

How strange is this transformation of food to flesh! We make a meal of
meat, vegetables, and drink. Ground by the teeth, mixed by the stomach,
dissolved by the digestive fluids, it is swept through the body. Each
organ, as it passes, snatches its particular food. Within the cells of the
tissues [Footnote: As the body is composed of individual organs, and each
organ of separate tissues, so each tissue is made up of minute cells. Each
cell is a little world by itself, too small to be seen by the naked eye,
but open to the microscope. It has its own form and constitution as much
as a special organ in the body. It absorbs from the blood such food as
suits its purposes. Moreover, the number of cells in an organ is as
constant as the number of organs. As the organs expand with the growth of
the body, so the cells of each tissue enlarge, but shrink again with age
and the decline of life. Life begins and ends in a cell.--See
_Appletons' Cyclopedia_, Art. "Absorption."] it is transformed into
the soft, sensitive brain, or the hard, callous bone; into briny tears, or
bland saliva, or acrid perspiration; bile for digestion, oil for the hair,
nails for the fingers, and flesh for the cheek.

Within us is an Almighty Architect, who superintends a thousand builders,
which make in a way past all human comprehension, here a fiber of a
muscle, there a filament of a nerve; here constructing a bone, there
uniting a tendon,--fashioning each with scrupulous care and unerring
nicety. [Footnote: See COOKE'S _Religion and Chemistry_, page 236.]
So, without sound of builder or stroke of hammer, goes up, day by day, the
body--the glorious temple of the soul.

DISEASES ETC.--1. _Dyspepsia_, or indigestion of food, is generally
caused by an overtaxing of the digestive organs. Too much food is used,
and the entire system is burdened by the excess. Meals are taken at
irregular hours, when the fluids are not ready. A hearty supper is eaten
when the body, wearied with the day's labor, demands rest. The appetite
craves no food when the digestion is enfeebled, but stimulants and
condiments excite it, and the unwilling organs are oppressed by that which
they can not properly manage.

Strong tea, alcoholic drinks, and tobacco derange the alimentary function.

Too great variety of dishes, rich food, tempting flavors,--all lead to an
overloading of the stomach. This patient, long-suffering member at last
wears out. Pain, discomfort, diseases of the digestive organs, and
insufficient nutrition are the penalties of violated laws. (See p. 328.)

2. _The Mumps_ are an inflammation of the parotid and submaxillary
glands (see p. 159). The disease is generally epidemic, and is believed to
be contagious; the patient should therefore be carefully secluded for the
sake of others as well as himself. The swelling may be allowed to take its
course. Relief from pain is often experienced by applying flannels wrung
out of hot water. Great care should be used not to check the inflammation,
and, on first going out after recovery, not to take cold.

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND NARCOTICS.

1. ALCOHOL (Continued from p. 147).

RELATION OF ALCOHOL TO THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.--_Is Alcohol a Food?_ To
answer this question, let us make a comparison. If you receive into your
stomach a piece of bread or beef, Nature welcomes its presence. The juices
of the system at once take hold of it, dissolve it, and transform it for
the uses of the body. A million tiny fingers (lacteals and veins) reach
out to grasp it, work it over, and carry it into the circulation. The
blood bears it onward wherever it is needed to mend or to build "The house
you live in." Soon, it is no longer bread or beef; it is flesh on your
arm; its chemical energy is imparted to you, and it becomes your strength.

If, on the other hand, you take into your stomach a little alcohol, it
receives no such welcome. Nature treats it as a poison, and seeks to rid
herself of the intruder as soon as possible. [Footnote: Food is digested,
alcohol is not. Food warms the blood, directly or indirectly; alcohol
lowers the temperature. Food nourishes the body, in the sense of
assimilating itself to the tissues; alcohol does not. Food makes blood;
alcohol never does anything more innocent than mixing with it. Food feeds
the blood cells; alcohol destroys them. Food excites, in health, to normal
action only; alcohol tends to inflammation and disease. Food gives force
to the body; alcohol excites reaction and wastes force, in the first
place, and in the second, as a true narcotic, represses vital action and
corresponding nutrition.--If alcohol does not act like food, neither does
it behave like water. Water is the subtle but innocent vehicle of
circulation, which dissolves the solid food, holds in play the chemical
and vital reactions of the tissues, conveys the nutritive solutions from
cell to cell, from tube to tube, and carries off and expels the effete
matter. Water neither irritates tissue, wastes force, nor suppresses vital
action: whereas alcohol does all three. Alcohol hardens solid tissue,
thickens the blood, narcotizes the nerves, and in every conceivable
direction antagonizes the operation and function of water--LEES.] The
juices of the system will flow from every pore to dilute and weaken it,
and to prevent its shriveling up the delicate membranes with which it
comes in contact. The veins will take it up and bear it rapidly through
the system. Every organ of elimination, all the scavengers of the body--
the lungs, the kidneys, the perspiration glands, at once set to work to
throw off the enemy. So surely is this the case, that the breath of a
person who has drunk only a single glass of the lightest beer will betray
the fact.

The alcohol thus eliminated is entirely unchanged. Nature apparently makes
no effort to appropriate it. [Footnote: It was formerly a question
considerably discussed, whether alcohol exists in the brain, or in the
fluid found in the ventricles, in intoxicated persons. This was settled by
Percy, who found alcohol in the brain and liver of dogs poisoned with
alcohol, and of men who had died after excessive drinking. In these
experiments, the presence of alcohol was determined by distillation, and
the distilled substance burned with a blue flame, and dissolved camphor.--
FLINT'S _Physiology of Man_.] It courses everywhere through the
circulation, and into the great organs, with all its properties
unmodified.

Alcohol, then, is not, like bread or beef, taken hold of, broken up by the
mysterious process of digestion, and used by the body. [Footnote: Because
of the difficulties of such an experiment, we have not yet been able to
account satisfactorily by the excretions for all the alcohol taken into
the stomach. This remains as yet one of the unsolved problems of
physiological chemistry. To collect the whole of the insensible
perspiration, for example, is well-nigh impossible. It was supposed at one
time that a part of the alcohol is oxidized--_i. e._, burned, in the
system. But such a process would impart heat, and it is now proved that
alcohol cools, instead of warms, the blood. Moreover, the closest analysis
fails to detect in the circulation any trace of the products of alcoholic
combustion, such as aldehyde and acetic acid. "The fact," says Flint,
"that alcohol is always eliminated, even when drunk in minute quantity,
and that its elimination continues for a considerable time, gradually
diminishing, renders it probable that all that is taken into the body is
removed."] "It can not therefore be regarded as an aliment," or food.--
FLINT. "Beer, wine, and spirits," says Liebig, "contain no element capable
of entering into the composition of the blood or the muscular fiber."
[Footnote: The small amount of nutritive substance, chiefly sugar derived
from the grain or fruit used in the manufacture of beer or wine, can not,
of course, be compared with that contained in bread or beef at the same
cost. Liebig says, in his Letters on Chemistry, "We can prove, with
mathematical certainty, that as much flour as can lie on the point of a
table knife is more nutritious than eight quarts of the best Bavarian
beer."] "That alcohol is incapable of forming any part of the body,"
remarks Cameron, "is admitted by all physiologists. It can not be
converted into brain, nerve, muscle, or blood."

EFFECT UPON THE DIGESTION. [Footnote: The medical value of alcohol in its
relations to digestion is not discussed in this book. The experiments of
Dr. Henry Munroe, of Hull, published in the London _Medical Journal_,
are here summarized as showing that the tendency to retard digestion is
common to all forms of alcoholic drinks.

_______________________________________________________________________
Finely Minced        |               |               |                |
Beef           |    2d Hour    |    4th Hour   |    6th Hour    |
_______________________________________________________________________
I.             |               |   Digesting   |                |
Gastric Juice        |     Beef      |      and      |   Beef much    |
and _water_.    |    opaque.    |   separating. |    loosened.   |
_______________________________________________________________________
|               |   Slightly    |     Slight     |
II.            | No alteration |  opaque, but  |   coating on   |
Gastric Juice        |  perceptible. |     beef      |      beef.     |
with _alcohol_. |               |   unchanged.  |                |
_______________________________________________________________________
III.           |               |    Cloudy,    |      beef      |
Gastric Juice        |  No change.   |   with fur    |     partly     |
and _pale ale_. |               |   on beef.    |    loosened.   |
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Finely Minced        |               |               |
Beef           |   8th Hour    |   10th Hour   |
______________________________________________________
I.             |               |               |
Gastric Juice        |     Beef      |  Broken up    |
and _water_.    |    opaque.    | into shreds.  |
______________________________________________________
|               |   Solid on    |
II.            |   No visible  |    cooling    |
Gastric Juice        |     change.   | _Pepsin_ |
with _alcohol_. |               | precipitated. |
______________________________________________________
III.           |               | No digestion  |
Gastric Juice        |  No further   | _Pepsin_ |
and _pale ale_. |    change.    | precipitated. |
______________________________________________________]

--Experiments tend to prove that alcohol coagulates and precipitates the
pepsin from the gastric juice, and so puts a stop to its great work in the
process of digestion.

The greed of alcohol for water causes it to imbibe moisture from the
tissues and juices, and to inflame the delicate mucous membrane. It shows
the power of Nature to adapt herself to circumstances, that the soft,
velvety lining of the throat and stomach should come at length to endure
the presence of a fiery liquid which, undiluted, would soon shrivel and
destroy it. In self-defense, the juices pour in to weaken the alcohol, and
it is soon hurried into the circulation. Before this can be done, "it must
absorb about three times its bulk of water"; hence, very strong liquor may
be retained in the stomach long enough to interfere seriously with the
digestion, and to injure the lining coat. Habitual use of alcohol
permanently dilates the blood vessels; thickens and hardens the membranes;
in some cases, ulcerates the surface; and, finally, "so weakens the
assimilation that the proper supply of food can not be appropriated."
--FLINT. [Footnote: The case of St. Martin (p. 168) gave an excellent
opportunity to watch the action of alcohol upon the stomach. Dr. Beaumont
summarized his experiments thus: "The free, ordinary use of any
intoxicating liquor, when continued for some days, invariably produced
inflammation, ulcerous patches, and, finally, a discharge of morbid matter
tinged with blood." Yet St. Martin never complained of pain in his
stomach, the narcotic influence of the alcohol preventing the signal of
danger that Nature ordinarily gives.]

EFFECT UPON THE LIVER.--Alcohol is carried by the portal vein directly to
the liver. This organ, after the brain, holds the largest share. The
influence of the poison is here easily traced. "The color of the bile is
soon changed from yellow to green, and even to black;" the connective
tissue between the lobules becomes inflamed; and, in the case of a
confirmed drunkard, hardened and shrunk, the surface often assuming a
nodulated appearance known as the "hobnailed liver." Morbid matter is
sometimes deposited, causing what is called "Fatty degeneration," so that
the liver is increased to twice or thrice its natural size.

EFFECT UPON THE KIDNEYS.--The kidneys, like the liver, are liable in time
to undergo, through the influence of alcohol, a "Fatty degeneration," in
which the cells become filled with particles of fat; [Footnote: Disabled
by the fatty deposits, the kidneys are unable to separate the waste matter
coming to them for elimination from the system. The poisonous material is
poured back into the circulation, and often delirium ensues.--HUBBARD.
Richardson states that his experience "is to the effect that seven out of
every eight instances of kidney disease are attributable to alcohol."] the
vessels lose their contractility; and, worst of all, the membranes may be
so modified as to allow the albuminous part of the blood to filter through
them, and so to rob the body of one of its most valuable constituents.
[Footnote: This deterioration of structure frequently gives rise to what
is known as "Bright's Disease."--RICHARDSON.]

DOES ALCOHOL IMPART HEAT?--During the first flush after drinking wine, for
example, a sense of warmth is felt. This is due to the tides of warm blood
that are being sent to the surface of the body, owing to the vascular
enlargement and to the rapid pumping of the heart. There is, however, no
fresh heat developed. On the contrary, the bringing the blood to the
surface causes it to cool faster, reaction sets in, a chilliness is
experienced as one becomes sober, and a delicate thermometer placed under
the tongue of the inebriate may show a fall of even two degrees below the
standard temperature of the body. Several hours are required to restore
the usual heat.

As early as 1850, Dr. N. S. Davis, of Chicago, ex-President of the
American Medical Association, instituted an extensive series of
experiments to determine the effect of the different articles of food and
drinks on the temperature of the system. He conclusively proved that,
during the digestion of all kinds of food, the temperature of the body is
increased, but when alcohol is taken, either in the form of fermented or
distilled beverages, the temperature begins to fall within a half hour,
and continues to decrease for two or three hours, and that the reduction
of temperature, in extent as well as in duration, is in exact proportion
to the amount of alcohol taken.

It naturally follows that, contrary to the accepted opinion, liquor does
not fortify against cold. The experience of travelers at the North
coincides with that of Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, who says: "While
fat is absolutely essential to the inhabitants and travelers in arctic
countries, alcohol is, in almost any shape, not only completely useless,
but positively injurious. I have known strong, able-bodied men to become
utterly incapable of resisting cold in consequence of the long-continued
use of alcoholic drink."

DOES ALCOHOL IMPART STRENGTH?--Experience shows that alcohol weakens the
power of undergoing severe bodily exertion. [Footnote: Dr. McRae, in
speaking of Arctic exploration, at the meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, held at Montreal in 1856, said: "The
moment that a man had swallowed a drink of spirits, it was certain that
his day's work was nearly at an end. It was absolutely necessary that the
rule of total abstinence be rigidly enforced, if we would accomplish our
day's task. The use of liquor as a beverage when we had work on hand, in
that terrific cold, was out of the question."] Men who are in training for
running, rowing, and other contests where great strength is required, deny
themselves all liquors, even when they are ordinarily accustomed to their
use.

Dr. Richardson made some interesting experiments to show the influence of
alcohol upon muscular contraction. He carefully weighted the hind leg of a
frog, and, by means of electricity, stimulating the muscle to its utmost
power of contraction, he found out how much the frog could lift. Then
administering alcohol, he discovered that the response of the muscle to
the electrical current became feebler and feebler, as the narcotic began
to take effect, until, at last, the animal could raise less than half the
amount it lifted by the natural contraction when uninfluenced by alcohol.

EFFECT UPON THE WASTE OF THE BODY.--The tendency of alcohol is to cause a
formation of an unstable substance resembling fat, [Footnote: The
molecular deposits equalizing the waste of the system do not go on
regularly under the influence of alcohol; the tissues are not kept up to
their standard; and, in time, their composition is changed by a deposit of
an amorphous matter resembling fat. This is an unstable substance, and the
functions of animal life all retrograde.--HUBBARD, _The Opium Habit and
Alcoholism_.] and so the use of liquor for even a short time will
increase the weight. But a more marked influence is to check the ordinary
waste of the system, so that "the amount of carbonic acid exhaled from the
lungs may be reduced as much as thirty to fifty per cent."--HINTON. The
life process is one of incessant change. Its rapidity is essential to
vigor and strength. When the functions are in full play, each organ is
being constantly torn down, and as constantly rebuilt with the materials
furnished from our food. Anything that checks this oxidation of the
tissues, or hinders the deposition of new matter, disturbs the vital
functions. Both these results are the inevitable effects of alcohol; for,
since the blood contains less oxygen and more carbonic acid, and the power
of assimilating the food is decreased, it follows that every process of
waste and repair must be correspondingly weakened. The person using liquor
consequently needs less bread and beef, and so alcohol seems to him a
food--a radical error, as we have shown.

ALCOHOL CREATES A PROGRESSIVE APPETITE FOR ITSELF.--When liquor is taken,
even in the most moderate quantity, it soon becomes necessary, and then
arises a craving demand for an increased amount to produce the original
effect. No food creates this constantly augmenting want. A cup of milk
drank at dinner does not lead one to go on, day by day, drinking more and
more milk, until to get milk becomes the one great longing of the whole
being. Yet this is the almost universal effect of alcohol. Hunger is
satisfied by any nutritious food: the dram-drinker's thirst demands
alcohol. The common experience of mankind teaches us the imminent peril
that attends the formation of this progressive poison habit. A single
glass taken as a tonic may lead to the drunkard's grave.

Worse than this, the alcoholic craving may be transmitted from father to
son, and young persons often find themselves cursed with a terrible
disease known as alcoholism--a keen, morbid appetite for liquor that
demands gratification at any cost--stamped upon their very being through
the reckless indulgence of this habit on the part of some one of their
ancestors. [Footnote: The American Medical Association, at their meeting
in St. Paul, Minnesota (1883), restated in a series of resolutions their
conviction, that "alcohol should be classed with other powerful drugs;
that when prescribed medically, it should be done with conscientious
caution and a sense of great responsibility; that used as a beverage it is
productive of a large amount of physical and mental disease; that it
_entails diseased and enfeebled constitutions upon offspring_, and
that it is the cause of a large percentage of the crime and pauperism of
our large cities and country."]

THE LAW OF HEREDITY is, in this connection, well worth consideration. "The
world is beginning to perceive," says Francis Galton, "that the life of
each individual is, in some real sense, a continuation of the lives of his
ancestors." "Each of us is the footing up of a double column of figures
that goes back to the first pair." "We are omnibuses," remarks Holmes, "in
which all our ancestors ride." We inherit from our parents our features,
our physical vigor, our mental faculties, and even much of our moral
character. Often, when one generation is skipped, the qualities will
reappear in the following one. The virtues, as well as the vices, of our
forefathers, have added to, or subtracted from, the strength of our brain
and muscle. The evil tendencies of our natures, which it is the struggle
of our lives to resist, constitute a part of our heirlooms from the past.
Our descendants, in turn, will have reason to bless us only if we hand
down to them a pure healthy physical, mental, and moral being.

"There is a marked tendency in nature to transmit all diseased conditions.
Thus, the children of consumptive parents are apt to be consumptives. But
of all agents, alcohol is the most potent in establishing a heredity that
exhibits itself in the destruction of mind and body. [Footnote: Nearly all
the diseases springing from indulgence in distilled and fermented liquors
are liable to become hereditary, and to descend to at least three or four
generations, unless starved out by uncompromising abstinence. But the
distressing aspect of the heredity of alcohol is the transmitted drink-
crave. This is no dream of an enthusiast, but the result of a natural law.
Men and women upon whom this dread inheritance has been forced are
everywhere around us, bravely struggling to lead a sober life.--DR.
NORMAN KERR.] Its malign influence was observed by the ancients long
before the production of whiskey or brandy, or other distilled liquors,
and when fermented liquors or wines only were known. Aristotle says,
'Drunken women have children like unto themselves,' and Plutarch remarks,
'One drunkard is the father of another.' The drunkard by inheritance is a
more helpless slave than his progenitor, and his children are more
helpless still, unless on the mother's side there is an untainted blood.
For there is not only a propensity transmitted, but an actual disease of
the nervous system."--DR. WILLARD PARKER. [Footnote: The subject of
alcohol is continued in the chapter on the Nervous System.]

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. How do clothing and shelter economize food?

2. Is it well to take a long walk before breakfast?

3. Why is warm food easier to digest than cold?

4. Why is salt beef less nutritious than fresh? [Footnote: The French
Academicians found that flesh soaked in water so as to deprive it of its
mineral matter and juices, lost its nutritive value, and that animals fed
on it soon died. Indeed, for all purposes of nutrition, Liebig said it was
no better than stones, and the utmost torments of hunger were hardly
sufficient to induce them to continue the diet. There was plenty of
nutritive food, but there was no medium for its solution and absorption,
and hence it was useless.] 5. What should be the food of a man recovering
from a fever?

6. Is a cup of black coffee a healthful close to a hearty dinner?

7. Should iced water be used at a meal?

8. Why is strong tea or coffee injurious?

9. Should food or drink be taken hot?

10. Are fruitcakes, rich pastry, and puddings wholesome?

11. Why are warm biscuit and bread hard of digestion?

12. Should any stimulants be used in youth?

13. Why should bread be made spongy?

14. Which should remain longer in the mouth, bread or meat?

15. Why should cold water be used in making soup, and hot water in boiling
meat?

16. Name the injurious effects of overeating.

17. Why do not buckwheat cakes, with syrup and butter, taste as well in
July as in January?

18. Why is a late supper injurious?

19. What makes a man "bilious"?

20. What is the best remedy? _Ans_. Diet to give the organs rest, and
active exercise to arouse the secretions and the circulation.

21. What is the practical use of hunger?

22. How can jugglers drink when standing on their heads?

23. Why do we relish butter on bread?

24. What would you do if you had taken arsenic by mistake? (See Appendix.)

25. Why should ham and sausage be thoroughly cooked?

26. Why do we wish butter on fish, eggs with tapioca, oil on salad, and
milk with rice?

27. Explain the relation of food to exercise.

28. How do you explain the difference in the manner of eating between
carnivorous and herbivorous animals?

29. Why is a child's face plump and an old man's wrinkled?

30. Show how life depends on repair and waste.

31. What is the difference between the decay of the teeth and the constant
decay of the body?

32. Should biscuit and cake containing yellow spots of soda be eaten?

33. Tell how the body is composed of organs, how organs are made up of
tissues, and how tissues consist of cells.

34. Why do we not need to drink three pints of water per day?

35. Why, during a pestilence, are those who use liquors as a beverage the
first, and often the only victims?

36. What two secretions seem to have the same general use?

37. How may the digestive organs be strengthened?

38. Is the old rule, "after dinner sit awhile," a good one?

39. What would you do if you had taken laudanum by mistake? Paris Green?
Sugar of lead? Oxalic acid? Phosphorus from matches? Ammonia? Corrosive
sublimate? (See p. 265.)

40. What is the simplest way to produce vomiting, so essential in case of
accidental poisoning?

41. In what way does alcohol interfere with the digestion?

42. Is alcohol assimilated?

43. What is the effect of alcohol on the albuminous substances?

44. Is there any nourishment in beer?

45. Show how the excessive use of alcohol may first increase, and,
afterward, decrease, the size of the liver.

46. Will liquor help one to endure cold and exposure?

47. What is a fatty degeneration of the kidneys?

48. Contrast the action of alcohol and water in the body.

49. Is alcohol, in any proper sense of the term, a food?

50. Does liquor strengthen the muscles of a working man?

51. Is liquor a wholesome "tonic"?

52. Is it a good plan to take a glass of liquor before dinner?




VII.


THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

"Mark then the cloven sphere that holds
All thoughts in its mysterious folds,
That feels sensation's faintest thrill,
And flashes forth the sovereign will;
Think on the stormy world that dwells
Lock'd in its dim and clustering cells;
The lightning gleams of power it sheds
Along its hollow, glassy threads!"

"As a king sits high above his subjects upon his throne, and from it
speaks behests that all obey, so from the throne of the brain cells is all
the kingdom of a man directed, controlled, and influenced. For this
occupant, the eyes watch, the ears hear, the tongue tastes, the nostrils
smell, the skin feels. For it, language is exhausted of its treasures, and
life of its experience; locomotion is accomplished, and quiet insured.
When it wills, body and spirit are goaded like overdriven horses. When it
allows, rest and sleep may come for recuperation. In short, the slightest
penetration may not fail to perceive that all other parts obey this part,
and are but ministers to its necessities."--Odd Hours of a Physician.
ANALYSIS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

_
| 1. THE STRUCTURE
|                                       _
|                 _                    | 1. _Description._
|                | 1. The Brain........| 2. _The Cerebrum._
|                |                     |_3. _The Cerebellum._
|                |                      _
|                | 2. The Spinal Cord..| 1. _Its Composition._
|                |                     |_2. _Medulla Oblongata._
|                |                      _
| 2. ORGANS OF   |                     | 1. _Description._
|    THE NERV-   |                     | 2. _Motory and Sensory._
|    OUS SYSTEM..|                     | 3. _Transfer of Pain._
|                |                     | 4. _The Spinal Nerves--
|                |                     |        31 Pairs._
|                |_3. The Nerves.......| 5. _The Cranial Nerves--
|                                      |        12 Pairs._
|                                      | 6. _Sympathetic System._
|                                      | 7. _Crossing of Cords._
|                                      | 8. _Reflex Action._
|                                      | 9. _Uses of Reflex
|                                      |_       Action_
|                 _
|                | 1. Brain Exercise.
|                | 2. Connection between Brain Growth and Body Growth.
| 3. HYGIENE.....| 3. Sleep.
|                | 4. Effect of Sleeping Draughts.
|                |_5. Sunlight.
|
| 4. WONDERS OF THE BRAIN.
|                _
|               | 1. Alcohol (Con'd.)
|               | _                   | 1. _Stage of Excitement._
|               ||                    | 2. _Stage of Muscular
|               ||                    |        Weakness._
|               || 1. Effect of Alco- | 3. _Stage of Mental
|               ||     hol upon the   |        Weakness._
|               ||     Nervous System | 4. _Stage of Unconscious-
|               ||                    |_       ness._
|               ||
|               || 2. Effect upon the Brain
|               ||_3. Effect upon the Mental and Moral Powers.
|               |
|               | 2. Tobacco.
|               | _
|               || 1. Constituents of Tobacco.
| 5. ALCOHOLIC  || 2. Physiological Effects.
|     DRINKS AND|| 3. Possible Disturbances produced by Smoking.
|_    NARCOTICS.|| 4. Influence upon the Nervous System.
|| 5. Is Tobacco a Food?
||_6. Influence of Tobacco on Youth.
|                      _
|                     | 1. _Description._
| 3. Opium............| 2. _Physiological
|                     |_       Effects._
| 4. Chloral Hydrate.
| 5. Chloroform.
|_6. Cocaine.

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. [Footnote: The organs of circulation, respiration, and
digestion, of which we have already spoken, are often called the
vegetative functions, because they belong also to the vegetable kingdom.
Plants have a circulation of sap through their cells corresponding to that
of the blood through the capillaries. They breathe the air through their
leaves, which act the part of lungs, and they take in food which they
change into their own structure by a process which answers to that of
digestion. The plant, however, is a mere collection of parts incapable of
any combined action. On the other hand, the animal has a nervous system
which binds all the organs together.]

STRUCTURE.--The nervous system includes the _brain_, the _spinal
cord_, and the _nerves_. It is composed of two kinds of matter--
the _white_, and the _gray_. The former consists of minute,
milk-white, glistening fibers, sometimes as small as 1/25000 of an inch in
diameter; the latter is made up of small, ashen-colored cells, forming a
pulp-like substance of the consistency of blancmange. [Footnote: In
addition to the cells, the gray substance contains also nerve fibers
continuous with the white fibers, but generally much smaller. These form
half the bulk of the gray substance of the spinal cord, and a large part
of the deeper layer of the gray matter in the brain.--LEIDY'S
_Anatomy_, p. 507.] This is often gathered in little masses, termed
ganglions (_ganglion_, a knot), because, when a nerve passes through
a group of the cells, they give it the appearance of a knot. The nerve
fibers are conductors, while the gray cells are generators, of nervous
force. [Footnote: What this force is we do not know. In some respects it
is like electricity, but, in others, it differs materially. Its velocity
is about thirty three meters per second.--_Popular Physics_, p. 244,
Note.] The ganglia, or nervous centers, answer to the stations along a
telegraphic line, where messages are received and transmitted, and the
fibers correspond to the wires that communicate between different parts.

FIG. 50.

[Illustration: _The Nervous System._ A, _cerebrum_; B,
_cerebellum._]

The BRAIN is the seat of the mind. [Footnote: In proportion to the rest
of the nervous matter in the body, it is larger in man than in any of the
lower animals. It is the function which the brain performs that
distinguishes man from all other animals, and it is by the action of his
brain that he becomes a conscious, intelligent, and responsible being. The
brain is the seat of that knowledge which we express when we say _I_.
I know it, I feel it, I saw it, are expressions of our individual
consciousness, the seat of which is the brain. It is when the brain is at
rest in sleep that there is least consciousness. The brain may be put
under the influence of poisons, such as alcohol and chloroform, and then
the body is without consciousness. From these and other facts the brain is
regarded as the seat of _consciousness_.--LANKESTER.] Its average
weight is about fifty ounces. [Footnote: Cuvier's brain weighed 64 1/2
ounces; Webster's, 53 1/2 ounces; James Fisk's, 58 ounces; Ruloff's, 59
ounces; an idiot's, 19 ounces. See Table in FLINT'S _Nervous
System_.] It is egg-shaped, and, soft and yielding, fills closely the
cavity of the skull. It reposes securely on a water bed, being surrounded
by a double membrane _(arachnoid)_, delicate as a spider's web, which
forms a closed sac filled, like the spaces in the brain itself, with a
liquid resembling water. Within this, and closely investing the brain, is
a fine tissue (_pia mater_), with a mesh of blood vessels which dips
down into the hollows, and bathes them so copiously that it uses one fifth
of the entire circulation of the body. Around the whole is wrapped a tough
membrane (_dura mater_), which lines the bony box of the skull, and
separates the various parts of the organ by strong partitions. The brain
consists of two parts--the _cerebrum_, and the _cerebellum_.

The CEREBRUM fills the front and upper part of the skull, and comprises
about seven eighths of the entire weight of the brain. As animals rise in
the scale of life, this higher part makes its appearance. It is a mass of
white fibers, with cells of gray matter sprinkled on the outside, or
lodged here and there in ganglia. It is so curiously wrinkled and folded
as strikingly to resemble the meat of an English walnut. This structure
gives a large surface for the gray matter,--sometimes as much as six
hundred and seventy square inches. The convolutions are not noticeable in
an infant, but increase with the growth of the mind, their depth and
intricacy being characteristic of high mental power.

FIG. 51.

[Illustration: _Surface of the Cerebrum._]

The cerebrum is divided into two hemispheres, connected beneath by fibers
of white matter. Thus we have two brains, [Footnote: This doubleness has
given rise to some curious speculations. In the case of the hand, eye,
etc, we know that the sensation is made more sure. Thus we can see with
one eye, but not so well as with both. It is perhaps the same with the
brain. We may sometimes carry on a train of thought, "build an air castle"
with one half of our brain, while the other half looks on and watches the
operation; or, we may read and at the same time think of something else.
So in delirium, a patient often imagines himself two persons, thus showing
a want of harmony between the two halves.--DRAPER, _Human
Physiology_, p. 320.] as well as two hands and two eyes. This provides
us with a surplus of brains, as it were, which can be drawn upon in an
emergency. A large part of one hemisphere has been destroyed without
particularly injuring the mental powers, [Footnote: A pointed iron bar,
three and a half feet long and one inch and a quarter in diameter, was
driven by the premature blasting of a rock completely through the side of
the head of a man who was present. It entered below the temple, and made
its exit at the top of the forehead, just about the middle line. The man
was at first stunned, and lay in a delirious, semistupefied state for
about three weeks. At the end of sixteen months, however, he was in
perfect health, with wounds healed and mental and bodily functions
unimpaired, except that sight was lost in the eye of the injured side.--
DALTON. It is noticeable, however, that the man became changed in
disposition, fickle, impatient of restraint, and profane, which he was not
before. He died epileptic, nearly thirteen years after the injury. The
tamping iron and the skull are preserved in the Warren Anatomical Museum,
Boston.]--just as a person has been blind in one eye for a long time
without having discovered his loss. The cerebrum is the center of
intelligence and thought. [Footnote: In man, the cerebrum presents an
immense preponderance in weight over other portions of the brain; in some
of the lower animals, the cerebrum is even less in weight than the
cerebellum. Another interesting point is the development of cerebral
convolutions in certain animals, by which the relative amount of gray
matter is increased. In fishes, reptiles, and birds, the surface of the
hemispheres is smooth; but, in many mammalia, especially in those
remarkable for intelligence, the cerebrum presents a greater or less
number of convolutions, as it does in the human subject.--FLINT. The
average weight of the human brain in proportion to the entire body is
about 1 to 36. The average of mammalia is 1 to 186; of birds, 1 to 212; of
reptiles, 1 to 1,321; and of fishes, 1 to 5,668. There are some animals in
which the weight of the brain bears a higher proportion to the body than
it does in man; thus in the blue-headed tit, the proportion is as 1 to 12;
in the goldfinch, as 1 to 24; and in the field mouse, as 1 to 31. "It does
not hence follow, however, that the _cerebrum_ is larger in
proportion; in fact, it is probably not nearly so large; for in birds and
rodent animals the sensory ganglia form a very considerable portion of the
entire brain. M. Baillarger has shown that the _surface_ and the
_bulk_ of the cerebral hemispheres are so far from bearing any
constant proportion to each other in different animals that,
notwithstanding the depth of the convolutions in the human cerebrum, its
bulk is two and a half times as great in proportion to its surface as it
is in the rabbit, the surface of whose cerebrum is smooth. The _size_
of the cerebrum, considered alone, is not, however, a fair test of its
intellectual power. This depends upon the quantity of _vesicular
matter_ which it contains, as evinced not only by superficial area, but
by the number and depth of the convolutions and by the thickness of the
cortical layer."--CARPENTER.] Persons in whom it is seriously injured or
diseased often become unable to converse intelligently, both from
inability to remember words and from loss of power to articulate them.

THE CEREBELLUM lies below the cerebrum, and in the back part of the head
(Fig. 50). It is about the size of a small fist. Its structure is similar
to that of the brain proper, but instead of convolutions it has parallel
ridges, which, letting the gray matter down deeply into the white matter
within, give it a peculiar appearance, called the _arbor vitæ_, or
tree of life (Fig. 55). This part of the brain is the center for the
control of the voluntary muscles, [Footnote: The exact nature of the
functions of the cerebellum is one of those problems concerning which
there is no unanimity of opinion amongst physiologists. It may be
premised, however, that the knowledge we at present possess does enable us
to come to one very important conclusion with respect to the functions of
the cerebellum,--it enables us to say that this organ has no independent
function either in the province of mind or in the province of motility.
And we may perhaps safely affirm still further, that the cerebellum is
much more intimately concerned with the production of bodily movements
than with the evolution of mental phenomena. The anatomical distinctness
of the cerebellum from the larger brain and other parts of the nervous
system is more apparent than real....That there is an habitual community
of action between the cerebellum and the spinal cord is, I believe,
doubted by none, and the fact that an intimate functional relationship
exists between the cerebrum and the cerebellum is shown by the
circumstance that atrophy of one cerebral hemisphere entails a
corresponding atrophy of the opposite half of the cerebellum. The
subordinate or supplementary nature of the cerebellar function, however,
in this latter relation seems equally well shown by the fact that atrophy
of one side of the cerebellum (when it occurs as the primary event) does
not entail any appreciable wasting in the opposite half of the cerebrum.
What other conclusion can be drawn? If the cutting off of certain cerebral
stimuli leads to a wasting of the opposite half of the cerebellum, this
would seem to show that each half of the cerebellum is naturally called
into activity in response to, or conjointly with, the opposite cerebral
hemisphere. Whilst conversely, if atrophy of one half of the cerebellum
does not entail a relative diminution in the opposite cerebral hemisphere,
this would go to show that the cerebral hemispheres do not act in response
to cerebellar stimuli, since their nutrition does not suffer when such
stimuli are certainly absent. The action of the cerebrum is therefore
shown to be primary, whilst that of the cerebellum is secondary or
subordinate in the performance of those functions in which they are both
concerned.--H. CHARLTON BASTIAN, _Paralysis from Brain Disease_.]
particularly those of locomotion. Persons in whom it is injured or
diseased walk with tottering and uncertain movements as if intoxicated,
and can not perform any orderly work.

THE SPINAL CORD occupies the cavity of the backbone. It is protected by
the same membranes as the brain, but, unlike it, the white matter is on
the outside, and the gray matter is within. Deep fissures separate it into
halves (Fig. 50), which are, however, joined by a bridge of the same
substance. Just as it starts from the brain, there is an expansion called
the _medulla oblongata_ (Fig. 55).

THE NERVES are glistening, silvery threads, composed, like the spinal
cord, of white matter without and gray within. They ramify to all parts of
the body. Often they are very near each other, yet are perfectly distinct,
each conveying its own impression. [Footnote: Press two fingers together,
and, closing the eyes, let some one pass the point of a pin lightly from
one to the other; you will be able to tell which is touched, yet if the
nerves came in contact with each other anywhere in their long route to the
brain, you could not thus distinguish.] Those which carry the orders of
the mind to the different organs are called the _motory_ nerves;
while those which bring back impressions which they receive are styled
_sensory_ nerves. If the sensory nerve leading to any part be cut,
all sensation in that spot will be lost, while motion will remain; if the
motory nerve be cut, all motion will be destroyed, while sensation will
exist as before.

TRANSFER OF PAIN.--Strictly speaking, pain is not in any organ, but in the
mind, since only that can feel. When any nerve brings news to the brain of
an injury, the mind refers the pain to the end of the nerve. A familiar
illustration is seen in the "funny bone" behind the elbow. Here the nerve
(_ulnar_) gives sensation to the third and fourth fingers, in which,
if this bone be struck, the pain will seem to be. Long after a limb has
been amputated, pain will be felt in it, as if it still formed a part of
the body--any injury in the stump being referred to the point to which the
nerve formerly led. [Footnote: Only about five per cent. of those who
suffer amputation lose the feeling of the part taken away. There is
something tragical, almost ghastly, in the idea of a spirit limb haunting
a man through his life, and betraying him in unguarded moments into some
effort, the failure of which suddenly reminds him of his loss. A gallant
fellow, who had left an arm at Shiloh, once, when riding, attempted to use
his lost hand to grasp the reins while with the other he struck his horse.
A terrible fall was the result of his mistake. When the current of a
battery is applied to the nerves of an arm stump, the irritation is
carried to the brain, and referred to all the regions of the lost limb. On
one occasion a man's shoulder was thus electrized three inches above the
point where the limb was cut off. For two years he had ceased to be
conscious of his limb. As the electric current passed through, the man,
who had been profoundly ignorant of its possible effects, started up,
crying, "Oh, the hand! the hand!" and tried to seize it with the living
grasp of the sound fingers. No resurrection of the dead could have been
more startling.--DR. MITCHELL _on "Phantom Limbs" in Lippincott's
Magazine_.]

The nerves are divided into three general classes--the _spinal_, the
_cranial_, and the _sympathetic_.

FIG. 54.

[Illustration: P, _posterior root of a spinal nerve;_ G,
_ganglion;_ A, _anterior root;_ S, _spinal nerve. The white
portions of the figure represent the white fibers; and the dark, the
gray._]

THE SPINAL NERVES, of which there are thirty-one pairs, issue from the
spinal cord through apertures provided for them in the backbone. Each
nerve arises by two roots; the anterior is the motory, and the posterior
the sensory one. The posterior alone connects directly with the gray
matter of the cord, and has a small ganglion of gray matter of its own at
a little distance from its origin. These roots soon unite, _i. e_.,
are bound up in one sheath, though they preserve their special functions.
When the posterior root of a nerve is cut, the animal loses the power of
feeling, and when the anterior root is cut, that of motion.

THE CRANIAL NERVES, twelve pairs in number, spring from the lower part of
the brain and the medulla oblongata.

1. The _olfactory_, or first pair of nerves, ramify through the
nostrils, and are the nerves of smell.

2. The _optic_, or second pair of nerves, pass to the eyeballs, and
are the nerves of vision.

3, 4, 6. The _motores oculi_ (eye movers) are three pairs of nerves
used to move the eyes.

5. The _trifacial_, or fifth pair of nerves, divide each into three
branches--hence the name--the first to the upper part of the face, eyes,
and nose; the second to the upper jaw and teeth; the third to the lower
jaw and the mouth, where it forms the nerve of taste. These nerves are
implicated when we have the toothache or neuralgia.

7. The _facial_, or seventh pair of nerves, are distributed over the
face, and give it expression. [Footnote: If it is palsied, on one side
there will be a blank, while the other side will laugh or cry, and the
whole face will look funny indeed. There were some cruel people in the
middle ages who used to cut the nerve and deform children's faces in this
way, for the purpose of making money of them at shows. When this nerve was
wrongly supposed to be the seat of neuralgia, or tic douloureux, it was
often cut by surgeons. The patient suffered many dangers, and no relief of
pain was gained.--MAPOTHER.]

FIG. 55.

[Illustration: _The Brain and the origin of the twelve pairs of Cranial
Nerves._ F, E, _the cerebrum;_ D, _the cerebellum, showing the
arbor vitæ;_ G, _the eye;_ H, _the medulla oblongata;_ A,
_the spinal cord;_ C and B, _the first two pairs of spinal
nerves._]

8. The _auditory_, or eighth pair of nerves, go to the ears, and are
the nerves of hearing.

9. The _glos-so-pha-ryn'-ge-al_, or ninth pair of nerves, are
distributed over the mucous membrane of the pharynx, tonsils, etc.

10. The _pneu-mo-gas'-tric_, or tenth pair of nerves, preside over
the larynx, lungs, liver, stomach, and one branch extends to the heart.
This is the only nerve which goes so far from the head.

11. The _accessory_, or eleventh pair of nerves, rise from the spinal
cord, run up to the medulla oblongata, and thence leave the skull at the
same opening with the ninth and tenth pairs. They regulate the vocal
movements of the larynx.

12. The _hyp-o-glos'-sal_, or twelfth pair of nerves, give motion to
the tongue.

FIG. 56.

[Illustration: _Spinal Nerve, Sympathetic Cord, and the Network of
Sympathetic Nerves around the Internal Organs_. K, _aorta;_ A,
_œophagus;_ B, _diaphragm;_ C, _stomach._]

THE SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM contains the nerves of organic life. It consists of
a double chain of ganglia on either side of the backbone, extending into
the chest and abdomen. From, these, delicate nerves, generally soft and of
a grayish color, run to the organs on which life depends--the heart,
lungs, stomach, etc.--to the blood vessels, and to the spinal and cranial
nerves over the body. Thus the entire system is bound together with cords
of sympathy, so that, "if one member suffers, all the members suffer with
it."

Here lies the secret of the control exercised by the brain over all the
vital operations. Every organ responds to its changing moods, especially
those of respiration, circulation, digestion, and secretion,--processes
intimately linked with this system, and controlled by it. (See p. 330.)

CROSSING OF CORDS.--Each half of the body is presided over, not by its own
half of the brain, but that of the opposite side. The motory nerves, as
they descend from the brain, in the medulla oblongata, cross each other to
the opposite side of the spinal cord. So the motor nerves of the right
side of the body are connected with the left side of the brain, and
_vice versa_. Thus a derangement in one half of the brain may
paralyze the opposite half of the body. The nerves going to the face do
not thus cross, and therefore the face may be motionless on one side, and
the limbs on the other. Each of the sensory fibers of the spinal nerves
crosses over to the opposite side of the spinal cord, and so ascends to
the brain; an injury to the spinal cord may, therefore, cause a loss of
motion in one leg and of feeling in the other.

REFLEX ACTION.--Since the gray matter generates the nervous force, a
ganglion is capable of receiving an impression, and of sending back or
_reflecting_ it so as to excite the muscles to action. This is done
without the consciousness of the mind. [Footnote: Instances of an
unconscious working of the mind are abundant. An illustration, often
quoted, is given, as follows, by Dr. Abercrombie, in his _Intellectual
Powers_:

"A lawyer had been excessively perplexed about a very complicated
question. An opinion was required from him, but the question was one of
such difficulty that he felt very uncertain how he should render it. The
decision had to be given at a certain time, and he awoke in the morning of
that day with a feeling of great distress. He said to his wife, 'I had a
dream, and the whole thing was clearly arranged before my mind, and I
would give anything to recover the train of thought.' His wife said to
him, 'Go and look on your table.' She had seen him get up in the night and
go to his table and sit down and write. He did so, and found there the
opinion which he had been most earnestly endeavoring to recover, lying in
his own handwriting. There was no doubt about it whatever."

In this case the action of the brain was clearly automatic, _i. e._,
reflex. The lawyer had worried his brain by his anxiety, and thus
prevented his mind from doing its best. But it had received an impulse in
a certain direction, and when left to itself, worked out the result. (See
Appendix for other illustrations.)] Thus we wink involuntarily at a flash
of light or a threatened blow. [Footnote: A very eminent chemist a few
years ago was making an experiment upon some extremely explosive compound
which he had discovered. He had a small quantity of this compound in a
bottle, and was holding it up to the light, looking at it intently; and
whether it was a shake of the bottle or the warmth of his hand, I do not
know, but it exploded in his hand, and the bottle was shivered into a
million of minute fragments, which were driven in every direction. His
first impression was that they had penetrated his eyes, but to his intense
relief he found presently that they had only struck the outside of his
eyelids. You may conceive how infinitesimally short the interval was
between the explosion of the bottle and the particles reaching his eyes;
and yet in that interval the impression had been made upon his sight, the
mandate of the reflex action, so to speak, had gone forth, the muscles of
his eyelids had been called into action, and he had closed his eyelids
before the particles had reached them, and in this manner his eyes were
saved. You see what a wonderful proof this is of the way in which the
automatic action of our nervous apparatus enters into the sustenance of
our lives, and the protection of our most important organs from injury.--
DR. CARPENTER.] We start at a sudden sound. We jump back from a precipice
before the mind has time to reason upon the danger. The spinal cord
conducts certain impressions to the brain, but responds to others without
troubling that organ. [Footnote: There is a story told of a man, who,
having injured his spinal cord, had lost feeling and motion in his lower
extremities. Dr. John Hunter experimented upon him. Tickling his feet, he
asked him if he felt it; the man, pointing to his limbs, which were
kicking vigorously about, answered, "No, but you see my legs do."
Illustrations of this independent action of the spinal cord are common in
animals. A headless wasp will ply its sting energetically. A fowl, after
its head is cut off, will flap its wings and jump about as if in pain,
although, of course, all sensation has ceased. "A water beetle, having had
its head removed, remained motionless as long as it rested on a dry
surface, but when cast into water, it executed the usual swimming motions
with great energy and rapidity, striking all its comrades to one side by
its violence, and persisting in these for more than half an hour."] The
medulla oblongata carries on the process of respiration. The great
sympathetic system binds together all the organs of the body.

USES OF REFLEX ACTION.--We breathe eighteen times every minute; we stand
erect without a consciousness of effort; [Footnote: In this way we account
for the perilous feats performed by the somnambulist. He is not conscious,
as his operations are not directed by the cerebrum, but by the other
nervous centers. Were he to attempt their repetition when awake, the
emotion of fear might render it impossible.] we walk, eat, digest, and at
the same time carry on a train of thought. Our brain is thus emancipated
from the petty detail of life. If we were obliged to attend to every
breath, every pulsation of the heart, every wink of the eye, our time
would be wasted in keeping alive. Mere standing would require our entire
attention. Besides, an act which at first demands all our thought soon
requires less, and at last becomes mechanical, [Footnote: "As every one
knows," says Huxley, "it takes a soldier a long time to learn his drill--
for instance, to put himself into the attitude of 'attention' at the
instant the word of command is heard. But, after a time, the sound of the
word gives rise to the act, whether the soldier be thinking of it or not.
There is a story, which is credible enough, though it may not be true, of
a practical joker, who, seeing a discharged veteran carrying home his
dinner, suddenly called out 'Attention!' whereupon the man instantly
brought his hands down and lost his mutton and potatoes in the gutter. The
drill had been thorough, and its effects had become embodied in the man's
nervous structure."] as we say, _i. e._, reflex. Thus we play a
familiar tune upon an instrument and carry on a conversation at the same
time. All the possibilities of an education and the power of forming
habits are based upon this principle. No act we perform ends with itself.
It leaves behind it in the nervous centers a tendency to do the same thing
again. Our physical being thus conspires to fix upon us the habits of a
good or an evil life. Our very thoughts are written in our muscles, so
that the expression of our face and even our features grow into harmony
with the life we live.

BRAIN EXERCISE.--The nervous system demands its life and activity. The
mind grows by what it feeds on. One who reads mainly light literature, who
lolls on the sofa or worries through the platitudes of an idle or
fashionable life, decays mentally; his system loses tone, and physical
weakness follows mental poverty. On the other hand, an excessive use of
the mind withdraws force from the body, whose weakness, reacting on the
brain, produces gradual decay and serious diseases. (See p. 331.)

The brain grows by the growth of the body. The body grows through good
food, fresh air, and work and rest in suitable proportion. For the full
development and perfect use of a strong mind, a strong body is essential.
Hence, in seeking to expand and store the intellect, we should be equally
thoughtful of the growth and health of the body.

SLEEP [Footnote: Sleep procured by medicine is rarely as beneficial as
that secured naturally. The disturbance to the nervous system is often
sufficient to counterbalance all the good results. The habit of seeking
sleep in this way, without the advice of a physician, is to be most
earnestly deprecated. The dose must be constantly increased to produce the
effect, and thus great injury may be caused. Often, too, where laudanum or
morphine is used, the person unconsciously comes into a terrible and fatal
bondage. (See p. 342.) Especially should infants never be dosed with
cordials, as is a common family practice. The damage done to helpless
childhood by the ignorant and reckless use of soothing syrups is frightful
to contemplate. All the ordinary sleeping draughts have life-destroying
properties, as is proved by the fatal effects of an overdose. At the best,
they paralyze the nerve centers, disorder the digestion, and poison the
blood. Their promiscuous use is therefore full of danger.] is as essential
as food. During the day, the process of tearing down goes on; during the
night, the work of building up should make good the loss. In youth more
sleep is needed than in old age, when nature makes few permanent repairs,
and is content with temporary expedients. The number of hours required for
sleep must be decided by each person. Napoleon took only five hours, but
most people need from six to eight hours,--brain workers even more. In
general, one should sleep until he naturally wakes. If one's rest be
broken, it should be made up as soon as possible. (See p. 334.)

SUNLIGHT.--The influence of the sun's rays upon the nervous system is very
marked. [Footnote: The necessity of light for young children is not half
appreciated. Many of their diseases, and nearly all the cadaverous looks
of those brought up in great cities, are ascribable to the deficiency of
light and air. When we see the glass room of the photographers in every
street, in the topmost story, we grudge them their application to what is
often a mere personal vanity. Why should not a nursery be constructed in
the same manner? If parents knew the value of light to the skin,
especially to children of a scrofulous tendency, we should have plenty of
these glass house nurseries, where children might run about in a proper
temperature, free from much of that clothing which at present seals up the
skin--that great supplementary lung--against sunlight and oxygen. They
would save many a weakly child who now perishes from lack of these
necessaries of infant life.--DR. WINTER.] It is said also to have the
effect of developing red disks in the blood. All vigor and activity come
from the sun. Vegetables grown in subdued light have a bleached and faded
look. An infant kept in absolute darkness would grow into a shapeless
idiot. That room is the healthiest to which the sun has the freest access.
Epidemics frequently attack the inhabitants of the shady side of a street,
and exempt those on the sunny side. If, on a slight indisposition, we
should go out into the open air and bright sunlight, instead of shutting
ourselves up in a close, dark chamber, we might often avoid a serious
illness. The sun bath is doubtless a most efficient remedy for many
diseases. Our window blinds and curtains should be thrown back and open,
and we should let the blessed air and sun stream in to invigorate and
cheer. No house buried in shade, and no room with darkened windows, is fit
for human habitation. In damp and darkness, lies in wait almost every
disease to which flesh is heir. The sun is their only successful foe. (See
p. 336.)

WONDERS OF THE BRAIN.--After having seen the beautiful contrivances and
the exquisite delicacy of the lower organs, it is natural to suppose that
when we come to the brain we should find the most elaborate machinery. How
surprising, then, it is to have revealed to us only cells and fibers! The
brain is the least solid and most unsubstantial looking organ in the body.
Eighty per cent of water, seven of albumen, some fat, and a few minor
substances constitute the instrument which rules the world. Strangest of
all, the brain, which is the seat of sensation, is itself without
sensation. Every nerve, every part of the spinal cord, is keenly alive to
the slightest touch, yet "the brain may be cut, burned, or electrified
without producing pain."

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND NARCOTICS.

ALCOHOL (Continued from p. 187).

EFFECT UPON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.--In the progressive influence of alcohol
upon the nervous system, there are, according to the researches of Dr.
Richardson, four successive stages.

1. THE STAGE OF EXCITEMENT. [Footnote: The pupil should be careful to note
here that alcohol does not act upon the heart directly, and cause it to
contract with more force. The idea that alcohol gives energy and activity
to the muscles is entirely false. It really, as we have seen (p. 183),
weakens muscular contraction. The enfeeblement begins in the first stage,
and continues in the other stages with increased effect. The heart beats
quickly merely because the resistance of the minute controlling vessels is
taken off, and it works without being under proper regulation. _What is
called a stimulation or excitement is, in absolute fact, a relaxation, a
partial paralysis_ of one of the most important mechanisms in the
animal body. Alcohol should be ranked among the narcotics.--RICHARDSON.]--
The first effect of alcohol, as we have already described on page 144, is
to paralyze the nerves that lead to the extreme and minute blood vessels,
and so regulate the passage of the blood through the capillary system. The
vital force, thus drawn into the nervous centers, drives the machinery of
life with tremendous energy. The heart jumps like the mainspring of a
watch when the resistance of the wheels is removed. The blood surges
through the body with increased force. Every capillary tube in the system
is swollen and flushed, like the reddened nose and cheek.

In all this there is exhilaration, but no nourishment; there is animation,
but no permanent power conferred on brain or muscle. Alcohol may cheer for
the moment. It may set the sluggish blood in motion, start the flow of
thought, and excite a temporary gayety. "It may enable a wearied or feeble
organism to do brisk work for a short time. It may make the brain briefly
brilliant. It may excite muscle to quick action, but it does nothing at
its own cost, fills up nothing it has destroyed, and itself leads to
destruction." Even the mental activity it has excited is an unsafe state
of mind, for that just poise of the faculties so essential to good
judgment is disturbed by the presence of the intruder. Johnson well
remarked, "Wine improves conversation by taking the edge off the
understanding."

2. THE STAGE OF MUSCULAR WEAKNESS.--If the action of the alcohol be still
continued, the spinal cord is next affected by this powerful narcotic. The
control of some of the muscles is lost. Those of the lower lip usually
fail first, then those of the lower limbs, and the staggering, uncertain
steps betray the result. The muscles themselves, also, become feebler as
the power of contraction diminishes. The temperature, which, for a time,
was slightly increased, soon begins to fall as the heat is radiated; the
body is cooled, and the well-known "alcoholic chill" is felt.

3. THE STAGE OF MENTAL WEAKNESS.--The cerebrum is now implicated. The
ideal and emotional faculties are quickened, while the will is weakened.
The center of thought being overpowered, the mind is a chaos. Ideas flock
in thick and fast. The tongue is loosened. The judgment loses its hold on
the acts. The reason giving way, the animal instincts generally assume the
mastery of the man. The hidden nature comes to the surface. All the gloss
of education and social restraint falls off, and the lower nature stands
revealed. The coward shows himself more craven, the braggart more
boastful, the bold more daring, and the cruel more brutal. The inebriate
is liable to become the perpetrator of any outrage that the slightest
provocation may suggest.

4. THE STAGE OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS.--At last, prostration ensues, and the
wild, mad revel of the drunkard ends with utter senselessness. In common
speech, the man is "dead drunk." Brain and spinal cord are both benumbed.
Fortunately, the two nervous centers which supply the heart and the
diaphragm are the slowest to be influenced. So, even in this final stage,
the breathing and the circulation still go on, though the other organs
have stopped. Were it not for this, every person thoroughly intoxicated
would die. [Footnote: Cold has a wonderful influence in hastening this
stage, so that a person, previously only in the first stage of excitement,
on going outdoors on a winter night, may rapidly sink into a lethargy
(become _comatose_), fall, and die. He is then commonly said to have
perished with cold. The signs of this coma are of great practical
importance, since so many persons die in police stations and elsewhere who
are really comatose, when they are supposed to be only sound asleep. The
pulse is slow, and almost imperceptible. The face is pale, and the skin
cold. "If the arm be pinched, it is not moved; if the eyeballs are
touched, the lids will not sink." The respiration becomes slower and
slower, and, if the person dies, it is because liquid collects in the
bronchial tubes, and stops the passage of the air. The man then actually
drowns in his own secretions.]

EFFECT UPON THE BRAIN.--Alcohol seems to have a special affinity for the
brain. This organ absorbs more than any other, and its delicate structure
is correspondingly affected. The "Vascular enlargement" here reaches its
height. The tiny vessels become clogged with blood that is unfitted to
nourish, because loaded with carbonic acid, and deprived of the usual
quantity of the life-giving oxygen.--HINTON. The brain is, in the language
of the physiologist, malfunctioned. The mind but slowly rallies from the
stupor of the fourth stage, and a sense of dullness and depression remains
to show with what difficulty the fatigued organ recovers its normal
condition. So marked is the effect of the narcotic poison, that some
authorities hold that "a once thoroughly intoxicated brain never fully
becomes what it was before."

In time, the free use of liquor hardens and thickens the membrane
enveloping the nervous matter; the nerve corpuscles undergo a "Fatty
degeneration"; the blood vessels lose their elasticity; and the vital
fluid, flowing less freely through the obstructed channels, fails to
afford the old-time nourishment. The consequent deterioration of the
nervous substance--the organ of thought--shows itself in the weakened mind
[Footnote: The habitual use of fermented liquors, even to an extent far
short of what is necessary to produce intoxication, injures the body, and
diminishes the mental power.--Sir Henry Thompson.] that we so often notice
in a person accustomed to drink, and at last lays the foundation of
various nervous disorders--epilepsy, paralysis, and insanity. [Footnote:
Casper, the great statistician of Berlin, says: "So far as that city is
concerned, one third of the insane coming from the poorer classes, were
made so by spirit drinking."] The law of heredity here again asserts
itself, and the inebriate's children often inherit the disease which he
has escaped.

Chief among the consequences of this perverted and imperfect nutrition of
the brain is that intermediate state between intoxication and insanity,
well known as Delirium Tremens. "It is characterized by a low, restless
activity of the cerebrum, manifesting itself in muttering delirium, with
occasional paroxysms of greater violence. The victim almost always
apprehends some direful calamity; he imagines his bed to be covered with
loathsome reptiles; he sees the walls of his apartment crowded with foul
specters; and he imagines his friends and attendants to be fiends come to
drag him down to a fiery abyss beneath."--CARPENTER. (See p. 287.)

INFLUENCE UPON THE MENTAL AND MORAL POWERS.--So intimate is the relation
between the body and the mind, that an injury to one harms the other. The
effect of alcoholized blood is to weaken the will. The one habitually
under its influence often shocks us by his indecision and his readiness to
break a promise to reform. The truth is, he has lost, in a measure, his
power of self-control. At last, he becomes physically unable to resist the
craving demand of his morbid appetite.

Other faculties share in this mental wreck. The intellectual vision
becomes less penetrating, the decisions of the mind less reliable, and the
grasp of thought less vigorous. The logic grows muddy. A thriftless,
reckless feeling is developed. Ere long, self-respect is lost, and then
ambition ceases to allure, and the high spirit sinks.

Along with this mental deterioration comes also a failure of the moral
sense. The fine fiber of character undergoes a "degeneration" as certain
as that of the muscles themselves. Broken promises tell of a lowered
standard of veracity, and a dulled sense of honor, quite as much as of an
impaired will. Under the subtle influence of the ever-present poison,
signs of spiritual weakness multiply fast. Conscience is lulled to rest.
Reason is enfeebled. Customary restraints are easily thrown off. The
sensibilities are blunted. There is less ability to appreciate nice shades
of right and wrong. Great moral principles and motives lose their power to
influence. The judgment fools with duty. The future no longer reaches back
its hand to guide the present. The better nature has lost its supremacy.

The wretched victim of appetite will now gratify his tyrannical passion
for drink at any expense of deceit or crime. He becomes the blind
instrument of his insane impulses, and commits acts from which he would
once have shrunk with horror. [Footnote: Richardson sums up the various
diseases caused by alcohol, as follows: "(_a_). Diseases of the brain
and nervous system, indicated by such names as apoplexy, epilepsy,
paralysis, vertigo, softening of the brain, delirium tremens, dipsomania
or inordinate craving for drink, loss of memory, and that general failure
of the mental power, called dementia. (_b_). Diseases of the lungs:
one form of consumption, congestion, and subsequent bronchitis.
(_c_). Diseases of the heart: irregular beat, feebleness of the
muscular walls, dilatation, disease of the valves. (_d_). Diseases of
the blood: scurvy, excess of water or dropsy, separation of fibrin.
(_e_). Diseases of the stomach: feebleness of the stomach,
indigestion, flatulency, irritation, and sometimes inflammation.
(_f_). Diseases of the bowels: relaxation or purging, irritation.
(_g_). Diseases of the liver: congestion, hardening and shrinking,
cirrhosis. (_h_). Diseases of the kidneys: change of structure into
fatty or waxy-like condition and other results leading to dropsy, or
sometimes to fatal sleep. (_i_). Diseases of the muscles: fatty
change in the muscles, by which they lose their power for proper active
contraction. (_j_). Diseases of the membranes of the body: thickening
and loss of elasticity, by which the parts wrapped up in the membrane are
impaired for use, and premature decay is induced."] Sometimes he even
takes a malignant pleasure in injuring those whom Nature has ordained he
should protect. [Footnote: It has been argued that a man should not be
punished for any crime he may commit during intoxication, but rather for
knowingly giving up the reins of reason and conscience, and thus
subjecting himself to the rule of his evil passions. Voluntarily to
stimulate the mind and put it into a condition where it may drive one to
ruin, is very like the act of an engineer who should get up steam in his
engine, and then, having opened the valves, desert his post, and let the
monster go thundering down the track to sure destruction. Certain persons
are thrown into the stage of mental weakness by a single glass of liquor.
How can they be excused when the fact of their peculiar liability lends
additional force to the argument of abstemiousness, and they know that
their only safety lies in total abstinence?--CARPENTER'S
_Physiology._]

2. TOBACCO.

The Constituents of Tobacco Smoke are numerous, but the prominent ones are
carbonic-acid, carbonic-oxide, and ammonia gases; carbon, or soot; and
nicotine. The proportion of these substances varies with different kinds
of tobacco, the pipe used, and the rapidity of the combustion. Carbonic
acid tends to produce sleepiness and headache. Carbonic oxide, in
addition, causes a tremulous movement of the muscles, and so of the heart.
Ammonia bites the tongue of the smoker, excites the salivary glands, and
causes dryness of the mouth and throat. Nicotine is a powerful poison. The
amount contained in one or two strong cigars, if thrown directly into the
blood, would cause death. Nicotine itself is complex, yielding a volatile
substance that gives the odor to the breath and clothing; and also a
bitter extract which produces the sickening taste of an old pipe. In
smoking, some of the nicotine is decomposed, forming pyridine, picoline,
and other poisonous alkaloids. [Footnote: The analysis of tobacco as given
by different authorities varies greatly. The one stated in the text
suffices for the purposes of this chapter. Von Eulenberg names several
other products of the combustion. One hundred pounds of the dry leaf may
yield as high as seven pounds of nicotine. Havana tobacco contains about
two per cent, and Virginia about six per cent.--See JOHNSTON & CHURCH'S
_Chemistry of Common Life_, and MILLER'S _Organic Chemistry_.]

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS.--The poison of tobacco, set free by the process
either of chewing or smoking, when for the first time it is swept through
the system by the blood, powerfully affects the body. Nausea is felt, and
the stomach seeks to throw off the offending substance. The brain is
inflamed, and headache follows. The motor nerves becoming irritated,
giddiness ensues. Thus Nature earnestly protests against the formation of
this habit. But, after repeated trials, the system adjusts itself to the
new conditions. A "tolerance" of the poison is finally established, and
smoking causes none of the former symptoms. Such powerful substances can
not, however, be constantly inhaled without producing marked changes. The
three great eliminating organs--the lungs, the skin, and the kidneys--
throw off a large part of the products, but much remains in the system.
When the presence of the poison is constant, and especially when the
smoking or chewing is excessive, the disturbance that at first is merely
functional, must necessarily, in many cases at least, lead to a chronic
derangement.

Probably in this, as in the case of other deleterious articles of diet,
the strong and healthy will seem to escape entirely, while the weak and
those predisposed to disease will be injured in direct proportion to the
extent of the indulgence. Those whose employment leads to active, outdoor
work, will show no sign of nicotine poisoning, while the man of sedentary
habits will sooner or later be the victim of dyspepsia, sleeplessness,
nervousness, paralysis, or other organic difficulties. Even where the user
of tobacco himself escapes harm, the law of heredity asserts itself, and
the innocent offspring only too often inherit an impaired constitution,
and a tendency to nervous complaints.

THE VARIOUS DISTURBANCES produced in different individuals and
constitutions by smoking have been summed up by Dr. Richardson as follows:
"(_a_) In the blood, it causes undue fluidity, and change in the red
corpuscles; (_b_) in the stomach, it gives rise to debility, nausea,
and vomiting; (_c_) in the mucous membrane of the mouth, it produces
enlargement and soreness of the tonsils--smoker's sore throat--redness,
dryness, and occasional peeling of the membrane, and either unnatural
firmness and contraction, or sponginess of the gums; and, where the pipe
rests on the lips, oftentimes 'epithelial cancer'; (_d_) in the
heart, it causes debility of the organ, and irregular action; (_e_)
in the bronchial surface of the lungs, when that is already irritable, it
sustains irritation, and increases the cough; (_f_) in the organs of
sense, it produces dilation of the pupils of the eye, confusion of vision,
bright lines, luminous or cobweb specks, and long retention of images on
the retina, with analogous symptoms affecting the ear, viz., inability to
define sounds clearly, and the occurrence of a sharp, ringing noise like a
whistle; (_g_) in the brain, it impairs the activity of the organ,
oppressing it if it be nourished, but soothing it if it be exhausted;
(_h_) it leads to paralysis in the motor and sympathetic nerves, and
to over-secretion from the glands which the sympathetic nerves control."

IS TOBACCO A FOOD?--Here, as in the case of alcohol, the reply is a
negative one. Tobacco manifests no characteristic of a food. It can not
impart to the blood an atom of nutritive matter for building up the body.
It does not add to, but rather subtracts from, the total vital force. It
confers no potential power upon muscle or brain. It stimulates by cutting
off the nervous supply from the extremities and concentrating it upon the
centers. But stimulation is not nourishment; it is only a rapid spending
of the capital stock. There is no greater error than to mistake the
exciting of an organ for its strengthening.

THE INFLUENCE UPON YOUTH.--Here, too, science utters no doubtful voice.
Experience asserts only one conviction. _Tobacco retards the development
of mind and body._ [Footnote: Cigarettes are especially injurious from
the irritating smoke of the paper covering, taken into the lungs, and also
because the poison fumes of the tobacco are more directly inhaled. In case
of the cheap cigarettes often smoked by boys the ingredients used are
harmful, while one revolts at the thought of the filthy materials, refuse
cigar stumps, etc., employed in their manufacture.] The law of nature is
that of steady growth. It can not admit of a daily, even though it be
merely a functional, disturbance that weakens the digestion, that causes
the heart to labor excessively, that prevents the perfect oxidation of the
blood, that interferes with the assimilation, and that deranges the
nervous system. [Footnote: There is one influence of tobacco that every
young man should understand. In many cases, like alcohol, it seems to
blunt the sensibilities, and to make its user careless of the rights and
feelings of others. This is often noticed in common life. We meet
everywhere "devotees of the weed," who, ignoring the fact that tobacco is
disagreeable to many persons, think only of the gratification of their
selfish appetite. They smoke or chew in any place or company. They permit
the cigar fumes to blow into the faces of passers-by. They sit where the
wind carries the smoke of their pipes so that others must inhale it. They
expectorate upon the floor of cars, hotels, and even private homes. They
take no pains to remove the odor that lingers about their person and
clothing. They force all who happen to be near, their companions, their
fellow-travelers, to inhale the nauseating odor of tobacco. Everything
must be sacrificed to the one primal necessity of such persons--a smoke.
Now, a young man just beginning life, with his fortune to make, and his
success to achieve, can not afford to burden himself with a habit that is
costly, that will make his presence offensive to many persons, and that
may perhaps render him less sensitive to the best influences and
perceptions of manhood.] No one has a right thus to check and disturb
continually the regular processes of his physical and mental progress.
Hence, the young man (especially if he be of a nervous, sensitive
organization) who uses tobacco deliberately diminishes the possible energy
with which he might commence the work of life; [Footnote: In the
Polytechnic School at Paris, the pupils were divided into two classes--the
smokers, and the non-smokers. The latter not only excelled on the entrance
examinations, but during the entire course of study. Dr. Decaisne examined
thirty-eight boys who smoked, and found twenty-seven of them diseased from
nicotine poisoning. So long ago as 1868, in consequence of these results,
the Minister of Public Instruction forbade the use of tobacco by the
pupils.

Dr. Gihon, medical director of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, in his
report for 1881, says: "The most important matter in the health history of
the students is that relating to tobacco, and its interdiction is
absolutely essential to their future health and usefulness. In this view I
have been sustained by my colleagues, and by all sanitarians in civil and
military life whose views I have been able to obtain."] while he comes
under the bondage of a habit that may become stronger than his will, and
under the influence of a narcotic that may beguile his faculties and palsy
his strength at the very moment when every power should be awake.

Another peril still lies in the wake of this masterful poison habit.
Tobacco causes thirst and depression that only too often and naturally
lead to the use of liquor. (See p. 338.)

3. OPIUM.

Opium is the dried juice of the poppy. In Eastern countries, this flower
is cultivated in immense fields for the sake of this product. When a cut
is made in the poppy head, a tiny tear of milky juice exudes, and hardens.
These little drops are gathered and prepared for the market, an acre
yielding, it is said, about twenty-five pounds. Throughout the East, opium
is generally smoked; but in Western countries laudanum and paregoric
(tinctures of opium), and morphine--a powerful alkaloid contained in
opium, are generally used. The drug itself is also eaten.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECT.--Opium, in its various forms, acts directly upon the
nerves, a small dose quieting pain, and a larger one soothing to sleep. It
arouses the brain, and fires the imagination to a wonderful pitch.
[Footnote: So far as its effects are concerned, it matters little in what
form opium is taken, whether solid as in pills, liquid as in laudanum, or
vaporized, as when inhaled from a pipe. The opium slave is characterized
by trembling steps, a curved spine, sunken glassy eyes, sallow withered
features, and often by contraction of the muscles of the neck and fingers.
In the East, when the drug ceases its influence, the opium eater renews it
with corrosive sublimate till, finally, this also fails of effect, and he
gradually sinks into the grave.] The reaction from this unnatural excitant
is correspondingly depressing; and the melancholy, the "overwhelming
horror" that ensues, calls for a renewal of the stimulus. The dose must be
gradually increased to produce the original exhilaration. [Footnote: The
victim of opium is bound to a drug from which he derives no benefits, but
which slowly deprives him of health and happiness, finally to end in
idiocy or premature death. Whatever the victim's condition or surroundings
may be, the opium must be taken at certain times with inexorable
regularity. The liquor or tobacco user can, for a time, go without the use
of these agents, and no regular hours are necessary. During sickness, and
more especially during the eruptive fevers, he does not desire tobacco or
liquor. The opium eater has no such reprieves; his dose must be taken,
and, in painful complications affecting the stomach, a large increase is
demanded to sustain the system. If, in forming the habit, two doses are
taken each day, the victim is obliged to maintain that number. It is the
unceasing, everlasting slavery of regularity that humiliates opium eaters
by a sense of their own weakness.--HUBBARD _on The Opium Habit and
Alcoholism._] The seductive nature of the drug leads the unfortunate
victim on step by step until he finds himself fast bound in the fetters of
one of the most tyrannical habits known to man.

To go on is to wreck all one's powers--physical and mental. To throw off
the habit, requires a determination that but few possess. Yet even when
the custom is broken, the system is long in recovering from the shock.
There seems to be a failure of every organ. The digestion is weakened,
food is no longer relished, the muscles waste, the skin shrivels, the
nervous centers are paralyzed, and a premature old age comes on apace. De
Quincey, four months after he had cast away the opium bonds, wrote, "Think
of me as one still agitated, writhing, throbbing, palpitating, shattered."

No person can be too careful in the use of laudanum, paregoric, and
morphine. They may be taken on a physician's prescription as a sedative
from racking pain, [Footnote: Many persons learn to inject morphine
beneath the skin by means of a "hypodermic syringe." The operation is
painless, and seems an innocent one. It throws the narcotic directly into
the circulation, and relief from pain is often almost instantaneous. But
the danger of forming the opium habit is not lessened, and the effect of
using the drug in this form for a long time is just as injurious as opium
smoking itself. Opium in one of its forms enters largely into the
composition of many of the painkillers and patent medicines so freely
advertised for domestic use in the present day, and for this reason the
greatest care is needed in having recourse to any of them. Taken, perhaps,
in the first instance, to alleviate the torments of neuralgia or
toothache, what proves to be a remedy soon becomes a source of
gratification, which the wretchedness that follows on abstinence renders
increasingly difficult to lay aside. The same must be said of bromide of
potassium and hydrate of chloral, frequently resorted to as a remedy for
sleeplessness: the system quickly becomes habituated to their use, and
they can then be relinquished only at the cost of much suffering. Indeed,
the last mentioned of these two drugs obtains over the mind a power which
may be compared to that of opium, and is, moreover, liable to occasion the
disease known as chloralism, by which the system ultimately becomes a
complete wreck. Looking at the whole question of the medicinal use of
narcotics, it is perhaps not too much to say that they should never be
employed except with the authority of a competent medical adviser.--
_Chambers's Journal_.] but if followed up for any length of time, the
powerful habit may be formed ere one is aware. Then comes the opium
eater's grave, or the opium eater's struggle for life!

4. CHLORAL HYDRATE.

CHLORAL HYDRATE is a drug frequently used to cause sleep. It leaves behind
no headache or lassitude, as is often the case with morphine. It is,
however, a treacherous remedy. It is cumulative in its effects, _i.
e._, even a small and harmless dose, persisted in for a long period,
may produce a gradual accumulation of evil results that in the end will
prove fatal.

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECT of its prolonged use is very marked. The appetite
becomes capricious. The secretions are unnatural. Nausea and flatulency
often ensue. Then the nervous system is involved. The heart is affected.
Sleep, instead of responding to the drug, as at first, is broken and
disturbed. The eyesight fails. The circulation is enfeebled, and the pulse
becomes weak, rapid, and irregular. There is a tendency to fainting and to
difficult respiration. Sometimes the impoverished blood induces a disease
resembling scurvy, the ends of the fingers ulcerate, and the face is
disfigured by blotches. An excessive dose may result in death.

Prolonged habitual use of chloral hydrate tends to debase the mind and
morals of the subject in the same manner as indulgence in alcohol, ether,
or chloroform.

5. CHLOROFORM.

CHLOROFORM is an artificial product generally obtained, by distillation,
from a mixture of chloride of lime, water, and alcohol. It was discovered
in 1831 by Samuel Guthrie, of Sackett's Harbor, New York. It is a
colorless, transparent volatile liquid, with a strong ethereal odor.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECT.--Chloroform is a powerful anæsthetic, which, when
inhaled, causes a temporary paralysis of the nervous system, and thus a
complete insensibility to pain. There is great peril attending its use,
even in the hands of the most skillful and experienced practitioners. It
is sometimes prescribed by a physician, and afterward (as in the case of
laudanum, morphine, and chloral) the sufferer, charmed with the release
from pain and the peaceful slumber secured, buys the Lethean liquid for
himself. Its use soon becomes an apparent necessity. The craving for the
narcotic at a stated time is almost irresistible. The patient, compelled
to give up the use of chloroform, will demand, entreat, pray for another
dose, in a heartrending manner, never to be forgotten. Paleness and
debility, the earliest symptoms, are followed by mental prostration.
Familiarity with this dangerous drug begets carelessness, and its victims
are frequently found dead in their beds, with the handkerchief from which
they inhaled the volatile poison clutched in their lifeless hands.

6. COCAINE.

Cocaine is an alkaloid prepared from the erythroxylon coca, a shrub, five
or six feet high, found wild in the mountainous regions of Ecuador and
Peru, where it is also cultivated by the natives. The South American
Indians, for centuries, have chewed coca leaves as a stimulant, but the
highly poisonous principle, now called cocaine, to which the plant owes
its peculiar effects, was not discovered till 1859. Within a few years
this drug has come into favor as an agent to produce local anæsthesia, and
has proved exceedingly valuable in surgical operations upon the eye and
other sensitive organs. It has already, however, been diverted from its
legitimate use as a benefaction, and to the other evils of the day is now
added the "cocaine habit," which is, perhaps, even more dangerous and
difficult to abandon than either the alcohol or the opium habit.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECT.--Applied locally, cocaine greatly lessens and even
annihilates pain. Taken internally, it acts as a powerful stimulant to the
nervous system, its physiological action being similar to that of theine
(p. 170), caffeine, and theobromine. Used hypodermically, its immediate
effect, says one to whom it was thus administered, is to cause "great
pallor of countenance, profuse frontal perspiration, sunken eyes, enlarged
pupils, lessened sensitiveness of the cornea and conjunctiva, lowered
arterial tension, and a feeble pulse and heart beat. Under its influence I
could not reason. Everything seemed to run through my brain, and in vain I
summoned all my will power to overcome an overwhelming sleepiness." A few
doses of this drug will in some persons produce temporary insanity. Used
to excess, it leads to permanent madness or idiocy. "Cocaine," says a
writer in the _Medical Review_, "is a dangerous therapeutic toy not to
be used as a sensational plaything. If it should come into as general use
as the other intoxicants of its class, it will help to fill the asylums,
inebriate and insane."

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. Why is the pain of incipient hip disease frequently felt in the knee?

2. Why does a child require more sleep than an aged person?

3. When you put your finger in the palm of a sleeping child, why will he
grasp it?

4. How may we strengthen the brain?

5. What is the object of pain?

6. Why will a blow on the stomach sometimes stop the heart?

7. How long will it take for the brain of a man six feet high to receive
news of an injury to his foot, and to reply?

8. How can we grow beautiful?

9. Why do intestinal worms sometimes affect a child's sight?

10. Is there any indication of character in physiognomy?

11. When one's finger is burned, where is the ache?

12. Is a generally closed parlor a healthful room?

13. Why can an idle scholar read his lesson and at the same time count the
marbles in his pocket?

14. In amputating a limb, what part, when divided, will cause the keenest
pain?

15. What is the effect of bad air on nervous people?

16. Is there any truth in the proverb that "he who sleeps dines"?

17. What does a high, wide forehead indicate?

18. How does indigestion frequently cause a headache?

19. What is the cause of one's foot being "asleep"? [Footnote: Here the
nervous force is prevented from passing by compression. Just how this is
done, or what is kept from passing, we can not tell. If a current of
electricity were moving through a rubber tube full of mercury, a slight
squeeze would interrupt it. These cases may depend on the same general
principle, but we can not assert it.--HUXLEY. The tingling sensation
caused by the compression is transferred to the foot, whence the nerve
starts.]

20. When an injury to the nose has been remedied by transplanting skin
from the forehead, why is a touch to the former felt in the latter?

21. Are closely curtained windows healthful?

22. Why, in falling from a height, do the limbs instinctively take a
position to defend the important organs?

23. What causes the pylorus to open and close at the right time?

24. Why is pleasant exercise most beneficial?

25. Why does grief cause one to lose his appetite?

26. Why should we never study directly after dinner?

27. What produces the peristaltic movement of the stomach?

28. Why is a healthy child so restless and full of mischief?

29. Why is a slight blow on the back of a rabbit's neck fatal?

30. Why can one walk and carry on a conversation at the same time?

31. What are the dangers of overstudy?

32. What is the influence of idleness upon the brain?

33. State the close relation which exists between physical and mental
health and disease.

34. In what consists the value of the power of habit?

35. How many pairs of nerves supply the eye?

36. Describe the reflex actions in reading aloud.

37. Under what circumstances does paralysis occur?

38. If the eyelids of a profound sleeper were raised, and a candle brought
near, would the iris contract?

39. How does one cough in his sleep?

40. Give illustrations of the unconscious action of the brain.

41. Is chewing tobacco more injurious than smoking?

42. Ought a man to retire from business while his faculties are still
unimpaired?

43. Which is the more exhaustive to the brain, worry or severe mental
application?

44. Is it a blessing to be placed beyond the necessity for work?

45. Show how anger, hate, and the other degrading passions are destructive
to the brain. [Footnote: "One of the surest means for keeping the body and
mind in perfect health consists in learning to hold the passions in
subservience to the reasoning faculties. This rule applies to every
passion. Man, distinguished from all other animals by the peculiarity that
his reason is placed above his passions to be the director of his will,
can protect himself from every mere animal degradation resulting from
passionate excitement. The education of the man should be directed not to
suppress such passions as are ennobling, but to bring all under
governance, and specially to subdue those most destructive passions,
anger, hate, and fear."]

46. Are not amusements, to repair the waste of the nervous energy,
especially needed by persons whose life is one of care and toil?

47. Is not severe mental labor incompatible with a rapidly growing body?

48. How shall we induce the system to perform all its functions regularly

49. How does alcohol interfere with the action of the nerves?

50. What is the general effect of alcohol upon the character?

51. Does alcohol tend to produce clearness and vigor of thought?

52. What is the general effect of alcohol on the muscles?

53. Does alcohol have any effect on the bones? The skin?

54. What is the cause of the "alcoholic chill"?

55. Show how alcohol tends to develop man's lower, rather than his higher,
nature.

56. When we wish really to strengthen the brain, should we use alcohol?

57. Why is alcohol used to preserve anatomical specimens?

58. What is meant by an inherited taste for liquor?

59. Ought a person to be punished for a crime committed during
intoxication?

60. Should a boy ever smoke?

61. To what extent are we responsible for the health of our body?

62. Why does alcohol tend to collect in the brain?

63. Does the use of alcohol tend to increase crime and poverty?




VIII.


THE SPECIAL SENSES.

"See how yon beam of seeming white
Is braided, out of seven-hued light;
Yet in those lucid globes no ray
By any chance shall break astray.
Hark, how the rolling surge of sound,
Arches and spirals circling round,
Wakes the hush'd spirit through thine ear
With music it is heaven to hear."

HOLMES.


"Let us remember that if we get a glimpse of the details of natural
phenomena, and of those movements which constitute life, it is not in
considering them as a whole, but in analyzing them as far as our limited
means will permit. In the vibrations of the globe of air which surrounds
our planet, as in the undulations of the ether which fills the immensity
of space, it is always by molecules which are intangible for us, put in
motion by nature, always by the infinitely little, that she acts in
exciting the organs of sense, and she has modeled these organs in a
proportion which enables them to partake in the movement which she
impresses upon the universe. She can paint with equal facility on a
fraction of a line of space on the retina, the grandest landscape or the
nervelets of a rose leaf; the celestial vault on which Sirius is but a
luminous point, or the sparkling dust of a butterfly's wing; the roar of
the tempest, the roll of thunder, the echo of an avalanche, find equal
place in the labyrinth whose almost imperceptible cavities seem destined
to receive only the most delicate sounds."

_                _
| 1. THE TOUCH...| 1. Description of the Organ.
|                |_2. Its Uses.
|                 _
| 2. THE TASTE...| 1. Description of the Organ.
|                |_2. Its Uses.
|                 _
| 3. THE SMELL...| 1. Description of the Organ.
|                |_2. Its Uses.
|                 _                         _
|                | 1. Description of the   | a. _External Ear._
|                |     Organ...............| b. _Middle Ear._
| 4. THE HEARING.|                         |_c. _Internal Ear._
|                | 2. How we Hear
|                |_3. Hygiene of the Ear.
|                 _
|                | 1. Description of the Organ.
|                | 2. Eyelids, and Tears.
|                | 3. Structure of the Retina.
|_5. THE SIGHT...| 4. How we see.
| 5. The Use of the Crystalline Lens.
| 6. Near and Far Sight.
| 7. Color Blindness.
|_8. Hygiene of the Eyes.


THE SPECIAL SENSES

1. TOUCH.

DESCRIPTION.--Touch is sometimes called the "common sense," since its
nerves are spread over the whole body. It is most delicate, however, in
the point of the tongue and the tips of the fingers. The surface of the
cutis is covered with minute, conical projections called _papillæ_
(Fig. 24). [Footnote: In the palm of the hand, where there are at least
twelve thousand in a square inch, we can see the fine ridges along which
they are arranged.] Each one of these papillæ contains its tiny nerve
twigs, which receive the impression and transmit it to the brain, where
the perception is produced.

USES.--Touch is the first of the senses used by a child. By it we obtain
our idea of solidity, and throughout life rectify all other sensations.
Thus, when we see anything curious, our first desire is to handle it.

The sensation of touch is generally relied upon, yet, if we hold a marble
in the manner shown in Fig. 57, it will seem like two marbles; and if we
touch the fingers thus crossed to our tongue, we shall seem to feel two
tongues. Again, if we close our eyes and let another person move one of
our fingers over a plane surface, first lightly, then with greater
pressure, and then lightly again, we shall think the surface concave.

FIG. 57.

[Illustration:]

This organ is capable of wonderful cultivation. The physician acquires by
practice the _tactus eruditus_, or learned touch, which is often of
great service, while the delicacy of touch possessed by the blind almost
compensates the loss of the absent sense. [Footnote: The sympathy between
the different organs shows how they all combine to make a home for the
mind. When one sense fails, the others endeavor to remedy the defect. It
is touching to see how the blind man gets along without eyes, and the deaf
without ears. Cuthbert, though blind, was the most efficient polisher of
telescopic mirrors in London. Saunderson, the successor of Newton as
professor of mathematics at Cambridge, could distinguish between real and
spurious medals. There is an instance recorded of a blind man who could
recognize colors. The author knew one who could tell when he was
approaching a tree, by what he described as the "different feeling of the
air."] (See p. 346.)

2. TASTE.

DESCRIPTION.--This sense is located in the papillæ of the tongue and
palate. These papillaæ start up when tasting, as you can see by placing a
drop of vinegar on another person's tongue, or your own before a mirror.
The velvety look of this organ is given by hair-like projections of the
cuticle upon some of the papillæ. They absorb the liquid to be tasted, and
convey it to the nerves. [Footnote: An insoluble substance is therefore
tasteless.] The back of the tongue is most sensitive to salt and bitter
substances, and, as this part is supplied by the ninth pair of nerves
(Fig. 56), in sympathy with the stomach, such flavors, by sympathy, often
produce vomiting. The edges of the tongue are most sensitive to sweet and
sour substances, and as this part is supplied by the fifth pair of nerves,
which also goes to the face, an acid, by sympathy, distorts the
countenance.

FIG. 58.

[Illustration: _The Tongue, showing the several kinds of Papillæ--the
conical_ (D) _the whip like_ (K, I), _the circumvallate or entrenched_
(H, L); E, F, G, _nerves;_ C, _glottis._--LANKESTER.]

THE USE OF THE TASTE was originally to guide in the selection of food;
but this sense has become so depraved by condiments and the force of habit
that it would be a difficult task to tell what are one's natural tastes.

3. SMELL. [Footnote: The sense of smell is so intimately connected with
that of taste that we often fail to distinguish between them. Garlic,
vanilla, coffee and various spices, which seem to have such distinct
taste, have really a powerful odor, but a feeble flavor.]

DESCRIPTION.--The nose, the seat of the sense of smell, is composed of
cartilage covered with muscles and skin, and joined to the skull by small
bones. The nostrils open at the back into the pharynx, and are lined by a
continuation of the mucous membrane of the throat. The olfactory nerves
(first pair, Fig. 55) enter through a sieve-like, bony plate at the roof
of the nose, and are distributed over the inner surface of the two
olfactory chambers. (See p. 346.) The object to be smelled need not touch
the nose, but tiny particles borne on the air enter the nasal passages.
[Footnote: Three quarters of a grain of musk placed in a room will cause a
powerful smell for a considerable length of time without any sensible
diminution in weight, and the box in which musk has been placed retains
the perfume for almost an indefinite period. Haller relates that some
papers which had been perfumed by a grain of ambergris, were still very
odoriferous after a lapse of forty years. Odors are transported by the air
to a considerable distance. A dog recognizes his master's approach by
smell even when he is far away; and we are assured by navigators that the
winds bring the delicious odors of the balmy forests of Ceylon to a
distance of ten leagues from the coast. Even after making due allowance
for the effects of the imagination, it is certain that odors act as an
excitant on the brain, which may be dangerous when long continued. They
are especially dreaded by the Roman women. It is well known that in
ancient times the women of Rome indulged in a most immoderate use of baths
and perfumes; but those of our times have nothing in common with them in
this respect; and the words of a lady are quoted, who said on admiring an
artificial rose, "It is all the more beautiful that it has no smell." We
are warned by the proverb not to discuss colors or tastes, and we may add
odors also. Men and nations differ singularly in this respect. The
Laplander and the Esquimaux find the smell of fish oil delicious. Wrangel
says his compatriots, the Russians, are very fond of the odor of pickled
cabbage, which forms an important part of their food; and asafœtida, it is
said, is used as a condiment in Persia, and, in spite of its name, there
are persons who do not find its odor disagreeable any more than that of
valerian.--_Wonders of the Human body_.]

FIG. 59.

[Illustration: A, b, c, d, _interior of the nose, which is lined by a
mucous membrane;_ n, _the nose;_ e, _the wing of the nose;_
q, _the nose bones;_ o, _the upper lip;_ g, _section of the
upper jaw-bone;_ h, _the upper part of the mouth, or hard palate;_
m, _frontal bone of the skull;_ k, _the ganglion or bulb of the
olfactory nerve in the skull, from which are seen the branches of the
nerve passing in all directions._]

THE USES of the sense of smell are to guide us in the choice of our food,
and to warn us against bad air, and unhealthy localities. (See p. 348.)

4. HEARING.

DESCRIPTION.--The ear is divided into the _external_, _middle_,
and _internal_ ear.

1. _The External Ear_ is a sheet of cartilage curiously folded for
catching sound. The auditory canal, _B_, or tube of this ear trumpet,
is about an inch long. Across the lower end is stretched _the membrane
of the tympanum_ or drum, which is kept soft by a fluid wax.

FIG. 60.

[Illustration: _The Ear._]

2. _The Middle Ear_ is a cavity, at the bottom of which is the
Eustachian tube, _G_, leading to the mouth. Across this chamber hangs
a chain of three singular little bones, _C_, named from their shape
the _hammer_, the _anvil_, and the _stirrup_. All together
these tiny bones weigh only a few grains, yet they are covered by a
periosteum, are supplied with blood vessels, and they articulate with
perfect joints (one a ball-and-socket, the other a hinge), having synovial
membranes, cartilages, ligaments, and muscles.

3. _The Internal Ear_, or labyrinth, as it is sometimes called from
its complex character, is hollowed out of the solid bone. In front, is the
vestibule or antechamber, _A_, about as large as a grain of wheat;
from it open three _semicircular canals_, _D_, and the winding
stair of the _cochlea_, or snail shell, _E_. Here expand the
delicate fibrils of the auditory nerve. Floating in the liquid which fills
the labyrinth is a little bag containing hair-like bristles, fine sand,
and two ear stones (_otoliths_). All these knocking against the ends
of the nerves, serve to increase any impulse given to the liquid in which
they lie. Finally, to complete this delicate apparatus, in the cochlea are
minute tendrils, named the fibers of Corti, from their discoverer. These
are regularly arranged,--the longest at the bottom, and the shortest at
the top. Could this spiral plate, which coils two and a half times around,
be unrolled and made to stand upright, it would form a beautiful
microscopic harp of three thousand strings. If it were possible to strike
these cords as one can the keyboard of a piano, he could produce in the
mind of the person experimented upon every variety of tone which the ear
can distinguish.

HOW WE HEAR.--Whenever one body strikes another in the air, waves are
produced, just as when we throw a stone into the water a series of
concentric circles surrounds the spot where it sinks. These waves of air
strike upon the membrane. This vibrates, and sends the motion along the
chain of bones in the middle ear to the fluids of the labyrinth. Here
bristles, sand, and stones pound away, and the wondrous harp of the
cochlea, catching up the pulsations, [Footnote: The original motion is
constantly modified by the medium through which it passes. The bristles,
otoliths, and Cortian fibers of the ear, and the rods and cones of the eye
(p. 239) serve to convert the vibrations into pulsations which act as
stimuli of the appropriate nerve. The molecular change thus produced in
the nerve fibers is propagated to the brain.--See _Popluar
Physics_, p. 182.] carries them to the fibers of the auditory nerve,
which conveys them to the brain, and gives to the mind the idea of sound.

CARE OF THE EAR.--The delicacy of the ear is such that it needs the
greatest care. Cold water should not be allowed to enter the auditory
canal. If the wax accumulate, never remove it with a hard instrument, lest
the delicate membrane be injured, but with a little warm water, after
which turn the head to let the water run out, and wipe the ear dry. The
hair around the ears should never be left wet, as it may chill this
sensitive organ. If an insect get in the external ear, pour in a little
oil to kill it, and then remove with tepid water. The object of the
Eustachian tube is to admit air into the ear, and thus equalize the
pressure on the membrane. If it become closed by a cold, or if, from any
cause, the pressure be made unequal, so as to produce an unpleasant
feeling in the ear, relief may often be obtained by grasping the nose and
forcibly swallowing. (See p. 350.)

5. SIGHT.

FIG. 61.

[Illustration: _The Eye._]

DESCRIPTION.--The eye is lodged in a bony cavity, protected by the
overhanging brow. It is a globe, about an inch in diameter. The ball is
covered by three coats--(l) the _sclerotic_, _d_, a tough, horny
casing, which gives shape to the eye, the convex, transparent part in
front forming a window, the _cornea_, _d_; (2) the _choroid_, _e_, a
black lining, to absorb the superfluous light [Footnote: Neither white
rabbits nor albinos have this black lining, and hence their sight is
confused.] and (3) the _retina_, _b_, a membrane in which expand fibers
of the _optic nerve_, _o_. The _crystalline lens_, _a_, brings the rays
of light to a focus on the retina. The lens is kept in place by the
ciliary processes, _g_, arranged like the rays in the disk of a passion
flower. Between the cornea and the crystalline lens is a limpid fluid
termed the _aqueous humor_; while the _vitreous humor_--a transparent,
jelly-like liquid fills the space (_h_) back of the crystalline lens.
The pupil, _k_, is a hole in the colored, muscular curtain, _i_, the
_iris_ (rainbow). (See p. 352.)

FIG. 62.

[Illustration: _The Eyelashes and the Tear Glands._]

EYELIDS AND TEARS.--The eyelids are close-fitting shutters to screen the
eye. The inner side is lined with a mucous membrane that is exceedingly
sensitive, and thus aids in protecting the eye from any irritating
substance. The looseness of the skin favors swelling from inflammation or
the effusion of blood, as in a "black eye." The eyelashes serve as a kind
of sieve to exclude the dust, and, with the lids, to shield against a
blinding light. Just within the lashes are oil glands, which lubricate the
edges of the lids, and prevent them from adhering to each other. The tear
or _lachrymal_ gland, _G_, is an oblong body lodged in the bony
wall of the orbit. It empties by several ducts upon the inner surface, at
the outer edge of the upper eyelid. Thence the tears, washing the eye, run
into the _lachrymal lake_, _D_, a little basin with a rounded
border fitted for their reception. On each side of this lake two canals,
_C_, _C_, drain off the overplus through the duct, _B_,
into the nose. In old age and in disease, these canals fail to conduct the
tears away, and hence the lachrymal lake overflows upon the face.

FIG. 63.

[Illustration: _Structure of the Retina._]

STRUCTURE OF THE RETINA.--In Fig. 63 is shown a section of the retina,
greatly magnified, since this membrane never exceeds 1/80 an inch in
thickness. On the inner surface next to the vitreous humor, is a lining
membrane not shown in the cut. Next to the choroid and comprising about
1/4 the entire thickness of the retina, is a multitude of transparent,
colorless, microscopic rods, _a_, evenly arranged and packed side by
side, like the seeds on the disk of a sunflower. Among them, at regular
intervals, are interspersed the cones, _b_. Delicate nerve fibers
pass from the ends of the rods and cones, each expanding into a granular
body, _c_, thence weaving a mesh, _d_, and again expanding into
the granules, _f_. Last is a layer of fine nerve fibers, _g_,
and gray, ganglionic cells, _h_, like the gray matter of the brain,
whence filaments extend into _i_, the fibers of the optic nerve. (See
p. 354.)

The layer of rods and cones is to the eye what the bristles, otoliths, and
Cortian fibers are to the ear. Indeed, the nerve itself is insensible to
light. At the point where it enters the eye, there are no rods and cones,
and this is called the _blind spot_. A simple experiment will
illustrate the fact. Hold this book directly before the face, and, closing
the left eye, look steadily with the right at the left-hand circle in Fig.
64. Move the book back and forth, and a point will be found where the
right-hand circle vanishes from sight. At that moment its light falls upon
the spot where the rods and cones are lacking.

FIG. 64.

[Illustration:]

HOW WE SEE.--There is believed to be a kind of universal atmosphere,
termed _ether_, filling all space. This substance is infinitely more
subtle than the air, and occupies its pores, as well as those of all other
substances. As sound is caused by waves in the atmosphere, so light is
produced by waves in the ether. A lamplight, for example, sets in motion
waves of ether, which pass in through the pupil of the eye, to the retina,
where the rods and cones transmit the vibration through the optic nerve to
the brain, and then the mind perceives the light. (Note, p. 236.)

THE USE OF THE CRYSTALLINE LENS. [Footnote: The uses of the eye and ear
are dependent upon the principles of Optics and Acoustics. They are
therefore best treated in Physics.]--A convex lens, as a common burning
glass, bends the rays of light which pass through it, so that they meet at
a point called the _focus_. The crystalline lens converges the rays
of light which enter the eye, and brings them to a focus on the retina.
[Footnote: The cornea and the humors of the eye act in the same manner as
the crystalline lens, but not so powerfully.] The healthy lens has a power
of changing its convexity so as to adapt [Footnote: The simplest way of
experimenting on the "adjustment of the eye" is to stick two stout needles
upright into a straight piece of wood,--not exactly, but nearly in the
same straight line, so that, on applying the eye to one end of the piece
of wood, one needle (A) shall be seen about six inches off, and the other
(B) just on one side of it, at twelve inches distance. If the observer
looks at the needle B he will find that he sees it very distinctly, and
without the least sense of effort; but the image of A is blurred, and more
or less double. Now, let him try to make this blurred image of the needle
A distinct. He will find he can do so readily enough, but that the act is
accompanied by a sense of fatigue. And in proportion as A becomes
distinct, B will become blurred. Nor will any effort enable him to see A
and B distinctly at the same time.--HUXLEY.] itself to near and to distant
objects. (See Fig. 66.)

FIG. 65.

[Illustration: _Diagram showing how an image of an object is formed upon
the Retina by the Crystalline Lens._]

NEAR AND FAR SIGHT.--If the lens be too convex, it will bring the rays to
a focus before they reach the retina; if too flat, they will reach the
retina before coming to a focus. In either case, the sight will be
indistinct. A more common defect, however, is in the shape of the globe of
the eye, which is either flattened or elongated. In the former case (see
_G_, Fig. 67), objects at a distance can be seen most distinctly--
hence that is called farsightedness. [Footnote: This should not be
confounded with the long sight of old people, which is caused by the
stiffness of the ciliary muscles, whereby the lens can not adapt itself to
the varying distances of objects.] In the latter, objects near by are
clearer, and hence this is termed nearsightedness. Farsightedness is
remedied by convex glasses; nearsightedness, by concave. When glasses will
improve the sight they should be worn; [Footnote: Dr. Henry W. Williams,
the celebrated ophthalmologist, says that, in some cases, glasses are more
necessary at six or eight years of age than to the majority of healthy
eyes at sixty. Sometimes children find accidentally that they can see
better through grandmother's spectacles. They should then be supplied with
their own.] any delay will be liable to injure the eyes, by straining
their already impaired power. Cataract is a disease in which there is an
opacity of the crystalline lens or its capsules, which obscures the
vision. The lens may be caused to be absorbed, or may be removed by a
skillful surgeon and the defect remedied by wearing convex glasses.

FIG. 66.

[Illustration: _Adjustment of the Crystalline Lens._--A, _for far
objects, and_ B, _for near._]

FIG. 67.

[Illustration: _Diagram illustrating the position of the Retina._--B,
_in natural sight;_ G, _in far sight; and_ C, _in near sight._]

COLOR-BLIND PERSONS receive only two of the three elementary color
sensations (green, red, violet). The spectrum appears to them to consist
of two decidedly different colors, with a band of neutral tint between.
The extreme red end is invisible, and a bright scarlet and a deep green
appear alike. They are unable to distinguish between the leaves of a
cherry tree and its fruit by the color of the two, and see no difference
between blue and yellow cloth. Whittier, the poet, it is said, could not
tell red from green unless in direct sunlight. Once he patched some
damaged wall paper in his library by matching a green vine in the pattern
with one of a bright autumnal crimson. This defect in the eye is often
unnoticed, and many railway accidents have doubtless happened through an
inability to detect the color of signal lights.

CARE OF THE EYES.--The shape of the eye can not be changed by rubbing and
pressing it, as many suppose, but the sight may thus be fatally injured.
Children troubled by nearsightedness should not lean forward at their
work, as thereby the vessels of the eye become overcharged with blood.
They should avoid fine print, and try, in every possible way, to spare
their eyes. If middle age be reached without especial difficulty of sight,
the person is comparatively safe. Most cases of squinting are caused by
longsightedness, the muscles being strained in the effort to obtain
distinct vision. In childhood, it may be cured by a competent surgeon, who
will generally cut the muscle that draws the eye out of place.

After any severe illness, especially after measles, scarlatina, or typhoid
fever, the eyes should be used with extreme caution, since they share in
the general debility of the body, and recover their strength slowly.
Healthy eyes even should never be used to read fine print or by a dim
light. Serious injury may be caused by an imprudence of this kind. Reading
upon the cars is also a fruitful source of harm. The lens, striving to
adapt itself to the incessantly varying distance of the page, soon becomes
wearied. Whenever the eyes begin to ache, it is a warning that they are
being overtaxed and need rest.

Objects that get into the eye should be removed before they cause
inflammation; rubbing in the meantime only irritates and increases the
sensitiveness. If the eye be shut for a few moments, so as to let the
tears accumulate, and the upper lid be then lifted by taking hold of it at
the center, the cinder or dust is often washed away at once. Trifling
objects can be removed by simply drawing the upper lid as far as possible
over the lower one; when the lid flies back to its place, the friction
will detach any light substance. If it becomes necessary, turn the upper
lid over a pencil, and the intruder may then be wiped off with a
handkerchief. "Eye-stones" are a popular delusion. When they seem to take
out a cinder, it is only because they raise the eyelid, and allow the
tears to wash it out. No one should ever use an eyewash, except by medical
advice. The eye is too delicate an organ to be trifled with, and when any
disease is suspected, a reliable physician should be consulted. This is
especially necessary, since, when one eye is injured, the other, by
sympathy, is liable to become inflamed, and perhaps be destroyed.

When reading or working, the _light should be at the left side, or at
the rear; never in front_.

The constant increase of defective eyesight among the pupils in our
schools is an alarming fact. Dr. Agnew considers that our schoolrooms are
fast making us a spectacle-using people. Nearsightedness seems to increase
from class to class, until in the upper departments, there are sometimes
as high as fifty per cent of the pupils thus afflicted. The causes are
(1), desks so placed as to make the light from the windows shine directly
into the eyes of the scholars; (2), cross lights from opposite windows;
(3), insufficient light; (4), small type that strains the eyes; and (5),
the position of the pupil as he bends over his desk or slate, causing the
blood to settle in his eyes. All these causes can be remedied; the
position of the desks can be changed; windows can be shaded, or new ones
inserted; books and newspapers that try the eyes can be rejected; and
every pupil can be taught how to sit at study.

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. Why does a laundress test the temperature of her flatiron by holding it
near her cheek?

2. When we are cold, why do we spread the palms of our hands before the
fire?

3. What is meant by a "furred tongue"?

4. Why has sand or sulphur no taste?

5. What was the origin of the word palatable?

6. Why does a cold in the head injure the flavor of our coffee?

7. Name some so-called flavors that are really sensations of touch.

8. What is the object of the hairs in the nostrils?

9. What use does the nose subserve in the process of respiration?

10. Why do we sometimes hold the nose when we take unpleasant medicine?

11. Why was the nose placed over the mouth?

12. Describe how the hand is adapted to be the instrument of touch.

13. Besides being the organ of taste, what use does the tongue subserve?

14. Why is not the act of tasting complete until we swallow?

15. Why do all things have the same flavor when one's tongue is "furred"
by fever?

16. Which sense is the more useful--hearing or sight?

17. Which coat is the white of the eye?

18. What makes the difference in the color of eyes?

19. Why do we snuff the air when we wish to obtain a distinct smell?

20. Why do red-hot iron and frozen mercury (-40°) produce the same
sensation?

21. Why can an elderly person drink tea which to a child would be
unbearably hot?

22. Why does an old man hold his paper so far from his eyes?

23. Would you rather be punished on the tips of your fingers than on the
palm of your hand?

24. What is the object of the eyelashes? Are the hairs straight?

25. What is the use of winking?

26. When you wink, do the eyelids touch at once along their whole length?
Why?

27. How many rows of hairs are there in the eyelashes?

28. Do all nations have eyes of the same shape?

29. Why does snuff taking cause a flow of tears?

30. Why does a fall cause one to "see stars"?

31. Why can we not see with the nose, or smell with the eyes?

32. What causes the roughness of a cat's tongue?

33. Is the cuticle essential to touch?

34. Can one tickle himself?

35. Why does a bitter taste often produce vomiting?

36. Is there any danger in looking "crosseyed" for fun?

37. Should schoolroom desks face a window?

38. Why do we look at a person to whom we are listening attentively?

39. Do we really feel with our fingers?

40. Is the eye a perfect sphere? (See Fig. 61.)

41. How often do we wink?

42. Why is the interior of a telescope or microscope often painted black?

43. What is "the apple of the eye"?

44. What form of glasses do old people require?

45. Should we ever wash our ears with cold water?

46. What is the object of the winding passages in the nose?

47. Can a smoker tell in the dark, whether or not his cigar is lighted?

48. Will a nerve reunite after it has been cut?

49. Will the sight give us an idea of solidity? [Footnote: A case occurred
a few years ago, in London, where a friend of my own performed an
operation upon a young woman who had been born blind, and, though an
attempt had been made in early years to cure her, it had failed. She was
able just to distinguish large objects, the general shadow, as it were,
without any distinct perception of form, and to distinguish light from
darkness. She could work well with her needle by the touch, and could use
her scissors and bodkin and other implements by the training of her hand,
so to speak, alone Well, my friend happened to see her, and he examined
her eyes, and told her that he thought he could get her sight restored; at
any rate, it was worth a trial. The operation succeeded; and, being a man
of intelligence and quite aware of the interest of such a case, he
carefully studied and observed it; and he completely confirmed all that
had been previously laid down by the experience of similar cases. There
was one little incident which will give you an idea of the education which
is required for what you would suppose is a thing perfectly simple and
obvious. She could not distinguish by sight the things that she was
perfectly familiar with by the touch, at least when they were first
presented to her eyes. She could not recognize even a pair of scissors.
Now, you would have supposed that a pair of scissors, of all things in the
world, having been continually used by her, and their form having become
perfectly familiar to her hands, would have been most readily recognized
by her sight; and yet she did not know what they were; she had not an idea
until she was told, and then she laughed, as she said, at her own
stupidity. No stupidity at all; she had never learned it, and it was one
of those things which she could not know without learning. One of the
earliest cases of this kind was related by the celebrated Cheselden, a
surgeon of the early part of last century. Cheselden relates how a youth
just in this condition had been accustomed to play with a cat and a dog;
but for some time after he attained his sight he never could tell which
was which, and used to be continually making mistakes. One day, being
rather ashamed of himself for having called the cat the dog, he took up
the cat in his arms and looked at her very attentively for some time
stroking her all the while; and in this way he associated the impression
derived from the touch, and made himself master (so to speak) of the whole
idea of the animal. He then put the cat down, saying: "Now, puss, I shall
know you another time."--CARPENTER.]

50. Why can a skillful surgeon determinate the condition of the brain and
other internal organs by examining the interior of the eye? [Footnote:
This is done by means of an instrument called the ophthalmoscope. Light is
thrown into the eye with a concave mirror, and the interior of the organ
examined with a lens.]

51. Is there any truth in the idea that the image of the murderer can be
seen in the eye of the dead victim?

52. What is the length of the optic nerve? _Ans_. About three fourths
of an inch.

53. Why does an injury to one eye generally affect the other eye?
_Ans_. The optic nerves give off no branches in passing from their
origin in two ganglia situated between the cerebrum and the cerebellum,
and their termination in the eyeballs; but, in the middle of their course,
they _decussate_, or unite in one mass. The fibers of the two nerves
here pass from side to side, and intermingle. The two ganglia are also
united directly by fibers. Thus the eyes are not really separate organs of
sight, but a kind of double organ to perform, a single function.




IX.


HEALTH AND DISEASE.--DEATH AND DECAY.

"Health is the vital principle of bliss."

THOMSON.

"There are three wicks to the lamp of a man's life: brain, blood, and
breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out, followed by both the
others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all three of the wicks. Choke
the air out of the lungs, and presently the fluid ceases to supply the
other centers of flame, and all is soon stagnation, cold, and darkness."

O. W. HOLMES.

"Calmly he looked on either Life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;
From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd,
Thank'd Heaven that he had lived, and that he died."

POPE.

HEALTH AND DISEASE.--DEATH AND DECAY.

VALUE OF HEALTH.--The body is the instrument which the mind uses. If it be
dulled or nicked, the effect of the best labor will be impaired. The
grandest gifts of mind or fortune are comparatively valueless unless there
be a healthy body to use and enjoy them. The beggar, sturdy and brave with
his outdoor life, is really happier than the rich man in his palace with
the gout to twinge him amid his pleasures. The day has gone by when
delicacy is considered an element of beauty. Weakness is timid and
irresolute; strength is full of force and energy. Weakness walks or
creeps; strength speeds the race, wins the goal, and rejoices in the
victory.

FALSE IDEAS OF DISEASE.--It was formerly supposed that diseases were
caused by evil spirits, who entered the body, and deranged its action.
Incantations, spells, etc., were resorted to in order to drive them out.
By others, disease was thought to come arbitrarily, or as a special
visitation of an overruling power. Hence, it was to be removed by fasting
and prayer. Modern science teaches us that disease is not a thing, but a
state. When our food is properly assimilated, the waste matter promptly
excreted, and all the organs work in harmony, we are well; when any
derangement of these functions occurs, we are sick. Sickness is discord,
as health is concord. If we abuse or misuse any instrument, we impair its
ability to produce a perfect harmony. A suffering body is simply the
penalty of violated law.

PREVENTION OF DISEASE.--Doubtless a large proportion of the ills which now
afflict and rob us of so much time and pleasure might easily be avoided. A
proper knowledge and observance of hygienic laws would greatly lessen the
number of such diseases as consumption, catarrh, gout, rheumatism,
dyspepsia, etc. There are parts of England where one half the children die
before they are five years old. Every physiologist knows that at least
nine tenths of these lives could be saved by an observance of the simple
laws of health. Professor Bennet, in a lecture at Edinburgh, estimated
that one hundred thousand persons die annually in Great Britain from
causes easily preventable.

With the advance of science, the causes of many diseases have been
determined. Vaccination has been found to prevent or mitigate the ravages
of smallpox. Scurvy, formerly so fatal among sailors that it was deemed "a
mysterious infliction of Divine Justice against which man strives in
vain," is now entirely avoided by the use of vegetables or lime juice.
Cholera, whose approach still strikes dread, and for which there is no
known specific, is but the penalty for filthy streets, bad drainage, and
overcrowded tenements, and may be controlled, if not prevented, by
suitable sanitary measures. It was, no doubt, the intention that we should
wear out by the general decay of all the organs, [Footnote: So long as the
phenomena of waste and repair are in harmony--so long, in other words, as
the builder follows the scavenger--so long man exists in integrity and
repair--just, indeed, as houses exist. Derange nutrition, and at once
degeneration, or rather let us say, alteration begins. Alas! that we are
so ignorant that there are many things about our house, which, seeing
them, weaken, we know not how to strengthen. About the brick and the
mortar, the frame and the rafters, we are not unlearned; but within are
many complexities, many chinks and crannies, full in themselves of
secondary chinks and crannies, and these so small, so deep, so recessed,
that it happens every day that the destroyer settles himself in some place
so obscure, that, while he kills, he laughs at defiance. You or I meet
with an accident in our watch. We consult the watchmaker, and he repairs
the injury. If we were all that watchmakers, like ourselves, should be, a
man could be made to keep time until he died from old age or annihilating
accident. This I firmly and fully believe.--_Odd Hours of a
Physician_.] rather than by the giving out of any single part, and that
all should work together harmoniously until the vital force is exhausted.

CURE OF DISEASE.--The first step in the cure of any disease is to obey the
law of health which has been violated. If medicine be taken, it is not to
destroy the disease, since that is not a thing to be destroyed, but to
hold the deranged action in check while nature repairs the injury, and
again brings the system into harmonious movement. This tendency of nature
is our chief reliance. The best physicians are coming to have diminished
confidence in medicine itself, and to place greater dependence upon
sanitary and hygienic measures, and upon the efforts which nature always
makes to repair injuries and soothe disordered action. They endeavor only
to give to nature a fair chance, and sometimes to assist her by the
intelligent employment of proper medicines. The indiscriminate use of
patent nostrums and sovereign remedies of whose constituents we know
nothing, and by which powerful drugs are imbibed at haphazard, can not be
too greatly deprecated. When one needs medicine, he needs also a competent
physician to advise its use.

DEATH AND DECAY.--By a mystery we can not understand, life is linked with
death, and out of the decay of our bodies they, day by day, spring afresh.
At last the vital force which has held death and decay in bondage, and
compelled them to minister to our growth, and to serve the needs of our
life, faints and yields the struggle. These powers which have so long time
been our servants, gather about our dying couch, and their last offices
usher us into the new life and the grander possibilities of the world to
come. This last birth, we who see the fading, not the dawning, life, call
death.

"O Father! grant Thy love divine,
To make these mystic temples Thine,
When wasting age and wearying strife
Have sapp'd the leaning walls of life;
When darkness gathers over all,
And the last tottering pillars fall,
Take the poor dust Thy mercy warms,
And mold it into heavenly forms."

HOLMES.

HINTS ABOUT THE SICK ROOM

A SICK ROOM should be the lightest and cheeriest in the house. A small,
close, dark bedroom or a recess is bad enough for one in health, but
unendurable for a sick person. In a case of fever, and in many acute
diseases, it should be remote from the noise of the family; but when one
is recovering from an accident, and in all attacks where quiet is not
needed, the patient may be where he can amuse himself by watching the
movements of the household, or looking out upon the street.

_The ventilation must be thorough._ Bad air will poison both the sick
and the well. A fireplace is, therefore, desirable. Windows should open
easily. By carefully protecting the patient with extra blankets, the room
may be frequently aired. If there be no direct draught, much may be done
to change the air, by simply swinging an outer door to and fro many times.

A bare floor, with strips of carpet here and there to deaden noise, is
cleanest, and keeps the air freest from dust. Cane-bottomed chairs are
preferable to upholstered ones. All unnecessary furniture should be
removed out of the way. A straw bed or a mattress is better than feathers.
The bed hangings, lace curtains, etc., should be taken down. Creaking
hinges should be oiled. Sperm candles are better than kerosene lamps.

_Never whisper in a sick room._ All necessary conversation should be
carried on in the usual tone of voice. Do not call a physician
unnecessarily, but if one be employed, _obey his directions
implicitly_. Never give nostrums overofficious friends may suggest. Do
not allow visitors to see the patient, except it be necessary. Never
bustle about the room, nor go on tiptoe, but move in a quiet, ordinary
way. Do not keep the bottles in the continued sight of the sick person.
Never let drinking water stand in the room.

Do not raise the patient's head to drink, but have a cup with a long
spout, or use a bent tube, or even a straw. Do not tempt the appetite when
it craves no food. Bathe frequently, but let the physician prescribe the
method. Give written directions to the watchers. Have all medicines
carefully marked. Remove all soiled clothing, etc., at once from the room.
Change the linen much oftener than in health. When you wish to change the
sheets, and the patient is unable to rise, roll the under sheet tightly
lengthwise to the middle of the bed; put on the clean sheet, with half its
width folded up, closely to the other roll; lift the patient on to the
newly-made part, remove the soiled sheet, and then spread oat the clean
one.

DISINFECTANTS.

Remember, first, that deodorizers and disinfectants are not the same. A
bad smell, for instance, may be smothered by some more powerful odor,
while its cause remains uninfluenced. Bear also in mind the fact that no
deodorizer and no disinfectant can take the place of perfect cleanliness
and thorough ventilation. No purifyer can rival the oxygen contained in
strong and continued currents of fresh, cold air, and every disinfectant
finds an indispensable ally in floods of scalding water.

An excellent disinfectant may be made by dissolving in a pail of water
either of the following: (1), a quarter of a pound of sulphate of zinc and
two ounces of common salt for each gallon of water; (2), a pound and a
half of copperas, for each gallon of water. Towels, bed linen,
handkerchiefs, etc., should be soaked at least an hour, in a solution of
the first kind, and then be boiled, before washing. [Footnote: It is
_best_ to burn all articles which have been in contact with persons
sick with contagious or infectious diseases.

In using the zinc solution, place the articles in it as soon as they are
removed from the patient, and before they are taken from the room; if
practicable, have the solution boiling hot at the time. In fumigating
apartments, all the openings should be made as nearly air-tight as
possible. The articles to be included in the fumigation should be so
exposed and spread out that the sulphurous vapor may penetrate every
portion of them. For a room about ten feet square, at least two pounds of
sulphur should be used; for larger rooms, proportionally increased
quantities. Put the sulphur in iron pans supported upon bricks placed in
washtubs containing a little water, set it on fire by hot coals or with
the aid of a spoonful of alcohol, or by a long fuse set on train as the
last opening to the room is closed. Allow the apartment to remain sealed
for twenty-four hours. Great care should be taken not to inhale the
poisonous fumes in firing the sulphur. After the fumigation, allow free
currents of air to pass through the apartment; expose all movable articles
for as long time as may be to the sun and the wind out of doors; beat and
shake the carpets, hangings, pillows, etc.

The disinfectants and the instructions for using them, as given above, are
mainly those recommended by the National Board of Health.] Vaults, drains,
vessels used in the sick room, etc., should be disinfected by a solution
of the second kind; chloride of lime may also be used for the same
purpose. Rooms, furniture, and articles that can not be treated with the
solution of the first kind, should be thoroughly fumigated with burning
sulphur. Where walls are unpapered, re-whitewash with pure, freshly
slacked quicklime, adding one pint of the best fluid carbolic acid to
every gallon of the fluid whitewash. Powdered stone lime sprinkled on
foul, wet places, or placed in pans in damp rooms, will absorb the
moisture; and dry, fresh charcoal powder may be combined with it to absorb
noxious gases.

WHAT TO DO TILL THE DOCTOR COMES.

The following instructions are intended simply to aid in an emergency.
When accidents or a sudden severe illness occur, there is necessarily, in
most cases, a longer or shorter interval before a physician can arrive.
These moments are often very precious, and life may depend upon a little
knowledge and much self-possession. The instructions are therefore given
as briefly as possible, that they may be easily carried in the memory. A
few suggestions in regard to common ailments are included.

BURNS.--When a person's clothes catch fire, quickly lay him on the ground,
wrap him in a coat, mat, shawl, carpet, or in his own garments, as best
you can to extinguish the flame. Pour on plenty of water till the half-
burned clothing is cooled. Then carry the sufferer to a warm room, lay him
on a table or a carpeted floor, and with a sharp knife or scissors remove
his clothing.

The treatment of a burn consists in protecting from the air. [Footnote: It
is a great mistake to suppose that salves will "draw out the fire" of a
burn, or heal a bruise or cut. The vital force must unite the divided
tissue by the deposit of material and the formation of new cells.] An
excellent remedy is to apply soft cloths kept wet with sweet oil, or with
tepid water _which contains all the "cooking soda" that it will
dissolve_. Afterward dress the wound with carbolic acid salve. Wrap a
dry bandage upon the outside. Then remove the patient to a bed and cover
warmly. [Footnote: In case of a large burn, lose no delay in bringing a
physician. If a burn be near a joint or on the face, even if small, let a
doctor see it, and do not be in any hurry about having it healed. Remember
that with all the care and skill which can be used, contractions will
sometimes take place. The danger to life from a burn or scald is not in
proportion to its severity, but to its extent--that is, a small part, such
as a hand or a foot, may be burned so deeply as to cripple it for life,
and yet not much endanger the general health; but a slight amount of
burning, a mere scorching, over two thirds of the body, may prove fatal.--
HOPE.] Apply cool water to a small burn till the smart ceases, and then
cover with ointment. Do not remove the dressings until they become stiff
and irritating; then take them from a part at a time; dress and cover
again quickly.

CUTS, WOUNDS, ETC.--The method of stopping the bleeding has been described
on page 128. If an artery is severed, a physician should be called at
once. If the bleeding is not profuse, apply cold water until it ceases,
dry the skin, draw the edges of the wound together, and secure them by
strips of adhesive plaster. Protect with an outer bandage. This dressing
should remain for several days. In the meantime wet it frequently with
cool water to subdue inflammation. When suppuration begins, wash
occasionally with tepid water and Castile soap.

Dr. Woodbridge, of New York, in a recent address, gave the following
directions as to "What to do in case of a sudden wound when the surgeon is
not at hand." "An experienced person would naturally close the lips of the
wound as quickly as possible, and apply a bandage. If the wound is
bleeding freely, but no artery is spouting blood, the first thing to be
done is to wash it with water at an ordinary temperature. To every pint of
water add either five grains of corrosive sublimate, or two and a half
teaspoonfuls of carbolic acid. If the acid is used, add two tablespoonfuls
of glycerine, to prevent its irritating the wound. If there is neither of
these articles in the house, add four tablespoonfuls of borax to the
water. Wash the wound, close it, and apply a compress of a folded square
of cotton or linen. Wet it in the solution used for washing the wound and
bandage quickly and firmly. If the bleeding is profuse, a sponge dipped in
very hot water and wrung out in a dry cloth should be applied as quickly
as possible. If this is not available, use ice, or cloths wrung out in ice
water. If a large vein or artery is spouting, it must be stopped at once
by compression. This may be done by a rubber tube wound around the arm
tightly above the elbow or above the knee, where the pulse is felt to
beat; or an improvised 'tourniquet' may be used. A hard apple or a stone
is placed in a folded handkerchief, and rolled firmly in place. This
bandage is applied so that the hard object rests on the point where the
artery beats, and is then tied loosely around the arm. A stick is thrust
through the loose bandage and turned till the flow of blood ceases."

BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE is rarely dangerous, and often beneficial. When it
becomes necessary to stop it, sit upright and compress the nostrils
between the thumb and forefinger, or with the thumb press upward upon the
upper lip. A piece of ice, a snowball, or a compress wet with cold water
may be applied to the back of the neck.

A SPRAIN [Footnote: "A sprain," says Dr. Hope, in that admirable little
book entitled _Till the Doctor comes and How to help Him_, "is a very
painful and very serious thing. When you consider that from the tips of
the fingers to the wrist, or from the ends of the toes to the leg, there
are not less than thirty separate bones, all tied together with straps,
cords, and elastic bands, and about twenty hinges, all to be kept in good
working order, you will not wonder at sprains being frequent and sometimes
serious."] is often more painful and dangerous than a dislocation. Wrap
the injured part in flannels wrung out of hot water, and cover with a dry
bandage, or, better, with oiled silk. Liniments and stimulating
applications are injurious in the first stages, but useful when the
inflammation is subdued. _Do not let the limb hang down, keep the joint
still_. Without attention to these points, no remedies are likely to be
of much service. A sprained limb must be kept quiet, even after all pain
has ceased. If used too soon, dangerous consequences may ensue. Many
instances have been known in which, from premature use of an injured limb,
the inflammation has been renewed and made chronic, the bones at the joint
have become permanently diseased, and amputation has been necessitated.

DIARRHEA, CHOLERA MORBUS, ETC., are often caused by eating indigestible or
tainted food, such as unripe or decaying fruit, or stale vegetables; or by
drinking impure water or poisoned milk (see p. 321). Sometimes the
disturbance may be traced to a checking of the perspiration; but more
frequently to peculiar conditions of the atmosphere, especially in large
cities. Such diseases are most prevalent in humid weather, when the days
are hot and the nights cold and moist. Especial attention should at such
times be paid to the diet. If an attack comes on, ascertain, if possible,
its cause. You can thereby aid your physician, and, if the cause be
removable, can protect the rest of the household. If the limbs are cold,
take a hot bath, followed by a thorough rubbing. Then go to bed and lie
quietly on the back. In ordinary cases, rest is better than medicine. If
there be pain, have flannels wrung out of hot water applied to the
abdomen. [Footnote: If it be difficult to manage the foments, lay a hot
plate over the flannels and cover with some protection. By having a change
of hot plates, the foments can be kept at a uniform high temperature. This
plan will be found useful in all cases where foments are needed.] A
mustard poultice will serve the same purpose if more convenient. Eat no
fruit, vegetables, pastry, or pork. Use water sparingly. If much thirst
exist, give small pieces of ice, or limited quantities of cold tea or
toast water. Take particular pains with the diet for some days after the
bowel irritation has ceased.

CROUP.--There are two kinds of croup--true and false. True croup comes on
gradually, and is less likely to excite alarm than false croup, which
comes on suddenly. True croup is attended with fever and false membrane in
the throat; false croup is not attended with fever or false membrane. True
croup is almost always fatal in four or five days; false croup recovers,
but is liable to come on again. The great majority of cases of the so-
called croup are simply cases of spasm of the glottis. "Croupy children"
are those who are liable to these attacks of false croup, which are most
frequent during the period of teething.--DR. GEO. M. BEARD. Croup occurs
commonly in children between the ages of two and seven years. At this
period, if a child has a hollow cough, with more or less fever, flushed
face, red watery eyes, and especially _if it have a hoarse voice, and
show signs of uneasiness about the throat_, send at once for a doctor.
Induce mild vomiting by doses of syrup of ipecac. Put the feet in a hot
mustard-and-water bath. Apply hot fomentations, rapidly renewed, to the
chest and throat. A "croupy" child should be carefully shielded from all
physical excitation, sudden waking from sleep, and any punishment that
tends to awaken intense fear or terror. Irritation of the air passages
through faulty swallowing in drinking hastily, should be guarded against.
Good pure air, warm clothing, and a nourishing diet are indispensable.

COMMON SORE THROAT.--Wrap the neck in a wet bandage, and cover with
flannel or a clean woolen stocking. Gargle the throat frequently with a
solution of a teaspoonful of salt in a pint of water, or thirty grains of
chlorate of potash in a wineglass of water.

FITS, APOPLEXY, EPILEPSY, ETC.--These call for immediate action and prompt
medical attendance. Children who are teething, or troubled with intestinal
worms, or from various causes, are sometimes suddenly seized with
convulsions. Apply cloths wet in cold water--or, better still, ice wrapped
in oiled silk--to the head, and _especially to the back of the neck_,
taking care, however, that the ice or wet cloths do not remain too long.
Apply mustard plasters to the stomach and legs. A full hot bath is
excellent if the cold applications fail. Endeavor to induce vomiting. Seek
to determine the cause, and consult with your physician for further
guidance.

Apoplexy may be distinguished from a fainting fit by the red face, hot
skin, and labored breathing; whereas, in a faint, the face and lips lose
color, and the skin becomes cold. In many cases, death follows so quickly
upon an apoplectic seizure, that little effectual service can be given.
Call the nearest physician, loosen the clothing, and raise the head and
shoulders, taking care not to bend the head forward on the neck. Keep the
head cool. Do not move the patient unnecessarily.

In a common fainting fit, give the patient as much air as possible. Lay
him flat upon the floor or ground, and keep the crowd away.

All that can be done in a fit of epilepsy is to prevent the patient from
injuring himself; especially put something in his mouth to keep him from
biting his tongue. A cork, a piece of India rubber, or even a tightly-
rolled handkerchief, placed between the teeth will answer this purpose.
Give the sufferer fresh air; loosen his clothing, and place him in a
comfortable position. Epilepsy may be due to various causes,--improper
diet, overexcitement, etc. Consult with a physician, and study to avoid
the occasion.

CONCUSSION OF THE BRAIN generally arises from some contusion of the head,
from violent blows, or from a shock received by the whole body in
consequence of falling from a height. In any case of injury to the head
where insensibility ensues, a doctor should be called at once. Remove the
patient to a quiet room; loosen his clothing; strive to restore
circulation by gentle friction, using the hand or a cloth for this
purpose; apply cold water to the head, and, if the patient's body be cold
and his skin clammy, put hot bottles at his feet. Ammonia may be
cautiously held to the nose. Beyond this, it is not safe for a non-
professional to go, in case of a severe injury to the head. Concussion is
more or less serious, according to the injury which the brain has
sustained; but even in slight cases, when a temporary dizziness appears to
be the only result, careful treatment should be observed both at the time
of the injury and afterward. Cases of head injury are often more grave in
their consequences than in their immediate symptoms. Sometimes the patient
appears to be getting better when really he is worse. Rest and quiet
should be observed for several weeks after an accident which has in any
way affected the brain.

TOOTHACHE AND EARACHE.--Insert in the hollow tooth cotton wet with
laudanum, spirits of camphor, or chloroform. When the nerve is exposed,
wet it with creosote or carbolic acid. Hot cloths or a hot brick wrapped
in cloth and held to the face will often relieve the toothache. In a
similar manner treat the ear, wetting the cloth in hot water, and letting
the vapor pass into the ear.

CHOKING.--Ordinarily a smart blow between the shoulders, causing a
compression of the chest and a sudden expulsion of the air from the lungs,
will throw out the offending substance. If the person can swallow, and the
object be small, give plenty of bread or potato, and water to wash it
down. Press upon the tongue with a spoon, when, perhaps, you may see the
object, and draw it out with your thumb and finger, or a blunt pair of
scissors. If neither of these remedies avail, give an emetic of syrup of
ipecac or mustard and warm water.

FROSTBITES are frequently so sudden that one is not aware when they occur.
In Canada it is not uncommon for persons meeting in the street to say,
"Mind, sir, your nose looks whitish." The blood cools and runs slowly, and
the blood vessels become choked and swollen. _Keep from the heat_.
Rub the part quickly with snow, if necessary for hours, till the natural
color is restored. If one is benumbed with cold, take him into a cold
room, remove the wet clothes, rub the body dry, cover with blankets, and
give a little warm tea or other suitable drink. On recovering, let him be
brought to a fire gradually. [Footnote: If you are caught in a snowstorm,
look for a snow bank in the lee of a hill, or a wood out of the wind, or a
hollow in the plain filled with snow. Scrape out a hole big enough to
creep into, and the drifting snow will keep you warm. Men and animals have
been preserved after days of such imprisonment. Remember that if you give
way to sleep in the open field, you will never awake.]

FEVERS, and many acute diseases, are often preceded by a loss of appetite,
headache, shivering, "pains in the bones," indisposition to work, etc. In
such cases, sponge with tepid water, and rub the body till all aglow. Go
to bed, place hot bricks to the feet, take nothing but a little gruel or
beef tea, and drink moderately of warm, cream-of-tartar water. If you do
not feel better the next morning, call a physician. If that be impossible,
take a dose of castor oil or Epsom salts.

SUNSTROKE is a sudden prostration caused by intense heat. The same effect
is produced by the burning rays of the sun and the fierce fire of a
furnace. When a person falls under such circumstance, place your hand on
his chest. If the skin be cool and moist, it is not a sunstroke; but if it
be dry and "biting hot," there can be no mistake. Time is now precious. At
once carry the sufferer to the nearest pump or hydrant, and dash cold
water on the head and chest until consciousness is restored.--DR. H. C.
WOOD.

To prevent sunstroke, wear a porous hat, and in the top of it place a wet
handkerchief; also drink freely of water, not ice cold, to induce abundant
perspiration.

ASPHYXIA, or apparent death, whether produced by drowning, suffocation,
bad air, or coal gas, requires very similar treatment. Send immediately
for blankets, dry clothing, and a physician. Treat upon the spot, if the
weather be not too unfavorable.

1. Loosen the clothing about the neck and chest, separate the jaws, and
place between them a cork or bit of wood.

2. Turn the patient on his face, place his arm under his forehead to raise
the head, and press heavily with both hands upon the ribs to squeeze out
the water.

3. Place the patient on his back, wipe out the mouth and nostrils, and
secure the tongue from falling backward over the throat. Kneel at his
head, grasp his arms firmly above the elbows, and pull them gently upward
until they meet over the head, in order to draw air into the lungs;
reverse this movement to expel the air. Repeat the process about fifteen
times per minute. Alternate pressure upon the chest, and blowing air into
the mouth through a quill or with a pair of bellows, may aid your efforts.
Use snuff or smelling salts, or pass hartshorn under the nose. Do not lose
hope quickly. Life has been restored after five hours of suspended
animation. [Footnote: Another simple method of artificial respiration is
described in the _British Medical Journal_. The body of the patient
is laid on the back, with clothes loosened, and the mouth and nose wiped;
two bystanders pass their right hands under the body at the level of the
waist, and grasp each other's hand, then raise the body until the tips of
the fingers and the toes of the subject alone touch the ground; count
fifteen rapidly; then lower the body flat to the ground, and press the
elbows to the side hard; count fifteen again; then raise the body again
for the same length of time; and so on, alternately raising and lowering.
The head, arms, and legs are to be allowed to dangle down freely when the
body is raised.]

4. When respiration is established, wrap the patient in dry, warm clothes,
and rub the limbs under the blankets or over the dry clothing
energetically _toward the heart_. Apply heated flannels, bottles of
hot water, etc., to the limbs, and mustard plasters [Footnote: The best
mustard poultice is the paper plaster now sold by every druggist. It is
always ready, and can be carried by a traveler. It has only to be dipped
in water, and applied at once.] to the chest.

FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EAR.--Insects may be killed by dropping a little
sweet oil into the ear. Beans peas, etc., may generally be removed by so
holding the head that the affected ear will be toward the ground, and then
_cautiously_ syringing tepid water into it from below. Do not use
much force lest the tympanum be injured. If this fail, dry the ear, stick
the end of a little linen swab into thick glue, let the patient lie on one
side, put this into the ear until it touches the substance, keep it there
three quarters of an hour while it hardens, and then draw them all out
together. Be careful that the glue does not touch the skin at any point,
and that you are at work upon the right ear. Children often deceive one as
to the ear which is affected.

FOREIGN BODIES IN THE NOSE, such as beans, cherry pits, etc., may
frequently be removed by closing the opposite nostril, and then blowing
into the child's mouth forcibly. The air, unable to escape except through
the affected nostril, will sweep the obstruction before it.

ANTIDOTES TO POISONS.

ACIDS: _Nitric_ (aqua fortis), _hydrochloric_ (muriatic),
_sulphuric_ (oil of vitriol), _oxalic_, etc.--Drink a little
water to weaken the acid, or, still better, take strong soapsuds. Stir
some magnesia in water, and drink freely. If the magnesia be not at hand,
use chalk, soda, lime, whiting, soap, or even knock a piece of plaster
from the wall, and scraping off the white outside coat pound it fine, mix
with milk or water, and drink at once. Follow with warm water, or flaxseed
tea.

ALKALIES: _Potash, soda, lye, ammonia_ (hartshorn).--Drink weak
vinegar or lemon juice. Follow with castor or linseed oil, or thick cream.

ANTIMONY: _Antimonial wine, tartar emetic_, etc.--Drink strong, green
tea, and in the meantime chew the dry leaves. The direct antidote is a
solution of nutgall or oak bark.

ARSENIC: _Cobalt, Scheele's green, fly powder, ratsbane_, etc.--Give
_plenty of milk, whites of eggs_, or induce vomiting by mustard and
warm water; [Footnote: See that the mustard is well mixed with the water,
in the proportion of about half an ounce of the former to a pint of the
latter.] or even soapsuds.

BITE OF A SNAKE OR A MAD DOG.--Tie a bandage above the wound, if on a
limb. Wash the bite thoroughly, and, if possible, let the person suck it
strongly. Rub some lunar caustic or potash in the wound, or heat the point
of a small poker or a steel sharpener white hot, and press it into the
bite for a moment. It will scarcely cause pain, and will be effectual in
arresting the absorption of the poison, unless a vein has been struck.

COPPER: _Sulphate of copper_ (blue vitriol), _acetate of copper_
(verdigris).--Take whites of eggs or soda. Use milk freely.

LAUDANUM: _Opium, paregoric, soothing cordial, soothing syrup_, etc.
--Give an emetic at once of syrup of ipecac, or mustard and warm water,
etc. After vomiting, use strong coffee freely. _Keep the patient
awake_ by pinching, pulling the hair, walking about, dashing water in
the face, and any expedient possible.

LEAD: _White lead, acetate of lead_ (sugar of lead), _red
lead_.--Give an emetic of syrup of ipecac, or mustard and warm water,
or salt and water. Follow with a dose of Epsom salts.

MATCHES: _Phosphorus_.--Give magnesia, chalk, whiting, or even flour
in water, and follow with mucilaginous drinks.

MERCURY: _Calomel, chloride of mercury_ (corrosive sublimate, bug
poison), _red precipitate_.--Drink milk copiously. Take the whites of
eggs, or stir flour in water, and use freely.

NITRATE OF SILVER (lunar caustic).--Give salt and water, and follow with
castor oil.

NITRATE OF POTASH (saltpeter, niter).--Give mustard and warm water, or
syrup of ipecac. Follow with flour and water, and cream or sweet oil.

PRUSSIC ACID (oil of bitter almonds), _cyanide of potassium_.--Take a
teaspoonful of hartshorn in a pint of water. Apply smelling salts to the
nose, and dash cold water in the face.

STING OF AN INSECT.--Apply a little hartshorn or spirits of camphor, or
soda moistened with water, or a paste of clean earth and saliva.

SULPHATE OF IRON (green vitriol).--Give syrup of ipecac, or mustard and
warm water, or any convenient emetic; then magnesia and water.




X.


SELECTED READINGS

TO ILLUSTRATE AND SUPPLEMENT THE TEXT.

_Arranged in order of the subjects to which they refer_.

"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted,
nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh, and consider."

LORD BACON.

"He who learns the rules of wisdom without conforming to them in his life,
is like a man who labored in his fields but did not sow."

SAADI.

SELECTED READINGS.

_The figures indicate the pages in the text upon which the corresponding
subjects will be found_.

THE SKELETON.

MAN, AS COMPARED WITH OTHER VERTEBRATE ANIMALS (p. 3).--Man, the lord of
the animal kingdom, is constructed after the same type as the cat that
purrs at his feet, the ox that he eats, the horse that bears his burden,
the bird that sings in his cage, the snake that crawls across his pathway,
the toad that hides in his garden, and the fish that swims in his
aquarium. All these are but modifications of one creative thought, showing
how the Almighty Worker delights in repeating the same chord, with
infinite variations. There are marked physical peculiarities, however,
which distinguish man from the other mammals. Thus, the position of the
spinal opening in the middle third of the base of the skull, thereby
balancing the head and admitting an upright posture; the sigmoid S-curve
of the vertebral column; the ability of opposing the well-developed thumb
to the fingers; the shortened foot, the sole resting flat on the ground;
the size and position of the great toe; the length of the arms, reaching
halfway from the hip to the knees; the relatively great development of the
brain; the freedom of the anterior extremities from use in locomotion, and
the consequent erect and biped position. In addition, man is the only
mammal that truly walks; that is endowed with the power of speech; and
that is cosmopolitan, readily adapting himself to extremes of heat and
cold, and making his home in all parts of the globe.--STEELE'S _Popular
Zoology_.

FIG. 68.

[Illustration: _Skeleton of Orang, Chimpanzee, and Man._]

UNION OF FRACTURES (p. 8).--In the course of a week after a fracture,
there is a soft yet firm substance, something between ligament and
cartilage in consistence, which surrounds the broken extremities of the
bone, and adheres to it above and below. The neighboring muscles and
tendons are closely attached to its surface, and the fractured extremities
of the bone lie, as it were, loose in a cavity in the center, with a small
quantity of vascular albumen, resembling a semitransparent jelly.

Here, then, is a kind of splint which nature contrives, and which is
nearly completed within a week from the date of the accident. We call this
new formation the _callus_. This process goes on, the surrounding
substance becoming thicker and of still firmer consistence. In the course
of a few days more, the thin jelly which lay in contact with the broken
ends of the bone has disappeared, and its place is supplied by a callus
continuous with that which formed the original capsule. This is the
termination of the first stage of curative progress. The broken ends of
the bones are now completely imbedded in a mass of vascular organized
substance or callus, something between gristle and cartilage in
consistence; and as yet there are no traces of bony matter in it. At this
time, if you remove the adventitious substance, you will find the broken
ends of bone retaining exactly their original figure and presenting the
same appearance as immediately after the fracture took place.

At the end of about three weeks, if you make a section of the callus,
minute specks of earthy matter are visible, deposited in it here and
there, and at the same time some of the callus, appears to disappear on
the outside, so that the neighboring muscles and tendons no longer adhere
to it. The specks of bone become larger and more numerous until they
extend into each other; and thus by degrees the whole of the callus is
converted into bone. Even at this period, however, there is not absolute
bony union, for although the whole of the callus has become bone, it is
not yet identified with the old bone, and you might still pick it off with
a penknife, leaving the broken extremities not materially altered from
what they were immediately after the injury. This may be regarded as the
end of the second stage of the process by which a fracture is repaired.
Now a third series of changes begins to take place. The broken extremities
of the bones become intimately united by bony matter passing from one to
the other. The mass of new bone on the outside, formed by the ossification
of the callus, being no longer wanted, is absorbed; by degrees the whole
of it disappears, and the bone is left having the same dimensions which it
had before the occurrence of the accident.

The process of union is completed in young persons sooner than in those
advanced in life; in the upper extremities sooner than in the lower; and
in smaller animals more speedily than in man. In human subjects a broken
arm or forearm will be healed in from six to eight weeks, while a leg or
thigh will occupy nine or ten weeks.--SIR B. C. BRODIE.

FIG. 69.

[Illustration: FIG. 69. a. _Monkey's Hand and Foot._ b. _Human Hand
and Foot._]

THE HAND AND THE FOOT (p. 2l).--_Man Compared with the_ _Ape_.--
The peculiar prehensible power possessed by the hand of man is chiefly
dependent upon the size and power of the thumb, which is more developed in
him than it is in the highest apes. The thumb of the human hand can be
brought into exact opposition to the extremities of all the fingers,
whether singly or in combination; while in those quadrumana which most
nearly approach man, the thumb is so short, and the fingers so much
elongated, that their tips can scarcely be brought into opposition; and
the thumb and the fingers are so weak that they can never be opposed to
each other with any degree of force. Hence, though well suited to cling
round bodies of a certain size, such as the small branches of trees, the
anterior extremities of the quadrumana can neither seize very minute
objects with such precision nor support large ones with such firmness as
are essential to the dexterous performance of a variety of operations for
which the hand of man is admirably adapted.

The human foot is, in proportion to the size of the whole body, larger,
broader, and stronger than that of any other mammal, save the kangaroo.
The surface of the astragalus (ankle bone) which articulates with the
tibia, looks almost vertically upward, and hardly at all inward, when the
sole is flat upon the ground; and the lateral facets are more nearly at
right angles to this surface than in any ape. The plane of the foot is
directed at right angles to that of the leg; and its sole is concave, so
that the weight of the body falls on the summit of an arch, of which the
os calcis (heel bone) and the metatarsal bones form the two points of
support. This arched form of the foot, and the contact of the whole
plantar surface with the ground, are particularly noticeable in man, most
of the apes having the os calcis small, straight, and more or less raised
from the ground, while they touch, when standing erect, with the outer
side only of the foot. The function of the _hallux_, or great toe,
moreover, is strikingly contrasted in man and the ape; for, while in the
latter it is nearly as opposable as the thumb, and can be used to almost
the same extent as an instrument of prehension, it chiefly serves in the
former to extend the basis of support, and to advance the body in
progression.--DR. W. B. CARPENTER.

FIG. 70.

[Illustration: _The Leg in standing._]

_The Natural Flexibility of the Toes, and How it is Destroyed_.--We
often admire the suppleness of the fingers by means of which we can
perform such a variety of acts with swiftness and delicacy. Did it ever
occur to you that the toes, which in most feet seem incapable of a free
and graceful motion, even when they are not stiffened and absolutely
deformed by the compression of the modern shoe, are also provided by
Nature with a considerable degree of flexibility? The phalanges of the
toes, though more feebly developed, have really the same movements among
themselves as those of the fingers, and, in case of necessity, their
powers can be strengthened and educated to a surprising degree. There are
well-known instances of persons who, born without hands, or having lost
them by accident, have successfully supplied the deficiency by a
cultivated use of their feet. Some of these have distinguished themselves
in the world of art. Who that has been so fortunate as to visit the
Picture Gallery in Antwerp on some fine morning when the armless artist,
M. Felu, was working at his easel, can forget the wonderful dexterity with
which he wielded his brushes, mixed the oils on his palette, and shaded
the colors on his canvas, all with his agile feet? The writer well
remembers the ease and grace with which, at the close of a pleasant
interview, this cultured man put the tip of his foot into his coat pocket,
drew out a visiting card, wrote his name and address upon it, and
presented it to her between his toes!

Contrast this intelligent adaptation of a delicate physical mechanism with
the barbarous treatment it too commonly receives. The Chinese are at least
consistent. They cripple and distort the feet of their highborn daughters
until they crush out all the power and gracefulness of nature in the
artificial formation of what they term a "golden lily"; but they never
expect these golden-lilied women to make their withered feet useful. With
us, on the contrary, every girl would like to walk well, to display in her
general movements something of the "poetry of motion"; yet the absurd and
arbitrary fashion of our foot gear not only makes an elastic step one of
the rarest of accomplishments, but renders oftentimes the simple act of
walking a painful burden. The calluses, corns, bunions, ingrowing nails,
and repulsive deformities that are caused by and hidden under the narrow-
toed, high-heeled instruments of torture we often wear for fashion's sake
are uncomfortable suggestions that our practices are not greatly in
advance of those of our Celestial sisters. Dowie, a sensible Scotch
shoemaker, satirizes the shape of a fashionable boot as suited only to
"the foot of a goose with the great toe in the middle." The error which
may have led to the adoption of this conventional shape appears to lie in
a misconception of the natural formation of the foot, and of the relation
of the two feet to each other. It is true, that when the toes are covered
with their soft parts, the second toe appears a little longer than the
first, and this appearance, emphasized and exaggerated, is perhaps
responsible for a practical assumption that Nature intended an even-sided,
tapering foot. On the contrary, the natural foot gradually expands in
breadth from the instep to the toes and, in the skeleton itself, the great
toe is the longest.

"There is no law of beauty," says Dr. Ellis, "which makes it necessary to
reduce the foot to even-sided symmetry. An architect required to provide
more space on one than on the other side of a building would not seek to
conceal or even to minimize the difference; he would seek rather to
accentuate it, and give the two sides of the structure distinctive
features....Moreover, the sense of symmetry is, or ought to be, satisfied
by the exact correspondence of the two feet, which, taken jointly, may be
described as the two halves of an unequally expanded dome."--E. B. S.

THE MUSCLES.

ATTACHMENT OF THE MUSCLES TO THE BONES (p. 30).--One of the two bones to
which a muscle is attached is usually less mobile than the other, so that
when the muscle shortens, the latter is drawn down against the former. In
such a case, the point of attachment of the muscle to the less mobile bone
is called its origin, while the point to which it is fixed on the more
mobile bone is called its attachment....A muscle is not always extended
between two contiguous bones. Occasionally, passing over one bone it
attaches itself to the next. This is the case with several muscles which,
originating from the pelvic bone, pass across the upper thigh bone, and
attach themselves to the lower thigh bone. In such cases the muscle is
capable of two different movements: it can either stretch the knee,
previously bent, so that the upper and the lower thigh bones are in a
straight line; or it can raise the whole extended leg yet higher, and
bring it nearer to the pelvis. But the points of origin and of attachment
of muscles may exchange offices. When both legs stand firmly on the
ground, the above-mentioned muscles are unable to raise the thigh;
instead, on shortening, they draw down the pelvis, which now presents the
more mobile point, and thus bend forward the whole upper part of the body.

One important consequence of the attachment of the muscles to the bones is
the extension thus effected. If the limb of a dead body is placed in the
position which it ordinarily occupied during life, and if one end of a
muscle is then separated from its point of attachment, it draws itself
back, and becomes shorter. The same thing happens during life, as is
observable in the operation of cutting the tendons, as practiced by
surgeons to cure curvatures. The result being the same during life and
after death this phenomenon is evidently due to the action of elasticity.
It thus appears that the muscles are stretched by reason of their
attachment to the skeleton, and that, on account of their elasticity, they
are continually striving to shorten. Now, when several muscles are
attached to one bone in such a way that they pull in opposite directions,
the bone must assume a position in which the tension of all the muscles is
balanced, and all these tensions must combine to press together the
socketed parts with a certain force, thus evidently contributing to the
strength of the socket connection....This balanced position of all the
limbs, which thus depends on the elasticity of the muscles, may be
observed during sleep, for then all active muscular action ceases. It will
be observed that the limbs are then generally slightly bent, so that they
form very obtuse angles to each other.

Not all muscles are, however, extended between bones. The tendons of some
pass into soft structures, such as the muscles of the face. In this case,
also, the different muscles exercise a mutual power of extension, though
it is but slight, and they thus effect a definite balanced position of the
soft parts, as may be observed in the position of the mouth opening in the
face.--ROSENTHAL, _Muscles and Nerves_.

MUSCULAR FIBERS (p. 3l).--The anatomical composition of flesh is very
similar in every kind of creature, whether it be the muscle of the ox or
of the fly; that is to say, there are certain tubes which are filled with
minute parts or elements, and the adhesion of the tubes together makes up
the substance of the flesh. These tubes may be represented grossly by
imagining the finger of a glove, to be called the sarcolemma, or muscle-
fiber pouch, and this to be so small as not to be apparent to the naked
eye, but filled with nuclei and the juices peculiar to each animal.
Hundreds of such fingers attached together would represent a bundle of
muscular fibers. The tubes are of fine tissue, but are tolerably
permanent; whilst the contents are in direct communication with the
circulating blood and pursue an incessant course of chemical change and
physical renewal.--EDWARD SMITH, _Foods_.

FIG. 71.

[Illustration: _Smooth Muscle Fibers (300 times enlarged)._]

THE SMOOTH MUSCLE FIBERS consist of long, spindle-shaped cells, the ends
of which are frequently spirally twisted, and in the center of which
exists a long, rod-shaped kernel or nucleus. Unlike striated muscle, they
do not form separate muscular masses, but occur scattered, or arranged in
more or less dense layers or strata, in almost all organs. [Footnote: An
instance of a considerable accumulation of smooth, muscle fibers is
afforded by the muscle pouch of birds, which, with the exception of the
outer and inner skin coverings, consists solely of these fibers collected
in extensive layers.] Arranged in regular order, they very frequently form
widely extending membranes, especially in such tube-shaped structures as
the blood vessels, the intestine, etc., the walls of which are composed of
these smooth muscle fibers. In such cases they are usually arranged in two
layers, one of which consists of ring-shaped fibers surrounding the tube,
while the other consists of fibers arranged parallel to the tube. When,
therefore, these muscle fibers contract, they are able both to reduce the
circumference and to shorten the length of the walls of the tube in which
they occur. This is of great importance in the case of the smaller
arteries, in which the smooth muscle fibers, arranged in the form of a
ring, are able greatly to contract, or even entirely to close the vessels,
thus regulating the current of blood through the capillaries. In other
cases, as in the intestine, they serve to set the contents of the tubes in
motion. In the latter cases the contraction does not take place
simultaneously throughout the length of the tube; but, commencing at one
point, it continually propagates itself along fresh lengths of the tube,
so that the contents are slowly driven forward.

As a rule, such parts as are provided only with smooth muscle fibers are
not voluntarily movable, while striated muscle fibers are subject to the
will. The latter have, therefore, been also distinguished as voluntary,
the former as involuntary muscles. The heart, however, exhibits an
exception, for, though it is provided with striated muscle fibers, the
will has no direct influence upon it, its motions being exerted and
regulated independently of the will. Moreover, the muscle fibers of the
heart are peculiar in that they are destitute of sarcolemma, the naked
muscle fibers directly touching each other. This is so far interesting
that direct irritations, if applied to some point of the heart, are
transferred to all the other muscle fibers. In addition to this, the
muscle fibers of the heart are branched, but such branched fibers occur
also in other places; for example, in the tongue of the frog, where they
are branched like a tree. Smooth muscle fibers being, therefore, not
subject to the will, are caused to contract, either by local irritation,
such as the pressure of the matter contained within the tubes, or by the
nervous system. The contractions of striated muscle fibers are effected,
in the natural course of organic life, only by the influence of the
nerves.--ROSENTHAL.

OVEREXERTION AND PERSONAL IMPRUDENCE (p. 40).--Among children there is
little danger of overexertion. When a little child reaches the point of
healthy fatigue, he usually collapses into rest and sleep. But with youth
comes the spirit of ambition and emulation. A lad, for instance, is
determined to win a race, to throw his opponent in a football scramble, to
lift a heavier weight than his strength will warrant; or a girl is
stimulated by the passion she may possess for piano playing, painting,
dancing, or tennis. The moment of exhaustion comes, but the end is not
accomplished, and the will goads on the weary muscles, perhaps to one
supreme effort which terminates in a sharp and sudden illness, perhaps to
days and weeks of continued and incessant application, during which the
whole system is undermined. Thus is laid the foundation for a feeble and
suffering maturity.

To elderly people, overexertion has peculiar dangers, dependent largely
upon the changes which gradually take place in the tissues of the body.
The walls of the blood vessels become less and less elastic, and more and
more brittle, as life advances, until at last they are ready to give way
from any severe or unusual pressure. We constantly see old people
hastening their death by personal imprudence. An old gentleman running to
catch the morning train; an old farmer hastening to turn the strayed sheep
out of a cornfield; the old sportsman having a last run with the hounds;
the last pull at the oars; the last attempt of old age to play at vigorous
manhood.

A prominent American physician has said that between the ages of forty and
fifty every wise man will have ceased to run to "catch" trains or street
cars; and that between fifty and sixty he will have permanently discarded
haste of all kinds. Equal precautions should be observed by both young and
old, but especially by those advanced in life, in regard to extremes of
heat, cold, or storm. William Cullen Bryant, by exposing himself to a
scorching sun and refusing to permit a friend to protect him with an
umbrella while delivering an address in Central Park, received injuries to
his system that carried him to his grave. Ralph Waldo Emerson, by standing
in a chilling wind, contracted a cold and died. George Dawson, by going
thoughtlessly into a freezing atmosphere from the sweltering rooms of a
crowded reception, took cold which resulted in pneumonia and death.
Matthew Arnold, for years a sufferer from heart difficulty, in a single
instance neglected the advice of his physician not to indulge in any
violent exercise, made repeated attempts and finally succeeded in jumping
a fence, and in a few hours was a dead man. Roscoe Conkling braved the
most terrible blizzard ever known in the east and sacrificed his life. And
yet, these were all men of exceptional prudence. Probably no other five
persons in the world of like surroundings and vocations were more careful
of their health. In an unguarded moment their prudence left them, and they
paid the terrible penalty.--_Compiled_.

EFFECTS OF INSUFFICIENT OUTDOOR EXERCISE UPON THE YOUNG (p. 41).--Children
deprived of adequate outdoor exercise are always delicate, pale, and
tender; or, in a figurative sense, they are like the sprig of vegetation
in a dark, dank hole,--bleached and spindling....An inactive indoor life
is one of the most effectual ways of weakening the young body. It renders
the growth unnaturally soft and tender, and thus susceptible to harm from
the slightest causes. It hinders the garnering of strength necessary for a
long life, and gives to the germs of disease a resistless power over an
organization so weak and deficient....Measles, scarlet fever, and
diphtheria find among such a congenial soil, and run riot among the
elements of the body held together by so frail a thread....Such children
are always at the mercy of the weather. Colds and coughs are standard
disorders in winter, headaches and habitual languor in summer....The
scapegoat for this result is the climate: if that was only better, mothers
are sure their children's health would also be better. No, it would not be
better: no earthly climate is good enough to preserve health and strength
under such unnatural training....Children of the laboring classes, often
dirty and imperfectly clad, seldom have colds, simply for the reason that,
for the greater part of the day, they have the freedom of the streets. It
is not the dirt, it is not the rags, _but the life-giving force of an
active outdoor life_ that renders such children so strong and healthy.
--BLACK, _Ten Laws of Health_.

POPULAR MODES OF OUTDOOR EXERCISE (p. 42).--_Walking_.--Every person
has his own particular step, caused by the conformity, shape, and length
of his bones, and the height of his body. Such a thing, then, as a
regulation step is unnatural, and any attempt at equalizing the step of
individuals of different heights must result in a loss of power.

The moment, also, that walking comes to be _uphill_, fatigue is
sensibly increased. The center of gravity of the body is changed, and the
muscular force necessary to provide for the change causes the fixing of
the diaphragm, and a rigid condition of many muscles. Respiration is
interfered with, owing to the fixing of the diaphragm, and the heart
becomes affected thereby. A person with a sensitive or diseased heart can,
during a walk, tell when the slightest rise in the ground occurs. We make
climbing more exhausting from the habit we have of suspending the breath.
Let the reader _hold his breath_ and run up twenty-four steps of a
stair, and then perform the same act _breathing freely_ and deeply.
It will be found that by the first act marked breathlessness will be
induced, whereas by the latter the effect is much less. This management of
the breath constitutes the difference between the beginner and the
experienced athlete. The enormous increase of the quantity of air consumed
during exercise will at once bring home a number of lessons. One is, that
exercise is best taken in the open air, and not in gymnasia; another, that
free play to act for the regions of the chest and abdomen must be given.
On no account must a tight belt be worn around the soft-walled abdomen. If
a belt is preferred to braces, let it be applied below the top of the
haunch bone, where the bones can resist the pressure.

Whatever may be the pastimes indulged in by young men, walking should
never be neglected. The oarsman will become "stale" unless the method of
exercise is varied; the gymnast will develop the upper part of his body,
while his lower extremities will remain spindleshanks. So with all other
forms of exercise; success, in any form of game, sport, or gymnastic
training, can not be attained unless walking be freely taken.

_Skating_ is simply an exaggerated swinging walk, with this
difference, that the foot on which one rests is not stationary, but moves
along at a rapid rate. The benefit to the circulation, respiration, and
digestion is even greater in skating than in walking. The dangers from
skating are:

1. The giving way of the ice. Great caution should be used in regard to
the safety of a frozen pond or river.

2. Taking cold from becoming overheated, and from subsequent inactive
exposure. Physiological knowledge will teach people that, when they begin
to skate, outer wraps should be laid aside, and again put on when skating
is finished.

3. Sprains, especially of the ankle, and other minor accidents arising
from falls. Ankle boots with strong uppers should be worn during skating.
Those who have weak ankles ought to wear skates with ankle straps and
buckles, acme skates being relegated to those who are not afraid of going
"over their foot."

_Rowing_.--The muscles employed in rowing may be summed up under two
heads--those that are used in the forward swing, and those used in the
backward. In the _forward_ swing all the joints of the lower
extremity, the hip, knee, and ankle, are flexed; the shoulder is brought
forward; the elbow is straightened; and the wrist is first extended and
then flexed, in feathering the oar. The body is bent forward by the
muscles in front of the abdomen and spinal column. In the _backward_
movement the reverse takes place; the lower extremity, the hip, knee, and
ankle are straightened; the shoulder is pulled back; the elbow is flexed;
and the wrist is held straight. The body is bent backward by the muscles
at the lower part of the back, and by those of the spine in general. It
will be seen that the enormous number of joints put into use, and the
varying positions employed, call into play nearly every muscle of the
limbs and trunk. Rowing gives more work to the muscles of the back than
any other kind of exercise. This is of the first importance to both men
and women, but especially to women. The chief work of the muscles of the
back is to support the body in the erect position, and the better they are
developed the better will the carriage be, and the less likelihood of
stooping shoulders, contracted chests, and the like. Now, the work of the
muscles in supporting the body is largely relegated in women to the stays,
and, in consequence, the muscles undergo wasting and fatty degeneration,
in fact, atrophy; so that when the stays are left off, the muscles are
unfit to support the body. Rowing exercises these muscles condemned to
waste, and imparts a natural carriage to the girl's frame. In rowing, as
in horseback riding, the clothing should be loose, stays left off, and
flannels worn next the skin. The dress itself should be of woolen, and
there should always be in the boat a large wrap to use when one stops
rowing. The following practical rules should be observed by rowers:

1. Never row after a full meal.

2. Stop when fatigue comes on.

3. _Allow the breath to escape while the oar is in the water_. A
novice usually holds his breath at each stroke, and pulls so rapidly that
in a few minutes he becomes breathless, and is forced to stop. Not only is
this uncomfortable, but it is dangerous. In the case of both young and
old, it may give rise to an abdominal rupture (hernia), dilation of the
cavities of the heart, rupture of a heart valve, varicose veins, etc.
Instead of fixing the diaphragm and holding the breath during the time of
pulling, as novices are apt to do, _do exactly the opposite_. Let the
diaphragm go loose, and allow the breath to escape.

4. Change the clothing from the skin outward as soon as the day's rowing
is finished.

5. Before retiring for the night, have a warm bath, temperature 92° Fahr.
This is a specific against the aches and muscular stiffness which often
follow a long pull on the water.

_Swimming_.--A word of warning is necessary in regard to those
learning to swim in rivers. Boys at school, when they take to river
bathing, often carry it to a dangerous extent. They get into the water,
and now in, now out on the bank, sometimes remain for hours. This may take
place day after day, and if the weather continues warm and the holidays
last long enough, the boy may reduce himself to the lowest ebb of
feebleness, and possibly develop the seeds of latent disease. He may even
die from the effects of this prolonged immersion and madcap exposure.

The muscular exertion undergone during swimming, especially by those who
swim only occasionally, is very great. The experienced swimmer conserves
his strength, as do proficients at all feats, but the occasional swimmer,
like the occasional rower, puts forth treble the energy required, and soon
becomes exhausted. In the first place, it is a new act for the muscles to
perform; they are taken off from the beaten tracks, and are grouped
together in new associations; hence they lack adjustment and adaptation.
Again, as in other feats for which one is untrained, the heart and lungs
do not work in time. Ease and speed in swimming depend upon the attainment
of harmony in the working of the muscles, heart, and lungs.

Diving is an accomplishment attached to swimming, which involves many
dangers, and is well-nigh useless. The customary dive off a springboard
into the shallow water of a swimming bath is dangerous in the extreme. The
only place where diving should be attempted is into deep water, at least
fifteen or twenty feet, where there is no danger of striking the bottom.

_Lawn Tennis_.--Of all modern inventions in the way of games, lawn
tennis is the best.

The dangers attendant on lawn tennis are:--

1. Overexertion, causing rupture and deranged circulation, especially in
the case of those with weak hearts, or those who, being out of condition,
or too fat, suddenly engage in the game too long or too violently.

2. Rupture of the _tendon of Achilles_, from taking a sudden bound.
In such an accident the subject falls down, with a sensation as if struck
with a club on the leg.

3. Rupture of one of the heads of the biceps in the arm. Here the arm
drops helplessly, and a muscular knob rises up on the inner and upper part
of the arm.

4. The tennis arm. This trouble arises from the method of manipulating the
bat. The pain is felt over the upper end of the radius.

Many of the strains, ruptured tendons, and torn muscles in tennis players
are caused by the want of heels to tennis shoes. As, ordinarily, we walk
on heels which vary from half an inch to an inch, there must be a
considerable extra strain thrown on the muscles of the calf of the leg,
when the heels are left off. Especially during a sudden spring is this
apparent, when to rise from off the heels on to the toes requires a
greatly increased force. Tennis shoes should therefore have fairly deep,
broad heels.

_Horseback Riding_ is a mixed exercise, partly active and partly
passive, the lower parts of the body being in some measure employed, while
the upper parts in easy cantering are almost wholly relaxed. It is
peculiarly suited to dyspeptics, from its direct action upon the abdominal
viscera, the contents of which are stimulated by the continued agitation
and succussion, consequent on the motion in riding.

_Bicycling and Tricycling_.--While strongly recommending bicycling
and tricycling to both men and women in health, those suffering from heart
or lung affections, ruptures, scrofula, joint disease, or like maladies,
should not indulge in them without medical sanction. For abdominal
complaints, such as dyspepsia, congestion of the liver, constipation, and
the like, the exercise is excellent.

_Baseball_ is an essentially American game, which brings into play
nearly all the muscles of the body. Its chief danger lies in being hit by
the hard, forcibly pitched ball, and, for weak persons, in the violence of
the exercise.

_Football_ is a rough-and-tumble game, suited only to that class of
boys and men, who, brimming over with animal life, take small heed of the
accidents liable to occur.

_Light and Heavy Gymnastics_.--For wet weather, and when outdoor
exercise is not practicable, gymnastics are most advisable. Boys and
girls, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, often shoot up and become tall
and lanky; they want filling out, and are troubled with growing pains.
Even men, when tall and thin, are seldom very erect, their muscles are too
weak; and there is only one way of overcoming this weakness--by exercising
them. Nothing more is wanted than a pair of very light Indian clubs, a
pair of light wooden dumb bells, a long wooden rod, and a pair of wooden
rings,--the last for combined exercises. Indeed, a systematic motion of
the body itself, without any extra artificial resistance, is quite
sufficient for the purposes of physical education. In nearly all our large
cities are found gymnasia, provided with competent instructors, and every
facility for both light and heavy gymnastics. Exercise in a gymnasium is
open to the objection of being too brief and too severe, and of simply
causing an increase of muscular development. Besides, it is generally
unequal in its results, being better adapted to the cultivation of
strength in the upper extremities and portion of the body than in the
lower. Nevertheless, during inclement weather, or with persons in whom the
muscles of the arms and chest are defective, moderate gymnastic exercise
is far better than no exercise.--_Compiled_. (_Mostly from "The
Influence of Exercise" in The Book of Health_.)

THE SKIN.

THE HAIR (p. 52).--_Baldness, and its Causes_.--Various reasons are
assigned for the baldness which is so prevalent among comparatively young
men in our country. One writer says: "The premature baldness and grayness
of the Americans as a people is in great measure owing to the
nonobservance of hygienic rules, and to excess of mental and physical
labor in a climate foreign to the race." Others attribute it to the close
unventilated hats commonly worn by men. Dr. Nichols, in the _Popular
Science News_, gives his opinion thus:

"In our view, it is largely due to modern methods of treatment of the hair
and scalp. The erroneous idea prevails, that the skin which holds the hair
follicles and the delicate secretory organs of the scalp must be kept as
'clean,' so to speak, as the face or hands; consequently young men
patronize barbers or hairdressers, and once or twice a week they have what
is called a 'shampoo' operation performed. This consists in a thorough
scouring of the hair and scalp with dilute ammonia, water, and soap, so
that a heavy 'lather' is produced, and the glandular secretions, which are
the natural protection of the hair, and promotive of its growth, are
saponified and removed. No act could be more directly destructive of a
healthy growth of hair than this....Women do not shampoo or wash the hair
as often as the other sex, and consequently they are in a large degree
exempt from baldness in middle life. It is true, however, that many women
in cities make frequent visits to the hairdressers, and subject their
tresses to the 'scouring' process. If this becomes common, it will not be
long before baldness will overtake the young mothers as well as the
fathers, and the time will be hastened when even children will have no
hair to destroy with ammonia or other caustic cosmetics.

"The advice we have to offer to young men and maidens is,--let your hair
alone; keep at a safe distance from hair-dressing rooms and drug shops,
where are sold oils, alkaline substances, alcoholic mixtures, etc., for
use upon the hair. They are all pernicious, and will do you harm. The head
and hair may be washed occasionally with soft, tepid water, without soap
of any kind. As a rule, the only appliances needed in the care of the hair
are good combs and brushes: and they should not be used harshly, so as to
wound the scalp. Avoid all 'electric' and wire-made brushes. No
electricity can be stored in a hairbrush: if it could be, it is not
needed."

_Sudden Blanching of the Hair from Violent Emotions_.--The color of
the hair depends mainly upon the presence of pigment granules, which range
in tint from a light yellow to an intense black. A recent investigator has
succeeded in extracting the coloring matter of the hair, and has found
that all the different shades are produced by the mixture of three primary
colors--red, yellow, and black. "In the pure golden yellow hair there is
only the yellow pigment; in red hair the red pigment is mixed with more or
less yellow, producing the various shades of red and orange; in dark hair
the black is always mixed with yellow and red, but the latter are
overpowered by the black; and it seems that even the blackest hair, such
as that of the negro, contains as much red pigment as the very reddest
hair." Hence, "if in the negro the black pigment had not been developed,
the hair of all negroes would be a fiery red."--DR. C. H. LEONARD. _The
Hair: Its Diseases and Treatment_.

The gradual disappearance of this pigment causes the gray or white hair of
old age. This natural change in color does not necessarily denote loss of
vitality in the hair, as it often continues to grow as vigorously as
before it began to whiten. Cases of sudden blanching of the hair from
extreme grief or terror are often quoted,--those of Sir Thomas More and of
Marie Antoinette being well-known instances in point. An interesting
circumstance has been discovered with regard to such cases, namely, that
the change of color is not dependent upon the disappearance of the pigment
of the hair, which always takes place slowly, but upon the sudden
development in its interior of a number of air bubbles, that hide and
destroy the effect of the pigment, which itself remains unaltered. Dr.
Landois mentions the case of a German printer whom he attended, at a
hospital, in the summer of 1865.

This man had long been intemperate in his habits, in consequence of which
he was seized with delirium tremens. The delirium, as is usual in such
cases, was of an extremely terrifying nature, and lasted four days. On the
evening of the fourth day the hair was unaltered, but on the morning of
the fifth the delirium had disappeared, and his hair, which previously was
fair, had become gray. It was examined with the microscope, when it was
found that the pigment was still present, but that the central streak of
each was filled with air bubbles.

How this superabundance of air finds its way into the hair in these cases
of sudden blanching, physiologists have not yet been able satisfactorily
to explain.--In this connection, however, it may be observed that air
bubbles exist, more or less, in all hair, mingled with the pigment
granules.

The feathers of birds owe their bright colors to an oily secretion
corresponding to the pigment in hair, and microscopical observation has
revealed the fact that when these colors fade the oily secretion
disappears, and is replaced by air. That extreme terror may blanch
feathers as well as hair is shown in the case of a poor little starling,
which upon being rescued from the claws of a cat became suddenly white.

THE NAILS (p. 54).--The nails are mere modifications of the scarfskin,
their horny appearance and feeling being due to the fact that the scales
or plates of which they are composed are much harder and more closely
packed. The root of the nail lies embedded, to the extent of about the
twelfth part of an inch, in a fold of the sensitive skin, and, as may be
observed from an inspection of the part, the scarfskin is not exactly
continuous with the nail, but projects a little above it, forming a narrow
margin.

The nail, like the scarfskin, rests upon, and is intimately connected
with, a structure almost identical with the sensitive skin; this is,
however, thrown into ridges, which run parallel to one another, except at
the back part, where they radiate from the center of the root. On
examining the surface of the nail, a semicircular whitish portion is
detected near its root; its color is dependent upon the fact that the
ridges there contain fewer blood vessels, and therefore less blood, and on
account of its half-moon shape it is called the _lunula_.

The nail is constantly increasing in length, owing to the formation of new
cells at the root, which push it forward, while the increase in its
thickness is due to the secretion of new cells from the sensitive layer
beneath, so that the farther the nail grows from the root, the thicker it
becomes. Its nutrition, and consequently its growth, suffers in disease,
the portion growing during disease being thinner than that growing in
health; and accordingly a transverse groove is seen upon the nail,
corresponding to the time of an illness. It will thus be seen that by a
mere examination of the nail we can astonish our friends by telling them
when they have been ill; and it has been estimated that the nail of the
thumb grows from its root to its free extremity in five months, that of
the great toe in twenty months, so that a transverse groove in the middle
of the former indicates an illness about two and a half months before, and
in the middle of the latter, about ten months.

The culture of the nails, which when perfect constitute so great a beauty,
is of much importance; but the tendency is to injure them by too much
attention. The scissors should never be used except to pare the free edges
when they have become ragged or too long, and the folds of scarfskin which
overlap the roots should not, as a rule, be touched, unless they be
frayed, when the torn edges may be snipped off, so as to prevent their
being torn further, which may cause much pain, and even inflammation. The
upper surfaces of the nails should on no account be touched with the
knife, as is so often done, the nailbrush being amply sufficient to keep
them clean, without impairing their smooth and polished surfaces.--HINTON.

BATHS AND BATHING (p. 65).--_Physical Cleanliness Promotes Moral
Purity_.--The old adage that cleanliness is next to godliness, must
have had its origin in the feeling of moral elevation which generally
accompanies scrupulous bodily purity. Frequent bathing promotes purity of
mind and morals. The man who is accustomed to be physically clean shrinks
instinctively from contact with all uncleanliness. Personal neatness, when
grown into a habit, draws after it so many excellences, that it may well
be called a social virtue. Without it, refined intercourse would be
impossible; for its neglect not only indicates a want of proper self-
respect, but a disrespect of the feelings of others which argues a low
tone of the moral sense. All nations, as they advance in civilization and
refinement of manners, pay increased attention to the purity of the
person.

What, then, shall we say of people who, after all that has been said and
written upon the subject, seldom or never bathe, who allow the pores of
the skin to get blocked up with a combination of dust and perspired
matter, which is as effectual in its way as plaster to the walls of a
building? Could they but once be tempted to taste the delights which arise
from a perfectly clean and well-acting skin: the cheerfulness, nay, the
feeling of moral as well as physical elevation, which accompanies the
sense of that cleanliness, they would soon esteem the little time and
trouble spent in the bath, and in the proper care of the surface of the
body, as time and labor very well spent--DR. STRANGE.

The feet, particularly, should receive daily attention, if it be no more
than a vigorous rubbing with a wet cloth, followed by a dry one. After a
long walk, also, nothing is more refreshing, especially in summer, than a
generous footbath in cool or tepid water, followed by an entire change in
shoes and stockings. This is really a necessary precaution, if the feet
have become wet from the dampness of the ground; and if the walk has
heated the body so that the stockings are moist with perspiration, it is
not only an act of prudence, but an instinct of personal neatness.

_Ancient Greek and Roman Baths_.--From the earliest historic times
the necessity for frequent and thorough ablution has been recognized by
artificial provisions for this purpose. The Greeks had "steaming baths"
and "fragrant anointing oils," as far back as Homer's time, a thousand
years before Christ, but the Romans surpassed all preceding and subsequent
nations by their magnificent and luxuriously equipped Thermæ, in which a
bath cost less than a cent, and was often free. A full Roman bath included
hot air, dry rubbing, hot, tepid, and cold water immersions, scraping with
bronze instruments, and anointing with precious perfumes.

_The Modern Russian_ and _Turkish baths_ are the nearest
approaches we have to the Roman bath. These are found in nearly all our
larger cities.

_The Turkish Bath_ is conducted in a modified form in this country,
generally with hot air instead of steam. Its frequent use not only tends
to keep the body in a state of perfect cleanliness, but it imparts a
clear, fresh color to the complexion which is hardly attained by other
means.

"Its most important effect," says a writer in the _Popular Science
Monthly_, "is the stimulation of the emunctory action of the skin. By
this means we are enabled to wash as it were the solid and fluid tissues,
and especially the blood and skin, by passing water through them from
within outward to the surface of the body. Hence, in practice, one of the
most essential requisites is copious draughts of water during the
sweating."

During the operation of a Turkish bath, the novice is often astonished at
the amount of effete matter eliminated from the pores of the skin. "A
surprising quantity of scarfskin, which no washing could remove, peels
off, especially if a glove of camel's-hair or goat's-hair be used, as they
are in the East, where also the soles of the feet are scraped with pumice.
The deposit of this skin of only a week's date, when collected, is often
as large as one's fist. Much more solid matter is contained in the
perspiration of those who take the bath for the first time, or after a
long interval. Nothing escapes through the skin, save what is noxious if
retained. This bath should never be used in case of advanced lung
diseases, great debility, acute inflammations, or persons who labor under
any form of heart disease; but I think its influence is directly curative
in rheumatic, gouty, and scrofulous affections, some skin diseases, and
the earlier stages of feverish colds and ague. It is said to have calming
effects in the treatment of insanity, and the use of it was suggested from
the heavy smell the skin of persons thus afflicted often has."--MAPOTHER'S
_Lectures on Public Health_.

A somewhat heroic bath, used in Siberia to drive away a threatened fever,
consists of a thorough parboiling, within an inch or two of a steaming
furnace, after which the subject is "drubbed and flogged for about half an
hour with a bundle of birch twigs, leaf and all." A douche of cold water
is then dashed over the exhausted bather, when he is ready to be put into
bed.

_Sea Bathing_.--Before the age of seven years, and after fifty-five,
sea baths should be used with the greatest caution. All persons
unaccustomed to sea bathing should begin with a warm or tepid bath, in
doors, proceeding by degrees to the cold indoor bath, and then to the open
sea.

The sea bath should be taken, if possible, when the sun is shining, when
the water has been warmed by contact with the heated sands, and never
during the digestion of the principal meal, or late in the evening.
Immediately on plunging into the water, which need not, except in persons
of full habit, cover the head, brisk motion of some kind should be used.
Those who can swim should do so; those who can not, should make as much
exertion of the limbs as possible, or rub the body with their hands. The
delicate, and particularly those who are recovering from illness, should
remove from the bath _as soon as the glow arrives;_ or, if that be
not felt at all, then after _one_ plunge.

_Danger in Bathing when Overheated_.--It is unwise to bathe when
copious perspiration has continued for an hour or more, unless the heat of
the weather be excessive, or the sweating has been induced by loading with
clothes, rather than by exertion. When much perspiration has been produced
by muscular exercise, it is unsafe to bathe, because the body is so
fatigued and exhausted, that the reaction can not be insured, and the
effect may be to congest the internal organs, and notably the nerve
centers. The latter gives cramp. If the weather be chilly, or there be a
cold wind, so that the body may be rapidly cooled at the surface while
undressing, it is not safe to bathe. Under such conditions, the further
chill of immersion in cold water will take place at the precise moment at
which the reaction consequent upon the chill of exposure by undressing
ought to take place, and this second chill will not only delay or
altogether prevent the reaction, but will convert the bath from a mere
stimulant to a depressant, ending in the abstraction of a large amount of
animal heat and congestion of the internal organs and nerve centers. The
aim must be to avoid two chills, and to make sure that the body is in such
a condition as to secure a quick reaction on emerging from the water,
without relying too much on the possible effect of friction by rubbing.
The actual temperature of the water does not affect the question so much
as its relative temperature in comparison with that of the surrounding
air. It ought to be much lower than that of the air. These maxims receive
a striking reenforcement from the case of a young soldier who a few days
ago plunged into the river near Manchester, England, after having heated
himself by rowing. He was immediately taken with cramps, and was drowned.
When taken out, his body was found "twisted," and the vessels of his head
showed every evidence of congestion.--_Popular Science Monthly,
September, 1883_.

_Bather's Cramp_.--Cramp is a painful and tonic muscular spasm. It
may occur in any part of the body, but it is especially apt to take place
in the lower extremities, and in its milder forms it is limited to a
single muscle. The pain is severe, and the contracted muscles are hard and
exquisitely tender. In a few minutes the spasm and pain cease, leaving a
local sensation of fatigue and soreness. When cramp affects only one
extremity, no swimmer or bather endowed with average presence of mind need
drown; but when cramp seizes the whole of the voluntary muscular system,
as it probably does in the worst cases, nothing in the absence of prompt
and efficient extraneous assistance can save the individual from drowning.
[Footnote: Even this is often unavailable, as in the case of the Cornell
University postgraduate drowned in Hall Creek, Ithaca, June 10, 1888. In
this instance the day was hot and oppressive, and the victim sank soon
after entering the water. "His companions at once hastened to his relief,
and recovered his body in a few minutes. Professor Wilder, of the
University, was hurriedly summoned, and every possible method was resorted
to in order to induce respiration, but the vital spark had fled. An attack
of cramps is supposed to have been the cause of drowning."] Prolongation
of muscular exertion, as in continued swimming, and forcible and sudden
muscular exertion, as in swimming with very vigorous and rapid strokes,
are efficient and frequent causes of cramp. These muscular conditions,
however, usually give rise only to the slighter and more localized forms.
Serious cramp is a peril which menaces most persons with highly developed
muscles. Its most powerful and most avoidable cause is the sudden
immersion of the body, when its surface is highly heated, in water of a
relatively low temperature.--_Popular Science News._

_Protection of the Ear in Sea Bathing_.--Special attention should be
paid by bathers to the exclusion of salt water from the mouth and ears.
Many cases of inflammation of the ear, followed by severe and lasting
trouble, even to deafness, are chargeable to the neglect of this
precaution. Incoming waves should never be received in the face or the
ears, and the sea water which enters the ears when floating or diving
should be wiped out by soft cotton; indeed, the best plan is to plug the
openings of the ears with cotton, which is to be kept there during the
bath.--_Science_.

_How one who Knows not how to Swim can Escape Drowning_.--It is well
for every one to learn the art of swimming, yet it is a knowledge
possessed by comparatively few people. Mr. Henry MacCormac, a writer in
_Nature_, gives some common sense instructions that, if heeded, may
be of great service to those persons who, not knowing how to swim, may
find themselves accidentally precipitated into the water. We condense from
his article, adding some directions, as follows:

In order to escape drowning, it is necessary only to do as the brute does,
namely, to walk or tread the water. The brute has no advantage over man in
regard to his relative weight, and yet the man perishes while the brute
survives. The ignorance of so simple a possibility as that of treading
water strikes me as one of the most singular things in the history of man.
Perhaps something is to be ascribed to the vague meaning which is attached
to the word _Swim_. The dog is wholly incapable of _swimming_ as
a man swims, but nothing is more certain than that a man, without previous
training or instruction, can swim just as a dog swims, and that by so
doing without fear or hesitancy, he will be just as safe as is the dog.
The brute thus circumstanced continues to go on all fours, as if he were
on land, _keeping his head well out of the water_. So with the man
who wishes to save his life and can not otherwise swim. He must strike
alternately, with hand and foot,--_one, two, one, two,_--without
hurry or precipitation, exactly as the brute does. Whether he be provided
with paw or hoof, the beast swims with perfect ease and buoyancy. So, too,
can the human being, if he will, with the further immense advantage of
having a paddle-formed hand, and of being able, when tired, to rest
himself by floating, an act of which the animal has no conception. The
printed direction should be pasted up in all boathouses, on every boat, at
every bathing place, and in every school: _Tread water when you find
yourself out of your depth_. This is all that need be said, unless,
indeed, we add: _Float when you are tired_. To float, one needs only
to turn upon his back, keeping--as always when in the water--the mouth and
chin well up and the lungs full of air.--Every one of us, of whatever age
and however encumbered with clothing, may tread water, even in a breaking
sea, with as much facility as a fourfooted animal. The position of the
water treader is, really, very much safer and better than the sprawling
attitude of the ordinary swimmer. But the chief advantage lies in the fact
that we can tread water without preliminary teaching, whereas, though we
recommend all to learn how to swim, it involves time and pains, entails
considerable fatigue, and is, after all, very seldom adequately acquired.

HINTS ON CLOTHING (p. 67).--_Advantages of Woolen Fabrics_.--Wool is
more irritating than cotton, on account of the stiffness of the hairs with
which it bristles; but the excitation it produces becomes a therapeutic
means whenever the skin needs a stimulant.

The use of wool is particularly desirable in some countries and under some
conditions of life. Professor Brocchi, a writer well known for his
investigations in malaria, attributes the good health and vigor of the
ancient Romans to their habit of wearing coarse woolen clothes; when they
began to disuse them, and to wear lighter goods and silks, they became
less vigorous and less able to resist the morbid influence of bad air. It
was at about the time the women began to dress in notably fine tissues
that the insalubrity of the Roman air began first to be complained of. "In
the English army and navy," says Dr. Balestra, "the soldiers of garrisons
in unhealthy places are obliged constantly to wear wool next to the skin,
and to cover themselves with sufficient clothing, for protection against
paludine fevers, dysentery, cholera, and other diseases." According to
Patissier, similar measures have been found effectual in preserving the
health of workmen employed on dikes, canals, and ditches, in marshy lands;
while, previous to the employment of these precautions, mortality from
fevers was considerable among them.

Dr. Balestra has proved by direct experiments in marshy regions that thick
and hairy woolen garments arrest in their down a portion of the germs
borne in by the air, which thus reaches the skin filtered and purified.
The ancient Romans wore ample over-garments over their tunics, and never
put them away. It is no less important to be well covered during the
night; and precautions of this kind should be recommended to all who live
in a swampy country. We are sometimes astonished when we see the natives
of particularly warm countries enveloped in woolen, as the Arab in his
burnoose, or the Spanish peasant in his tobacco-colored cloak. Such
materials protect both against the rays of the sun and against the
coolness of the night, and are excellent regulators of heat. It is
dangerously imprudent to travel in southern countries without provision of
warm clothing.--_Revue des Deux Mondes_.

_Weight is not Warmth_.--While speaking of the warmth of clothing for
inclement weather, it would be incorrect not to speak of weight in
relation to warmth. Many persons mistake weight for warmth, and thus
feeble people are actually borne down and weakened by the excess of heavy
clothing which is piled on them. Good woolen or fur fabrics retain the
heat, and yet are light. When fabrics intended for sustaining warmth are
made up of cotton, the mistake of accepting weight for warmth is made. The
same errors are often made in respect to bed coverings, and with the same
results.

_Poisonously Dyed Clothing_.--The introduction of wearing apparel,
socks, stockings, and flannels which have been made, by new processes of
dyeing, to assume a rich red or yellow color, has led to a local disease
of the skin, attended, in rare cases, with slight constitutional symptoms.
This disease is due to the dyestuffs. The chief poisonous dyes are the red
and yellow coralline, substances derived from that series of chemical
bodies which have been obtained of late years from coal tar, and commonly
known as the aniline series.

The coloring principle is extremely active as a local poison. It induces
on the skin a reddish, slightly raised eruption of minute round pimples
which stud the reddened surface, and which, if the irritation be severe
and long-continued, pass into vesicles discharging a thin watery ichor and
producing a superficial sore. The disease is readily curable if the cause
of it be removed, and, as a general rule, it is purely local in character.
I have, however, once seen it pass beyond the local stage. A young
gentleman consulted me for what he considered was a rapidly developed
attack of erysipelas on the chest and back. He was, indeed, covered with
an intensely red rash, and he was affected with nervous symptoms, with
faintness and depression of pulse, of a singular and severe kind. I traced
both the local eruption and the general malady to the effect of the
organic dye in a red woolen chest and back "comforter." On removing the
"comforter" all the symptoms ceased. Similar and even fatal cases have
been known from the wearing of highly colored hose.

_Uncleanliness of Dress_.--Uncleanly attire creates conditions
favorable to disease. Clothing worn too long at a time becomes saturated
with the excretions and exhalations of the body, and, by preventing the
free transpiration from the surface of the skin, induces oppression of the
physical powers and mental inactivity. This observation will be accepted
by most persons as true in respect to underclothing; it is equally true in
regard to those outer garments which are often worn, unremittingly, until
the linings, torn and soiled, are unfit altogether for contact with the
cleaner garments beneath them. Health will not be clothed in dirty
raiment. They who wear such raiment suffer from trains of minor
complaints; from oppression, dullness, headache, nausea, which, though
trifling in themselves, taken one by one, when put together greatly reduce
that standard of perfect health by which the value of life is correctly
and effectively maintained.--RICHARDSON.

RESPIRATION.

THE VOCAL ORGANS.--_Musical Tones in Speaking_ (p. 76).--Voice is
divided into singing and speaking voice. One differs from the other almost
as much as noises do from musical sounds. In speaking, the sounds are too
short to be easily appreciable, and are not separated by fixed and regular
intervals, like those of singing; they are linked together, generally by
insensible transitions; they are not united by the fixed relations of the
gamut, and can only be noted with difficulty. That it is the short
duration of speaking sounds which distinguished them from those of
singing, is proved by this, that if we prolong the intonation of a
syllable, or utter it like a note, the musical sound becomes evident. So,
if we pronounce all the syllables of a phrase in the same tone, the
speaking voice closely resembles psalm singing. Every one must have
noticed this in hearing schoolboys recite or read in a monotone, and the
analogy is complete when the last two or three syllables are pronounced in
a different tone. Spoken voice is, moreover, always a chant more or less
marked, according to the individual and the sentiment which the words
express....It is related of Gretry, that he amused himself by noting as
exactly as possible the "Bonjour, monsieur!" (Good day, sir!) of the
persons who visited him; and these words expressed by their intonation, in
fact, the most opposite sentiments, in spite of the constant identity of
the literal sense.

_Speech without a Tongue_.--De Jussieu relates that he saw a girl
fifteen years old, in Lisbon, who was born without a tongue, and yet who
spoke so distinctly as not to excite in the minds of those who listened to
her the least suspicion of the absence of that organ.

The Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1742) contain an account
of a woman who had not the slightest vestige of a tongue, but who could,
notwithstanding, drink, eat, and speak as well and as distinctly as any
one, and even articulate the words in singing. Other instances have been
known where individuals, after losing a portion of the tongue by accident
or disease, have again been able to speak after a longer or shorter
period.--LE PILEUR.

_Stimulants and the Voice_.--"The Drinker's Throat" is a recognized
pathological condition, and the Germans have a popular phrase, "He drinks
his throat away." Isambert has pointed out the directly local irritant
effect of both alcohol and tobacco on the throat, and also the mode by
which these agents, on absorption into the system, re-manifest their
presence by predisposing to local pharyngeal inflammations. Dr. Krishaber
affirms: "It is generally admitted that alcoholic beverages and tobacco
irritate the mucous membrane of the throat, directly affect the voice, and
leave on it ineffaceable traces. We hold with equal certainty that tea and
coffee, although not directly affecting the voice, do so indirectly by
acting on the nervous system, and through it the vocal organs, as well as
by, some general nervous derangement not very pronounced, but great enough
to deprive the singer of the full powers and capabilities of his voice."

Dr. Mackenzie says: "The influence of the general health upon the voice is
very marked. Alcohol and tobacco should never be used. The hoarse tones of
the confirmed votary of Bacchus are due to chronic inflammation of the
lining membrane of the larynx; the originally smooth surface being
roughened and thickened by the irritation of alcohol, the vocal cords have
less freedom of movement, and their vibrations are blurred, or rather
muffled, by the unevenness of their contiguous edges."

A young American lady of marked musical gifts once asked Adelina Patti's
advice upon preparing for the stage. She found the great singer wrapped in
furs, although the weather was not severe. After hearing her visitor,
Patti replied: "Are you willing to give up _everything_ for your art?
If you wish to succeed, you must learn to eat moderately, take no
stimulants--not even tea or coffee--keep as regular hours as possible
consistent with your public appearance, and even deny yourself the luxury
of friends. When you hear of a great vocalist giving extravagant wine
suppers, you may be sure that the singer herself takes nothing. To be a
successful _artiste_ you must be married, soul and body, to your
art." Like the young man to whom Christ spake, the young woman "went away
sorrowful," and, balancing the terms, concluded to forego the contest.

ABDOMINAL RESPIRATION (p. 8l).--It has often been stated that the
respiration of woman differs from that of man, in being limited almost
entirely to the chest. In order to investigate this subject
scientifically, Dr. Mays, of Philadelphia, devised an ingenious instrument
for examining the respiration of the native Indian girls in the Lincoln
Institution. The girls had not yet been subjected to the restrictions of
civilized dress. He says:

"In all, I examined the movements of eighty-two chests, and in each case
took an abdominal and a costal tracing. The girls were partly pure and
partly mixed with white blood, and their ages ranged from between ten and
twenty years. Thus there were thirty-three full-blooded Indians, five one
fourth, thirty-five one half, and two three fourths white. _Seventy-
five_ showed a _decided abdominal_ type of breathing, three a
costal type, and three in which both were about even. _Those who showed
the costal type, or a divergence from the abdominal type, came from the
more civilized tribes_, like the Mohawks and Chippewas, and were either
_one half_ or _three fourths white_; while in _no single
instance_ did a full-blooded Indian girl possess this type of
breathing.

"From these observations it obviously follows that, so far as the Indian
is concerned, the abdominal is the original type of respiration in both
male and female, and that the costal type in the civilized female is
developed through the constricting influence of dress around the abdomen.
While these tracings were taken an incident occurred which demonstrated
that abdominal constriction could modify the movements of the thorax
during respiration. At my first visit to the institution I obtained an
exceptional costal type of respiration from a full-blooded Indian girl. At
my next visit I concluded to repeat this observation, and found that,
contrary to my instructions concerning loose clothing, etc., this girl at
my first visit had worn three tight belts around her abdomen. After these
were removed she gave the abdominal type of breathing, which is
characteristic of nearly all the Indian girls."

To us these facts are invaluable. It shows the faulty construction of
modern female dress, which restricts the motion of abdominal respiration.
It explains why, as experience has taught us, it is necessary to restore
this abdominal rhythm, by proper movements, in order permanently to cure
the affections of the lower portion of the trunk. It demonstrates
conclusively that woman's dress, to be injurious, needs only to interfere
with the proper motion of respiration, even though it exercises not the
slightest compression.--_Health Record_.

THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE (p. 86).--_What are Disease Germs?_--
Microscopical investigation has revealed throughout Nature, in the air, in
water--especially when it contains organic matter, and even within the
bodies of persons and animals, myriads of infinitesimal active organisms
which live, multiply, and die in endless succession. These have been named
_bacteria_ (bacterium, a rod, so called from the general rod shape
first observed), and also _microbes_ (microbe, a small living
object). Some investigators apply the latter term as a general one,
limiting the former to such microbes as are believed to be special disease
producers. The "Germ Theory" teaches that the seeds or _spores_ of
bacteria, floating in the air we breathe or in the water we drink, are
taken into our bodies where, under conditions favorable to their growth,
they develop, multiply, and, each after its own species, produce
distinctive evil results.--Thus, according to this theory, there are
special varieties of microbes that cause, respectively, diphtheria,
erysipelas, scarlatina, cholera, etc.--One of the most common microbes in
nature is the bacterium of putrefaction, found everywhere in decaying
organic matter. [Footnote: This is the microbe found in impure water. If
we take half a glass of spring or river water, and leave it uncovered for
a few days, we shall observe upon it a thin coating of what appears to be
a fine dust. Place, now, a drop of this dusty water under a cover glass,
and examine it under a microscope with a magnifying power of about five
hundred diameters. The revelation is astonishing. "The whole field of the
microscope is in motion; hundreds of bacteria, resembling minute
transparent worms, are swimming in every direction with an undulatory
motion like that of an eel or snake. Some are detached, others united in
pairs, others in chains or chaplets or cylindrical rods....All these forms
represent the different transformations of _Bacterium termo_, or the
microbe of putrefaction. Those which are dead appear as small, rigid, and
immovable rods."--TROUESSART.]

By the species of microbes called ferments all fermented liquors are
artificially produced (see p. 132); these also cause the "rising" of
bread.--These wonderful little existences are thus made to perform an
important part in the economy of Nature. "Nourished at the expense of
putrefying organic matter, they reduce its complex constituents into
soluble mineral substances, which they return to the soil to serve afresh
for the nourishment of similar plants. Thus they clear the surface of the
earth from dead bodies and fecal matter, and from all the useless
substances which are the refuse of life; and thus they unite animals and
plants in an endless chain."--TROUESSART.

_How Disease Germs Grow_.--Experiments having shown that no life is
known to spring from inanimate matter, we may reasonably suppose that just
as wheat does not grow except from seed, so no disease occurs without some
disease germ to produce it. Then, again, we may logically assume that each
disease is due to the development of a particular kind of germ. If we
plant smallpox germs, we do not reap a crop of scarlatina or measles; but,
just as wheat springs from wheat, each disease has its own distinctive
germs. Each comes from a parent stock, and has existed somewhere
previously....Under ordinary circumstances, these germs, though nearly
always present, are comparatively few in number, and in an extremely dry
and indurated state. Hence, they may frequently enter our bodies without
meeting with the conditions essential to their growth; for experiments
have shown that it is very difficult to moisten them, and till they are
moistened, they do not begin to develop. In a healthy system they remain
inactive. But anything tending to weaken or impair the bodily organs,
furnishes favorable conditions, and thus epidemics almost always originate
and are most fatal in those quarters of our great cities where dirt,
squalor, and foul air render sound health almost an impossibility....
Having once got a beginning, epidemics rapidly spread. The germs are then
sent into the air in great numbers, and in a moist state; and the
probabilities of their entering, and of their establishing themselves
even in healthy bodies, are vastly increased....Climate and the weather
have also much influence on the vitality of these germs. Cold is a
preventive against some diseases, heat against others. Tyndall found that
sunlight greatly retarded and sometimes entirely prevented putrefaction;
while dirt is always favorable to the growth and development of germs.
_Sunshine and cleanliness are undoubtedly the best and cheapest
preventives against disease.--"Disease Germs" Chambers's Journal_.

You know the exquisitely truthful figures employed in the New Testament
regarding leaven. A particle hid in three measures of meal leavens it all.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. In a similar manner a particle
of contagium spreads through the human body, and may be so multiplied as
to strike down whole populations. Consider the effect produced upon the
system by a microscopic quantity of the virus of smallpox. That virus is
to all intents and purposes a seed. It is sown as leaven is sown, it grows
and multiplies as leaven grows and multiplies, and it always reproduces
itself....Contagia are living things, which demand certain elements of
life, just as inexorably as trees, or wheat, or barley; and it is not
difficult to see that a crop of a given parasite may so far use up a
constituent existing in small quantities in the body, but essential in the
growth of the parasite, as to render the body unfit for the production of
a second crop. The soil is exhausted; and until the lost constituent is
restored, the body is protected from any further attack from the same
disorder. To exhaust a soil, however, a parasite less vigorous and
destructive than the really virulent one may suffice; and if, after
having, by means of a feebler organism, exhausted the soil without fatal
result, the most highly virulent parasite be introduced into the system,
it will prove powerless. This, in the language of the germ theory, is the
whole secret of vaccination.--TYNDALL.

_Disease Germs Contained in Atmospheric Dust_.--Take the extracted
juice of beef or mutton, so prepared as to be perfectly transparent, and
entirely free from the living germs of bacteria. Into the clear liquid let
fall the tiniest drop of an infusion charged with the bacteria of
putrefaction. Twenty-four hours subsequently, the clear extract will be
found muddy throughout, the turbidity being due to swarms of bacteria
generated by the drop with which the infusion was inoculated. At the same
time the infusion will have passed from a state of sweetness to a state of
putridity. Let a drop similar to that which has produced this effect fall
into an open wound: the juices of the living body nourish the bacteria as
the beef or mutton juice nourished them, and you have putrefaction
produced within the system. The air, as I have said, is laden with
floating matter which, when it falls upon the wound, acts substantially
like the drop....A few years ago I was bathing in an Alpine stream, and,
returning to my clothes from the cascade which had been my shower bath, I
slipped upon a block of granite, the sharp crystals of which stamped
themselves into my naked shin. The wound was an awkward one, but, being in
vigorous health at the time, I hoped for a speedy recovery. Dipping a
clean pocket handkerchief into the stream, I wrapped it round the wound,
limped home, and remained for four or five days quietly in bed. There was
no pain, and at the end of this time I thought myself quite fit to quit my
room. The wound, when uncovered, was found perfectly clean, uninflamed,
and entirely free from pus. Placing over it a bit of gold beater's skin, I
walked about all day. Toward evening, itching and heat were felt; a large
accumulation of pus followed, and I was forced to go to bed again. The
water bandage was restored, but it was powerless to check the action now
set up; arnica was applied, but it made matters worse. The inflammation
increased alarmingly, until finally I was ignobly carried on men's
shoulders down the mountain, and transported to Geneva, where, thanks to
the kindness of friends, I was immediately placed in the best medical
hands. On the morning after my arrival in Geneva, Dr. Gautier discovered
an abscess in my instep, at a distance of five inches from the wound. The
two were connected by a channel, or _sinus_, as it is technically
called, through which he was able to empty the abscess without the
application of the lance.

By what agency was that channel formed--what was it that thus tore asunder
the sound tissue of my instep, and kept me for six weeks a prisoner in
bed? In the very room where the water dressing had been removed from my
wound and the gold beater's skin applied to it, I opened this year a
number of tubes, containing perfectly clear and sweet infusions of fish,
flesh, and vegetable. These hermetically sealed infusions had been exposed
for weeks, both to the sun of the Alps and to the warmth of a kitchen,
without showing the slightest turbidity or signs of life. But two days
after they were opened, the greater number of them swarmed with the
bacteria of putrefaction, the germs of which had been contracted from the
dust-laden air of the room. And, had the pus from my abscess been
examined, my memory of its appearance leads me to infer that it would have
been found equally swarming with these bacteria--that it was their germs
which got into my incautiously opened wound. They were the subtile workers
that burrowed down my shin, dug the abscess in my instep, and produced
effects which might well have proved fatal to me.--TYNDALL.

_Disease Germs Carried in Soiled Clothing_ (p. 89).--The conveyance
of cholera germs by bodies of men moving along the lines of human
communication, without necessarily affecting the individuals who transport
them, is now easy to understand; for it is well established that clothes
or linen soiled by cholera patients may not only impart the germs with
which they are contaminated to those who handle them when fresh, but that,
after having been dried and packed, they may infect persons at any
distance who incautiously unfold them. Thus, while the nurses of cholera
patients may, with proper precautions, enjoy an absolute immunity from
attack, the disease germs may be introduced into new localities without
any ostensible indication of their presence. It is obvious that the only
security against such introduction consists in the destruction or thorough
disinfection of every scrap of clothing or linen which has been about the
person of a cholera patient.--DR. CARPENTER.

I have known scarlet fever to be carried by the clothing of a nurse into a
healthy family, and communicate the disease to every member of the family.
I have known cholera to be communicated by the clothes of the affected
person to the women engaged in washing the clothes. I have known smallpox
conveyed by clothes that had been made in a room where the tailor had by
his side sufferers from the terrible malady. I have seen the new cloth,
out of which was to come the riding habit for some innocent child to
rejoice in as she first wore it, undergo the preliminary duty of forming
part of the bed clothing of another child stricken down with fever.
Lastly, I have known scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus, and cholera,
communicated by clothing contaminated in the laundry.--DR. RICHARDSON.

THE SANITARY HOME (see p. 94).--1. _The Site_.--First and foremost of
all the things you are to consider, is the healthfulness of a situation.
The brightest house and cheeriest outlook in nature will be made somber by
the constant presence of a doctor, and the wandering around of an unseen,
but ever felt, specter in the shape of miasm....Malaria-malus, bad; aria,
air--means, in its common definition, simply bad air. Miasma is its
synonym,--infecting effluvia floating in the air. Because, as everybody
knows, certain places have always chills and fever associated with them,
and other places have not, it follows that between such places there is
some fact of difference; this fact is the presence of miasm, a cause of
disease, having a signification associative with the locality....

Vegetation, heat, and moisture: these are the three active agents in the
production of miasma, to which a fourth is to be added, in the influence
of non-drainage, either by the way of the atmosphere or running water. The
strongest example of a malarious locality one might make would be in
suggesting a marshy valley in a tropical climate, so overrun with fixed
water as to destroy a prolific vegetation, yet not covering it enough to
protect the garbage from the putrefying influences of the sun; this
valley, in turn, so environed with hills as to shut off a circulation of
air....Ground newly broken is not unapt to generate miasm. This results
from the sudden exposure of long-buried vegetable matter to the influences
of moisture and heat....It may readily be conceived that malarious
situations exist where the miasm is not sufficient in quantity to produce
the effects of intermittent or bilious fever, yet where there is quite
enough of it to keep a man feeling good for nothing,--he is not sick, but
he is never well. I know of one country seat of this kind, where forty
thousand dollars would not pay for the improvements put upon it, and
where, I am free to declare, I would not think of living, even if, as an
inducement, a free gift were made to me of the place....Besides miasm,
there are other atmospheric associations to be considered. I recall this
moment a distillery, where attempt was made to get clear of the mash by
throwing it into a running stream, with the anticipation of its being
carried to the river, but where, on the contrary, it became a stagnant
putrescent mass, impregnating the air for miles with its unendurable odor,
and inducing such a typhoid tendency that half the countryside were down
with fever....There are, again, situations where the filth and debris of
sewage exercise a poisoning influence on the surrounding atmosphere. This
has its principal application to the neighborhood of cities and towns
drained into adjoining streams. London and the Thames furnish a notable
illustration. A cove, attractive as it is, may prove a receptacle for the
accumulation of dead fish and other offal, which shall make untenable the
charming cottage upon the bank. A deep cove has rarely healthy
surroundings, the circulation of its water being too sluggish to insure
freshness and vitality. Water, like blood, to be healthy, must be in a
state of continuous movement.

A nonobservant man, purchasing a beautiful stream, may be completely
disappointed by finding that the opacity of its water depends upon a
factory, of which he had never so much as heard; he may not let his
children bathe in it, for he may well fear for them the fate of the fish
he so plentifully finds lying dead upon the shore. A poisoned rural stream
is as sad a sight as it has grown to be a common one. Always, before
buying water, know what there is up stream, or what there is likely to be.

Never buy a country house without seeing to it that the foundation stands
upon a higher level than some channel which may drain it, and this, by the
way, is not to consider alone the dry summer day on which you go first to
visit the place; you are to think of the winter and spring. Look to it
that no excess of water shall be able to drown you out; some places, which
in dry weather are glorious, are, in winter and spring, ankle deep in
slush and mire, and everything about them is as wet as a soaked board.
Open the front door of such a house, and a chill strikes you instantly. A
fire must be kept the year round, or otherwise you live in the moisture of
a vault. Places there are of this class where the question of the water
from the kitchen pump comes to absorb the attention of the whole
household.

No shade is an abomination. A bilious fever fattens in the sun as does
miasm in a marshy valley. Too much shade, on the contrary, and too near
the house, is equally of ill import; it keeps things damp, and dampness is
a breeder of pestilence. An atmosphere confined about a house by too dense
foliage is, like the air of an unventilated room, not fit for practical
purposes. The sporadic poisons have an intimate relationship with
dampness; miasm lives in it as does a snail in his shell. Besides this, it
shuts out the cool breath of the summer nights, and makes restless
swelterers where even a blanket might be enjoyed.--DR. JOHN DARBY, _Odd
Hours of a Physician_.

2. _The House_.--So construct the dwelling from foundation to roof
that no dampness can result. Give to the cellar dry walls, a cement floor,
and windows enough to insure constant currents of air. Insist upon such a
system of immediate and perfect sewerage as shall render contamination
impossible. If "modern improvements" are afforded, see that the plumbing
embraces the latest and most scientific sanitary inventions. Do not
economize on this point; health, perhaps life, depends upon the perfect
working of the various traps. Having employed the most skilled and
intelligent plumbers, overlook their work so that you may fully understand
the principle applied.

Provide for ample ventilation in every apartment, above and below. Let the
sleeping rooms be above stairs, and furnished with appliances for moderate
warmth in winter. Treat yourself and your family to as many fireplaces as
possible. Indulge in a spacious piazza, so placed that it will not cut off
the light from the family sitting room, and, if you can, include a balcony
or two, large enough to hold a chair and a table, or a workbasket.
Remember that a house is for convenience and protection _only when you
can not be in the open air_.

3. _The kitchen and the Dust Heap.--Removal of Household Refuse_.--It
has to be assumed, especially where servants are not carefully overlooked,
that the dust heap of most houses will contain more or less decomposing
organic matter, such as bits of meat, scales and refuse of fish, tea and
coffee grounds, and the peelings of vegetables, which, though quite out of
place in the ash heap, are apt surreptitiously to be thrown upon it. Such
matter soon becomes offensive and even dangerous, and a few days'
retention of it in warm weather constitutes a legal nuisance. Household
refuse should be carted away as often as once in two days; in extreme hot
weather, daily. Where it is inexpedient to remove it frequently, it should
be kept covered to the depth of two or three inches with a layer of
powdered charcoal, or freshly burnt lime, or, at least, of clear dry
earth. All soil which has become foul by the soakage of decaying or
vegetable matter should be similarly treated. The refuse heap should be
protected from rain, and liquids should never be thrown upon it. Where
obnoxious matter has been allowed to accumulate, its disturbance for
removal should be conducted with special precaution, both on account of
its temporary offensiveness of odor and the more serious results which may
follow. It can not be too distinctly understood that cleanliness,
ventilation, and dryness are the best of all deodorizers. One of the first
of household regulations should be to see that no unsanitary rubbish
remains in or about the dwelling. Keep the dust heap itself at the
farthest practicable remove from the house. Sow grass seed plentifully
upon the back premises, and induce tidiness in the domestics by having the
kitchen door open upon a well-kept lawn.

_Burning of Garbage_.--The easiest, quickest, and most sanitary
method of disposing of household garbage is to burn it This plan has been
officially recommended by the Boards of Health in various cities. Many
housekeepers have adopted it, and find it so practicable that in New York
City there has become a marked decrease in the amount of household refuse
collected by the scavengers. If, after every meal, the draughts of the
range be opened, and all waste matter be deposited within, a few moments,
or at most, a half hour, will effectually dispose of it, and prevent all
the dangers that arise from its retention and accumulation. In the
country, where there is plenty of ground, nearly all rubbish can be
destroyed in this way and by outside fires, with the additional advantage
that the--E. R. S.

4. _The Sewers and Drains.--How to Keep out Sewer Air_.--The most
perfectly flushed sewers that are made, under the latest and fullest
sanitary light, must, owing to the constant entrance of greasy and other
adhesive material, contain more or less of particles that "stick," and
also more or less of fungi and mold; so that here, shut away from light
and air, goes on the peculiar fermentation that fits it for the soil or
habitat of the malarial germ. These germs, the soil once ready, take
possession and multiply, whether that soil be a sewer or the blood of a
person who sits calmly unconscious in a gorgeous chamber above, with a
small continuation of the sewer extending untrapped up to his washbowl.--
DR. DERBY.

Keep constant watch of your traps and drains. Cultivate the faculty of
detecting sewer gas in the house. Always fear a smell; trace it to its
source and provide a remedy. At the same time, bear in mind that it is not
always the foul smell that is most dangerous. There is a close, sweet odor
often present in bathrooms, and about drains, that is deadly as the Upas
tree. Bad air from neglected drains causes not only fevers, dysentery, and
diphtheria, but asthma and other chronic disorders. Illuminating gas,
escaping from pipes and prevented from exuding by frozen earth, has been
known to pass sidewise for some distance into houses. Thus also the air
from cesspools and porous or broken drains finds its way, when an
examination of the household entrance to the drain fails to reveal the
cause of an existing effluvia. But, however bad the drain may be outside
the house, there is little to fear provided the gas can escape externally.
Every main drain should have a ventilating pipe carried from it directly
outside the house to the top of the highest chimney. The soil pipe inside
the house should be carried up through the roof and be open at the top.

Digging for drains or other purposes should not be allowed when the
mercury stands above 60°; but if, as in repairs of pipes, it becomes
necessary to dig about the house in hot weather, let it be done in the
middle of the day, and replace the turf as speedily as possible. If the
soil be damp, or the district malarious, sprinkle quicklime upon the earth
as fast as it is turned.

_How to Clear Waste Pipes_.--The "sewer gas," about which so much has
been written, and which is so justly dreaded, is not, as many suppose, the
exclusive product of the sewer. Indeed, the foul and dangerous gases are
not only found in the sewers themselves, but in the unventilated waste
pipes, and those which are in process of being clogged by the foul matter
passing through them. Any obstruction in the soil or waste pipes is
therefore doubly dangerous, because it may produce an inflow of foul gas
into the pipe, even though the entrance to the sewer itself has been
entirely cut off.

In pipes leading from the house to the cesspool, there is a constant
accumulation of grease. This enters as a liquid, but hardens as the water
cools, and is deposited on the bottom and sides of the pipes. As these
accumulations increase, the water way is gradually contracted, till the
pipe is closed.

When the pipe is entirely stopped, or allows the water to fall away by
drops only, proceed thus: Empty the pipe down to the trap, as far as
practicable, by "mopping up" with a cloth. If the water flows very slowly,
begin when the pipe has at last emptied itself. Fill the pipe up with
potash, crowding it with a stick. Then allow hot water to trickle upon the
potash, or pour the hot water upon it in a small stream, stopping as soon
as the pipe appears to be filled. As the potash dissolves and disappears,
add more water. At night a little heap of potash may be placed over the
hole, and water enough poured on so that a supply of strong lye will flow
into the pipe during the night.

Pipes that have been stopped for months may be cleaned out by this method,
though it may call for three or four pounds of potash. The crudest kind,
however, appears to act as well as the best. If the pipe is partially
obstructed, a lump of crude potash should be placed where water will drip
slowly upon it, and so reach the pipe. As water comes in contact with the
potash, it becomes hot, thus aiding in dissolving the grease. Potash, in
combination with grease, forms a "soft" or liquid soap, which easily flows
away. It is also destructive to all animal and most mineral matters.

Some of the most dangerous gases come from wash-basin pipes, being,
perhaps, the result of the decay of the soap and the animal matter washed
from the skin.

When a pipe is once fairly cleaned out, the potash should be used from
time to time, in order to dissolve the greasy deposits as they form, and
carry them forward to the cesspool or sewer.--_Artisan_.

_What Came from a Neighbor's Cesspool_.--Keep watch not only of your
own premises, but stand on guard against those of your neighbors. Dr.
Carpenter cites a case wherein "four members of a certain household were
attacked with typhoid fever, one of whom narrowly escaped with her life.
The circumstances left no doubt in the mind of the attending physician
that the malady originated in the opening of an old cesspool belonging to
a neighboring house, then in course of demolition. The house in which the
outbreak took place is large and airy, and stands by itself in a most
salubrious situation. The most careful examination failed to disclose any
defect either in its drainage or its water supply; there was no typhoid in
the neighborhood; and the milk supply was unexceptional. But the
neighboring house being old, and having been occupied by a school, its
removal had been determined on to make way for a house of higher class;
and as the offensive odor emanating from the uncovered cesspool was at
once perceived in the next garden, and the outbreak of typhoid followed at
the usual interval, the case seems one which admits of no reasonable
question."

5. _The Cellar_.--_A Typical Bad Cellar_.--Did the reader ever,
when a child, see the cellar afloat at some old home in the country? You
creep part way down the cellar stairs with only the light of a single
tallow candle, and behold by its dim glimmer an expanse of dark water,
boundless as the sea. On its surface, in dire confusion, float barrels and
boxes, butter firkins and washtubs, boards, planks, hoops, and staves
without number, interspersed with apples, turnips, and cabbages, while
half-drowned rats and mice, scrambling up the stairway for dear life,
drive you affrighted back to the kitchen....Now consider the case of one
of these old farmhouse cellars that has been in use fifty years or more.
In it have been stored all the potatoes, turnips, cabbages, onions, and
other vegetables for family food. The milk and cream, the pork and beef,
and cider and vinegar, have all met with various accidents, and from time
to time have had their juices, in various stages of decay, absorbed by the
soil of the cellar bottom. The cats have slept there to fight the rats and
the mice, who have had their little homes behind the walls for half a
century; and the sink spouts have for the same term poured into the soil
close by, their fragrant fluids. The water rushes upward and sideways into
the cellar, forming, with the savory ingredients at which we have
delicately hinted, a sort of broth, quite thin and watery at first, but
growing thicker as the water slowly subsides and leaves its grosser parts
pervading the surface of the earth, walls, and partitions. All this time
the air rushes in at the openings of the cellar, and presses constantly
upward, often lifting the carpets from the floors, and is breathed day and
night by all who dwell in the house. Does it require learned doctors or
boards of health to inform any rational person that these conditions are
unfavorable to health?--MRS. PLUNKETT, _Women, Plumbers, and
Doctors_.

_What Came from a Crack in a Cellar Wall_.--A few years ago a Boston
gentleman inherited a house, situated on one of the most desirable streets
of the city. Resolving to make a healthy as well as a beautiful home, he.
spent a large sum, and gave personal supervision to all the details of an
elaborate system of plumbing. He moved in. Imagine his grief and
disappointment when member after member of his family succumbed to
diphtheria, and an infant and a grown daughter died. Though so deeply
smitten, he did not lose his belief in the connection between cause and
effect. He ordered a minute investigation of the premises by experts. A
slight crack, so small as to have escaped ordinary observation, was found
in the cellar wall. Investigation of the premises next door--the inmates
of which were also suffering from diphtheria--showed a choked-up drain,
which ought to have connected with the sewer, but did not. The filthy ooze
from this was pouring out, just where its effluvium and its disease germs
could pass without any hindrance through the crack.

Now that it is shown that gases pass through bricks and many kinds of
stone, it is easy to see that the sanitary welfare of one is the sanitary
welfare of all.--MRS. PLUNKETT.

6. _The Bedroom_.--_The Bed a Night Garment_.--There is still
one of our garments to be considered, which generally is not regarded as
such. I mean the bed--that piece of clothing in which we spend such a
great part of our time.

The bed is not only a place of rest; it is especially our sleeping
garment, and has often to make up for privations endured during the day
and the day's work, and to give us strength for to-morrow. Like our day
garments, the bed covering must be airy and warm at the same time. We
warm the bed by our body, just as we warm our clothes, and the bed warms
the air which is continually flowing through it from below, upward. The
regulating strata must be more powerful in their action than in our day
clothes, because during rest and sleep the metamorphosis of our tissues
and the resulting heat become less; and because in a horizontal position
we lose more heat by an ascending current of air than in a vertical
position, where the warm ascending current is in more complete and longer
contact with our upright body.

The warmth of the bed sustains the circulation in our surface to a certain
degree for the benefit of our internal organs at a time when our
production of heat is at its lowest ebb. Hence the importance of the bed
for our heat and blood economy. Several days without rest in a bed not
only make us sensible of a deficiency in the recruiting of our strength,
but very often produce quite noticeable perturbations in our bodily
economy, from which the bed would have protected us.--DR. MAX VON
PETTENKOFFER.

_Bed Ventilation_.--It often happens that the desire of the energetic
housekeeper to have her work done at an early hour in the morning, causes
her to leave one of the most important items of neatness undone. The most
effectual purifying of bed and bedclothes can not take place, if the
proper time is not allowed, for the free circulation of pure air, to
remove all human impurities which have collected during the hours of
slumber. At least two or three hours should be allowed for the complete
removal of atoms of insensible perspiration which are absorbed by the bed.
Every day the airing should be done; and, occasionally, bedding constantly
used should be carried into the open air, and left exposed to the sun and
wind for half a day.--_Home and Health_.

CIRCULATION.

THE PULSE (p. 116).--The pulse which is felt by the finger does not
correspond precisely with the beat of the heart, but takes place a little
after it, and the interval is longer, the greater the distance of the
artery from the heart. The beat of the artery on the inner side of the
ankle, for example, is a little later than the beat of the artery in the
temple.--HUXLEY.

The pulse is increased by exertion, and thus is more rapid in a standing
than in a sitting, and in a sitting than in a lying posture. It is
quickened by meals, and while varying thus from time to time during the
day, is on the whole quicker in the evening than in early morning. It is
said to be quicker in summer than in winter. Even independently of
muscular exertion, it seems to be quickened by great altitude. Its rate is
also profoundly influenced by mental conditions.--FOSTER.

CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD IN THE BRAIN (p. l20).--Signer Mosso, who has
been engaged on the subject for six years, has published some new
observations on the different conditions of the circulation of the blood
in the brain. He has had the privilege of observing three patients who had
holes in their skulls, permitting the examination of the encephalic
movements and circulation. No part of the body exhibits a pulsation so
varied in its form as the brain. The pulsation may be described as
tricuspid; that is, it consists of a strong beat, preceded and followed by
lesser beats. It gathers strength when the brain is at work, corresponding
with the more rapid flow of blood to the organ. The increase in the volume
of the brain does not depend upon any change in the respiratory rhythm;
for, if we take the pulse of the forearm simultaneously with that of the
brain, we can not perceive that the cerebral labor exercises any influence
upon the forearm, although the pulsation in the brain may be considerably
modified. The emotions have a similar effect upon the circulation of the
brain to that of cerebral labor. Signor Mosso has also observed and
registered graphically the variations of the cerebral pulse during sleep.
Generally the pulses of the wrist and the brain vary oppositely. At the
moment of waking, the pulse of the wrist diminishes, while that of the
brain increases. The cerebral pulsations diminish as sleep grows deeper,
and at last become very weak. Outward excitations determine the same
modifications during sleep as in the waking state, without waking the
sleeper. A deep inspiration always produces a diminution in the volume of
the brain, in consequence, probably, of the increased flow of blood into
the veins of the thoracic cavity; the increase of volume in the brain,
when it takes place, is, on the contrary, due to a more abundant flow of
arterial blood to the encephalus.--_Popular Science Monthly, March,
1882_.

CATARRHAL COLDS (p. l30).--I maintain that it can be proved, with as
absolute certainty as any physiological fact admits of being proved, that
warm, vitiated indoor air is the cause, and cold outdoor air the best
cure, of catarrh....Fresh cold air is a tonic that invigorates the
respiratory organs when all other stimulants fail, and, combined with arm
exercise and certain dietetic alternatives, it is the best remedy for all
disorders of the lungs and upper air passages....A combination of the
three specifics,--exercise, abstinence, and fresh air,--will cure the most
obstinate cold....Frost is such a powerful disinfectant, that in very cold
nights the lung-poisoning atmosphere of few houses can resist its
purifying influence; in spite of padded doors, in spite of "weatherstrips"
and double windows, it reduces the indoor temperature enough to paralyze
the floating disease germs. The penetrative force of a polar night frost
exercises that function with such resistless vigor that it defies the
preventive measures of human skill; and all Arctic travelers agree that
among the natives of Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador pulmonary diseases
are actually unknown. Protracted cold weather thus prevents epidemic
catarrhs, but during the first thaw Nature succumbs to art: smoldering
stove fires add their fumes to the effluvia of the dormitory, tight-
fitting doors and windows exclude the means of salvation; superstition
triumphs; the lung poison operates, and the next morning a snuffling,
coughing, and red-nosed family discuss the cause of their affliction....It
is a mistake to suppose that "colds" can be propagated only by direct
transmission or the breathing of recently Vitiated air. Catarrh germs,
floating in the atmosphere of an ill-ventilated bedroom, may preserve
their vitality for weeks after the house has been abandoned; and the next
renter of such a place should not move in till wide-open windows and doors
and a thorough draught of several days have removed every trace of a
"musty" smell.--DR. FELIX L. OSWALD, _Remedies of Nature, Popular
Science Monthly, March, 1884_.

CATCHING COLD.--The phrase "to catch cold," so often in the mouths of
physicians and patients, is a curious solecism. It implies that the term
"cold" denotes something positive--a sort of demon which does not catch,
but is caught by the unfortunate victims....If most persons outside of the
medical profession were to be asked what they consider as chiefly to be
avoided in the management of sick people, the answer would probably be
"catching cold." I suspect that this question would be answered in the
same way by not a few physicians. Hence it is that sick rooms are poorly
ventilated, and patients are oppressed by a superabundance of garments and
bedclothes. The air which patients are made to breathe, having been
already breathed and rebreathed, is loaded with pulmonary exhalations.
Cutaneous emanations are allowed to remain in contact with the body, as
well as to pervade the atmosphere. Patients not confined to the bed,
especially those affected with pulmonary disease, are overloaded with
clothing, which becomes saturated with perspiration, and is seldom
changed, for fear of the dreaded "cold."...

A reform is greatly needed in respect to "catching cold." Few diseases are
referable to the agency of cold, and even the affection commonly called a
cold is generally caused by other agencies, or, perhaps, by a special
agent, which may prove to be a microbe. Let the axiom, _A fever patient
never catches cold_, be reiterated until it becomes a household phrase.
Let the restorative influence of cool, fresh, pure atmosphere be
inculcated. Let it be understood that in therapeutics, as in hygiene, the
single word _comfort_ embodies the principles which should regulate
coverings and clothing.--AUSTIN FLINT, M.D., _in a Lecture printed in
The New York Medical Journal_.

DIGESTION AND FOOD.

THE WATER WE DRINK (p. l55).--_Qualities of Pure Water_.--"A good
drinking water," says Dr. Simpson (in _The Water We Drink_), "should
possess the following physical characters: it should be entirely free from
color, taste, or odor; it should, moreover, be cool, well aerated, soft,
bright, and entirely free from all deposit. But it should be remembered
that a water having all these characteristics may yet be more or less
polluted by organic matter, owing to the proximity of drains and
sewers....Disease has frequently been traced to the use of perfectly
bright and clear water, where there was no sediment, and where the animal
organic matter was held in a state of solution."

In the case of diseases, such as typhoid, which attack the stomach,
disease germs are removed along with the excreta; and if, as is often the
case, the drainage of an infected town flows into a river, and that river
is used in some after portion of its course as a water supply, there is
great danger of such diseases being communicated. For, however well the
water may be purified and filtered, we have no guarantee that it will not
contain some of these disease germs, which are so small that they pass
through the finest filters. It is in this way that almost all the great
cholera and typhoid epidemics have spread.--_Chambers's Journal_.

_Well Water Often Dangerous_.--A densely crowded population soon
impregnates the soil to some depth with filth, which drains into the water
course below, especially if such water is near the surface. This surface
water easily penetrates a loosely walled well. Every well, therefore,
should not only be widely separated from barnyards, cesspools, pens,
sinks, and similar places, but should be made water-tight with cement, so
that nothing can reach its interior except water that has been filtered
through dense beds of unpolluted ground below. If these precautions are
neglected, the best and deepest well may become continually contaminated
by infiltration from the surrounding surface. This impure water, even when
not used for family drinking, is sometimes supplied to cows, or used for
washing dairy pans, or employed in diluting milk for the market, and there
are many known cases in which disease has thus been disseminated. Thus, an
epidemic of typhoid fever in Cambridge, Mass., was definitely traced to a
dairy which supplied the victims with milk. Upon investigation it was
found that a short time before there had been a typhoid patient in the
farmhouse, and that the well from which water was taken to wash the milk
pans had become contaminated with the specific poison brought into it from
the surrounding drainage.

All suspected water should be thoroughly boiled before using it to drink.
Some physicians insist that the boiling should continue for one or two
hours in order entirely to destroy the bacterial germs. The heaviness and
insipidity incident to boiled water may be somewhat relieved by afterward
filtering it. Filtering, of itself, however, will do little toward ridding
the water of microbes, which are much too minute to be arrested by the
ordinary apparatus.--When journeying, where one must often take a hasty
meal at a railway station, drink hot water in preference to cold. A
convenient portable filter may be arranged with a bottle of powdered
charcoal, and a piece of filtering paper. A traveler by briskly stirring a
tablespoonful of the charcoal into a pint of water, allowing it to stand
five or ten minutes, and then filtering it through the paper, may venture
to relieve his thirst in almost any part of the country.

_Water an Absorbent of Foul Gases_.--If a pitcher of water be left
uncovered in an occupied apartment for only a few hours, it will become
foul from the absorption of the respired and perspired gases in the room.
The colder the water, the greater the capacity to contain these gases.
Water kept in a room over night is therefore unfit for drinking, and
should not be used even to brush the teeth or to gargle in the throat.

_Impure Ice, a Breeder of Disease_.--We generally take the purity of
our ice for granted, and, like the alligator in the bayou, close our
mouths and swallow it. In the country, I have seen during the ice-
harvesting season, wagon after wagon passing me on the road, laden with
ice that had been collected from canals, rivers, and streams receiving
sewerage, and from ponds that are in the summer time reeking with slime,
and often offensive from the quantity of decomposed vegetable and animal
matter brought in by the washing from the meadow. These streams would be
shunned as a source of water supply.

Should you interview a native regarding the slimy mud puddle before you,
called Mr. So-and-so's private "ice pond," he would say that "in winter it
is much better, and when frozen, you know, it makes fine ice," presenting
that popular though ignorant belief that while in the act of
crystallizing, water rids itself of all its injurious qualities, however
offensive it may be in its liquid state. Unfortunately, there is enough
truth in the current idea of the elimination of noxious and foreign matter
during the process of freezing to give color to the popular belief, but
not enough to make it a safe reliance; therefore all means should be used
to enlighten the public regarding this subject. Experiment has shown that
freezing produces little change or effect in overcoming the poisonous
influences, and ice has often served as a vehicle to convey the germs of
typhoid and other low forms of fever. Pure ice can be procured only from
water free from impurities, and ice for domestic or surgical purposes
should never be collected from ponds or streams which contain animal or
vegetable refuse, or stagnant and muddy material.--_Journal of
Reconstructives, Oct., 1887_.

THE GLANDULAR COAT OF THE STOMACH, AND HOW IT WEEPS (p. l62).--While the
food is thus being continually moved about, it is at the same time
subjected to the action of the chemical sac. This is, as we have said, a
glandular sac. It is of some thickness, and is made of little glands bound
up together with that stringy fibrous packing material which anatomists
call _connective tissue_.

If we were to imagine many gross of small India-rubber vials all placed
side by side, and bound together with hay or straw into a great mat, and
the mat rolled up into a sac, with all the mouths of the vials turned
inward, we should have a large and coarse, but tolerably fair image of the
glandular coat of the stomach. Each vial would then represent one of the
glands of this coat, one of the gastric or peptic glands, as they are
called. Each gland, however, is not always a simple tube, but is often
branched at the bottom end, and all of them are lined, except just at
their mouths, with large rounded bodies, which not unfrequently almost
choke up their cavity.

FIG. 72.

[Illustration: BRANCHED GASTRIC GLAND a. _The peptic cells._ b.
_The inert cells._]

The rounded masses, or cells, as they are called, in the interior of each
gland, form the really active part of the apparatus. Each cell is a little
laboratory, which concocts out of the material brought to it or near it by
the blood a certain potent, biting fluid, and is hence called a peptic or
digestive cell. Each cell is born at the bottom of the tube, and in
process of time travels upward toward the mouth. When it reaches the
mouth, it bursts, and pours into the stomach the fluid it has elaborated,
or perhaps may give it out without bursting, while it is still within its
tube.

In those cases in which it has been possible to look in upon the stomach
while at work (as in the famous case of Alexis St. Martin), and where the
orifices of the tiny glands (for though we have compared them to bottles,
they are exceedingly small) appear like little dots, tears were seen to
start at the mouths of the glands, gather into drops, and finally trickle
down into the lowest part of the stomach. The stomach, as it were, weeps,
and indeed the weeping of tears is just such another effect of glandular
activity--only ordinary tears form a mild and, chemically speaking,
impotent fluid; while the fluid which the tears of the stomach weep--the
_gastric juice_--is a sharp, piercing water of excessive chemical
power.--Hinton.

POISONOUS MILK, CHEESE, AND ICE CREAM (p. l69).--In late years there have
been many cases of poisoning by ice cream, cheese, and milk. The poisonous
principle sometimes developed in these articles of food has been made a
subject of special investigation, and it has been found to be due to
natural causes. Dr. Vaughan, of Michigan, after spending several months in
experimenting upon samples of twelve different cheeses, which had caused
three hundred cases of poisoning, finally succeeded in isolating certain
poison crystals, which he calls _Tyrotoxicon_. He says: "A few drops
of an aqueous solution of these crystals placed upon the tongue produces
all the symptoms observed in those who had been made sick by eating of the
cheese. This was tried repeatedly upon myself, and upon some of my
students who kindly offered themselves for experimentation." Dr. Vaughan
afterward procured the poison crystals from milk which had stood some
months in a closed bottle, and also from a sample of ice cream by which
eighteen persons had been made ill. It was learned in the latter case that
the custard, of which the ice cream was made, had been allowed to stand in
a foul atmosphere for two hours before it was frozen. By placing small
bits of this poisonous cream in good milk, and allowing it to stand
twenty-four hours, the whole became vitiated. This proved that the poison
is due to the growth of some ferment. In the autumn of 1886, many persons
in different hotels at Long Branch were poisoned by milk obtained from a
certain milkman. In this case it was found that the cows were milked at
noon, the warm milk being immediately placed in cans and carted eight
miles during the warmest part of the day, in a very hot month. In June,
1887, nineteen persons in New York city were similarly poisoned by milk
which also came from one dairy. Many of these persons had narrow escapes
from death. These, and many other like instances, teach us the importance
of the greatest care in every detail of milk handling. A little dried milk
formed along the seam of a tin pail, or any similar lodging place, may be
the starting point of poison generation. A month after his first
experiments with the ice cream mentioned above, Dr. Vaughan put small
pieces of the dried custard in pans of milk, and afterward made custard
from this milk. This yielded tyrotoxicon as before, showing the tenacious
vitality of the poison, and also explaining the fact that the precise
cause of poisoning is in many cases so difficult to trace.

FISH AS FOOD (p. 169).--It is not desirable that fish should be the sole
kind of nitrogenous food eaten by any nation; and even if milk and eggs be
added thereto, the vigor of such a people will not be equal to that of
flesh-eating nations. At the same time, the value of fish as a part of a
dietary is indicated by the larger proportion of phosphorus which it
contains, and which renders it especially fitted for the use of those who
perform much brain work, or who are the victims of much anxiety and
distress.--EDWARD SMITH, _in "Foods_."

For the mentally exhausted, the worried, the "nervous," and the distressed
in mind, fish is not simply a food; it acts as physic. The brain is
nourished by it, the "nerves"--to use the term in its popular sense--are
"quieted"; the mind grows stronger, the temper less irritable, and the
whole being healthier and happier when fish is substituted for butcher's
meat....I find persons who are greatly excited, even to the extent of
seeking to do violence to themselves or to those around them, who can not
sleep, and who are in an agony of irritability, become composed and
contented when fed almost exclusively on fish. In such cases I have
withdrawn butter, milk, eggs, and all the varieties of warm-blooded animal
food; and, carefully noting the weight and strength, I find no diminution
of either, while fish is supplied in such quantities as fully to satisfy
the appetite.--J. MORTIMER GRANVILLE, M.D., "_Fish as Food and
Physic_."

COFFEE AND TEA (p. 170).--Besides the alkaloid _Caffeine_ which
coffee contains, it also develops, in roasting, a volatile oil called
Caffeone, to which is due its characteristic aroma. The main effects of
coffee are due to both the caffeine and the caffeone, which are
antagonistic, though not contemporaneous, in action. The volatile oil
reduces arterial tension, allows a brisker flow of blood, and so increases
the rapidity of the heart's action. It also acts upon the brain, and
intellectual faculties in general; keeps one awake, and his mind clear.
Caffeine, on the other hand, like digitalis, produces a high arterial
tension, and slows the heart beat. It exerts its chief effect upon the
spinal cord, to which, like strychnia, it is an excitant. The shaking hand
of the inveterate coffee drinker is caused by caffeine. Thus a cup of
coffee produces on the drinker a double effect,--of the oil and the
alkaloid; the former sooner and transient, the latter later and
lasting....Coffee is not in itself nutritious to any marked degree; but it
saves food, and also maintains life, by its exhilarating effect upon the
nervous system. It is an excellent antidote to opium, producing the
wakefulness that antagonizes the narcotic sleep of the drug; is now and
then curative of sick headache, and is one of the standard remedies for
certain forms of nausea.

To the chemist, _Tea_ is much the same thing as coffee. It contains
considerably more tannin, a volatile oil, and an alkaloid (theine)
indistinguishable from caffeine. That the injurious effects of overdoses
are due as much to the volatile oil as to the alkaloid, is shown by the
fact that tea packers are made ill by long breathing of air filled with
it, and that tea tasters in China, who avoid swallowing the infusion, can
endure their trade but a few years, and leave the country with shattered
nerves.

Probably every one numbers among his friends women who are actual slaves
of the tea habit, and who would find tea as hard to forsake as men find
tobacco. It is not unlikely that the functional cardiac disorder, often
spoken of as the "tobacco heart," due to nervous derangement, and
accompanied by palpitation and pain in the cardiac region, is more often
due to tea than tobacco. In fact, the disorders induced by excessive tea
drinking have been grasped as a special disease, to which has been given
the name of _Theism_. This includes a train of symptoms, usually
progressive, loss of appetite, pain after meals, headache, constipation,
palpitation, cardiac distress, hysterical manifestations, dizziness, and
paresis.--DR. MAURICE D. CLARKE, _Popular Science News_.

Tea drinkers, as a rule, express doubts as regards the correctness of
alleged poisonous properties of tea. Numerous instances of individuals of
this class have been noticed who were themselves suffering from tea
poisoning. Their nerves were in a deplorably abnormal condition, the heart
and brain were functionally disturbed, and the sleep less in quantity and
less refreshing than it should be....One's opinion of the physical
disturbances which may be caused by rum, tobacco, or tea, are not worth
much, when the opinion comes from a victim of the excessive use of these
agents.

The tannin found in tea does not differ from that found in oak and other
barks which the tanners use to convert the raw hides of animals into
leather. It is a powerful astringent, which accounts for some of the
peculiar physical evils to which confirmed tea drinkers are subject.

_Theine_ does not differ essentially from _Cocaine_ (see p.
223). They both produce exaltation of the nervous system and increased
powers of physical endurance. The brain is largely influenced in its
functions, and long periods of wakefulness are induced. Continued use of
strong infusions of either coca or tea result in great disturbance of
nervous centers and functional offices, and either will produce fatal
results by persistent use of inordinate quantities.

A cup of tea as served at tea tables contains usually only a trace of the
alkaloidal principle, but infinitesimal quantities are capable of exerting
baneful effects upon some tea drinkers....Poisons act in a variety of
ways, some slowly, and without producing pain; others act violently, and
with speedy, fatal results. Inasmuch as we do not observe a very large
number of clearly proved cases of acute poisoning by tea, we must conclude
that it is characteristically a slow poison, and also that its influence
is unlike in different individuals....Four or six cups of tea, however,
taken during each twenty-four hours, will in time produce tea poisoning,
and greater or less evil effects.

Tea is well enough, when its use is kept under absolute, intelligent
control; but if it becomes master in any case, then it must be promptly
abandoned, for danger attends the intemperate tea drinker every hour of
his life. Those advanced in life crave its stimulating effects, and it is
well for them to use it in moderation; but the young should abstain from
it entirely.--_Abridged from "Tea Poisoning," by_ DR. NICHOLS, _in
Popular Science News, December, 1887_.

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF INDIGESTION (p. l72).--When a light breakfast is
eaten, a solid meal is requisite in the middle of the day. If the
digestive organs are left too long unemployed, they secrete an excess of
mucus, which greatly interferes with their normal functions. One meal has
a direct influence on the next; and a poor breakfast leaves the stomach
over-active for dinner. This is the secret of much excess in eating. The
point to bear in mind is that not to eat a sufficiency at one meal makes
you too hungry for the next; and that when you are too hungry, you are apt
to overload the stomach, and to give the gastric juices more to do than
they have the power to perform.

To eat too often, and to eat irregularly, are other sources of
indigestion. People who dine at uncertain hours, and eat one meal too
quickly on the last, must expect the stomach to retaliate in the long run.
A very fruitful cause of dyspepsia is imperfect mastication. We remember
one old gentleman who used always to warn young people on this point by
saying: "Remember you have no teeth in your stomach." Nervous people
nearly always eat fast, and as nearly always are the victims of nervous
irritability, produced by dyspepsia....To sit much in a stooping posture
interferes with the stomach's action. Well-marked dyspepsia has been
traced to sitting immediately after dinner in a low armchair, so that the
body was curved forward, and the stomach compressed....

The skin, core, and kernels of fruit should be avoided. Some people are
not able to digest raw apples; and dyspepsia has been sometimes greatly
aggravated by eating pears. The latter fruit, in its ripest state,
contains an abundance of gritty material, which, as it can not be
separated in the mouth, on being swallowed irritates the mucous
membrane....

Of food itself, bear in mind that hot meat is more digestible than cold;
the flesh of full-grown animals than that of young ones; that land birds
are more digestible than waterfowl; wild animals than domestic ones; and
that in game, newly killed birds are easier of digestion than those which
have been kept a long time.--_Hints to Dyspeptics, Chambers's
Journal_.

HOW FOOD DEVELOPS ENERGY (p. 173).--It may appear strange that the small
amount of food we eat should suffice to carry our large and bulky bodies
through all the varied movement of the day. But this difficulty disappears
at once, when we recollect how large an amount of dormant energy can be
laid by in a very small piece of matter. A lump of coal no bigger than
one's fist, if judiciously employed, will suffice to keep a small toy
engine at work for a considerable time. Now, our food is matter containing
large amounts of dormant energy, and our bodies are engines so constructed
as to utilize all the energy to the best advantage. A single gramme of
beef fat if completely burned (that is, if every atom unites with oxygen),
is capable of developing more than 9,000 heat units; and each heat unit,
if employed to perform mechanical work, is capable of lifting a weight of
one gramme to a height of 424 meters; or, what comes to the same thing,
424 grammes to a height of one meter. Accordingly, the energy contained in
one gramme of beef, and the oxygen with which it unites, would be
sufficient to raise the little bit of fat itself to a height of 3,816
kilometers, or almost as high as the distance from London to New York.--
GRANT ALLEN _in "Why do we Eat our Dinner_?"

_Danger of Too High Pressure_.--A prudent fire engineer, when his
water hose is old and weak, would not try to force as much water as he
could into it. No; to prevent a rupture he would work it at a low
pressure. But men seldom think of carrying out the same simple mechanical
principle when there is reason to believe that the vessels of the brain
are getting weak and brittle. They eat and drink just as much as they feel
inclined to, and sometimes a little more. With a good digestion, nearly
all they consume is converted into blood, to the yet further distention of
vessels already over-distended. This high-pressure style of living
produces high-pressure results. Its effects were painfully illustrated by
the death of Charles Dickens. The brain work he performed was immense; he
lived generously, taking his wine as he did his meat, with a liberal hand.
He disregarded the signs of structural decay, forcing his reluctant brain
to do what it had once done with spontaneous ease, until all at once,
under a greater tension than ordinary, a weak vessel gave way, flooding
the brain with blood.--J. R. BLACK, M.D., _in "Apoplexy," Popular
Science Monthly, April, 1875_.

_Evils of Gluttony_.--"Is it not strange," says Dr. Hunt, "how
people, even the most considerate, will trifle with their stomachs? Many a
person seems to prefer taking medicine to avoiding it by a proper
regulation of the appetite. You may stuff the stomach to the full, year
after year, but as sure as effects follow causes, so sure will you reap
the accumulating penalty." A physician of extensive practice declares that
he has never lived through a Christmas or Thanksgiving without frequently
being consulted for ailments produced by excessive eating. He says: "It
would seem as if multitudes thought they had a gluttonous license once a
year, and that the most appropriate method of expressing gratitude, was by
stuffing the stomach. Excessive eating produces scrofula. Surfeiting
among children results in mental stupidity and unmanageable temper....I am
acquainted with a family, in which about the average amount of stuffing is
indulged. To my expostulations, the mother has replied: "I may not be able
to give my children as much education as some folks, and I may not be able
to give them any property, but as long as we can get it, they shall have
what they want to eat. I have spoken of their black teeth, bad breath,
eruptions, and frequent sickness. "Yes," she has replied, "I know all
that, but would you have me stop them before their appetites are half
satisfied, and tell them, 'there, that is all you can have'? No; as long
as I can get it, my children shall have enough to eat; it never shall be
said that I have starved them." This indulgence of children to the full
extent of their undiscriminating appetites is extreme folly and genuine
unkindness. Pampered with a variety of dishes, they eat enormously, which
engenders a craving for another large meal, and so on--their youthful and
elastic constitutions enabling them to bear the excess without immediate
serious injury. Let them be confined to one or two plain dishes at a meal,
and the quantity be determined for them; it will then be found that a
growing child does not need to be stuffed, and that his appetite will soon
become reasonable; and if the food be plain, and mostly or entirely
vegetable, it will soon be observed that the child's teeth are whiter, its
breath sweeter, its skin clearer, its tongue cleaner, its eyes brighter,
its sleep quieter, its brains sharper, and its temper more amiable. There
are few changes in the management of children which would prove so
beneficial as that from the present mode of cramming with a multitude of
rich foods, to a plain vegetable diet, eaten in regular and moderate
quantities.--DIO LEWIS, _in Weak Lungs, and How to Make them Strong_.

REGULAR PHYSICAL HABITS (p. 177).--Constipation lies at the root of a host
of chronic ailments, which seem especially to beset American women.
Impaired blood, nervous excitability, sick headaches, mental depression,
sleeplessness, and a long train of untold sufferings may be directly
traced to this physical sin. We say _sin_, for in the large majority
of instances this habit may be prevented; or, if already formed, may, by
proper attention, be cured. The principal causes which lead to this
deplorable state of the system are:

1. Errors in Food.

2. Errors in Exercise.

3. Inattention to Nature's laws.

_Errors in Food_ have much to do with the evil in question. Our diet
is, in general, too concentrated. We indulge ourselves with animal food
two or three times a day, accompanying it with spices, condiments, greasy
gravies, fine wheat bread, and a sparse amount of vegetables. We wind up
our dinners with rich and heavy pastry, and our luncheons or our suppers
with sugared sweetmeats and that indigestible compound often offered under
the name of cake. A few cups of strong tea intensify the error. Coffee has
a less astringent effect, and therefore can not be so severely arraigned
for this particular consequence. When we think what delicious meals can be
enjoyed from any of the cereals, well cooked, and taken with milk or
cream, bread from unbolted flour, plenty of unsugared fruit, and pure rain
or spring water, filtered and cooled or taken hot, with or without milk,
we wonder that so many people consent day after day to use greasy pork,
fried steaks, fried potatoes, hot biscuit, and in many cases poorly made
coffee and tea. These are the people who make up the grand army of sallow-
faced sufferers upon which the venders of patent pills and nauseous
compounds thrive.

A wise mother will not allow mere culinary convenience to take precedence
of the requirements of health. She will study the peculiar physical needs
of each one of her children, that she may provide for each the food best
suited to his or her constitution. This is not a difficult matter. "Water,
not only by itself, but in some of its combinations," says Dr. Oswald, "is
an effective aperient; in watermelons, and whey, for instance, but still
more in conjunction with a dish of peas, or beans. No constipation can
long withstand the suasion of a dose of pea soup, or baked beans, flavored
with a modicum of brown butter, and glorified with a cup of cold spring
water. Moreover, the aperient effect thus produced is not followed by an
astringent reaction, as in the case of drugs,--the cure, once effected, is
permanent."

_Errors in Exercise_ may lie in two directions, and overexertion,
viz., exercise carried to the point of nervous exhaustion, is as
mischievous in its effect as is the other extreme. A too long walk, for
instance, may cause the very evil it is intended to cure.

As a rule, however, sedentary habits are chargeable with the greater share
of influence in this unhappy state of the system. Light gymnastics within
doors, a brisk walk or horseback ride without, both taken in garments
suspended from the shoulders, and devoid of all constriction so that the
abdominal viscera can partake in the general movement of the body, are
advisable. For invalids or those incapacitated for active exercise,
friction or massage treatment daily, including a vigorous kneading of the
abdomen, or a relaxation of the entire muscles of the body with especial
thought directed to the desired result, are often of great service.

_Inattention to Physical Laws_ is perhaps the prime culprit. Nature
always inclines to regularity, and when we do not respect her dictates, we
invite the retribution which, sooner or later, she invariably inflicts.
The elimination of waste from the system is an imperative necessity, and
whenever it is thwarted, evil must and will follow. Aside from the
avoidance of positive discomforts, suffering, and disease, there is the
not unimportant consideration of bodily elasticity and a fine complexion.
Let every young woman who would possess and retain a fair, delicate
complexion, remember that the most important factor in its formation and
retention is a clean system.

Proper diet, plenty of fruits, plenty of wholesome drink, enough exercise
to send the blood pleasurably bounding through the veins, followed up and
enforced by prompt recognition of the immutable laws of Health in this as
well as all other organic functions, will soon work a reform that could
not be so successfully effected by all the drugs in Christendom.--E. B. S.

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

EFFECT OF VIOLENT PASSIONS UPON HEALTH (p. 202).--The man who is given to
outbursts of anger is sure to experience a rapid change of the physical
organs, in case he does not die in a fit of rage.

Death under such circumstances is of frequent occurrence. Sylla,
Valentinian, Nerva, Wenceslas, and Isabeau of Bavaria, all died in
consequence of an access of passion. The medical annals of our own time
recount many instances of fatal effects following the violent brain
disturbance caused by anger. The symptoms usually are pulmonary and
cerebral congestions. Still such fatal accidents as these are exceptional;
as a rule, the passions of hate and anger deteriorate the constitution by
slow, but sure degrees.

How, then, do we explain those morbid phenomena which have their origin in
misplaced affection, in disappointed ambition, in hatred, or in anger, and
which culminate either in serious chronic maladies, or in death or
suicide? They all seem to start from an impairment of the cerebro-spinal
centers. The continual excitation of these by ever-present emotions
determines a paralysis of the central nerve substance, and thus affects
its connections with the nerves extending out to the various organs. These
nerves next degenerate by degrees, and soon the great functions are
compromised. The heart and the lungs cease to act with their normal
rhythm, the circulation grows irregular and languishing. Appetite
disappears, the amount of carbonic acid exhaled decreases, and the hair
grows white, owing to the interruption of the pigmentary secretion. This
general disturbance in nutrition and secretion is attended with a fall of
the body's temperature and anæmia. The flesh dries up and the organism
becomes less and less capable of resisting morbific influences. At the
same time, in consequence of the reaction of all these disturbances on the
brain, the psychic faculties become dull or perverted, and the patient
falls into a decline more or less complicated and aggravated by grave
symptoms. Under these conditions he dies or makes away with himself.

Two organs, the stomach and the liver, are often affected in a peculiar
and characteristic way in the course of this pathological evolution. The
modifications produced in the innervation, under the influence of cephalic
excitement, cause a disturbance of the blood circulation in the liver.
This disturbance is of such a nature that the bile, now secreted in larger
quantity, is resorbed into the blood instead of passing into the biliary
vesicle. Then appears what we call jaundice. The skin becomes pale, then
yellow, owing to the presence in the blood of the coloring matter of the
bile. This change in the liver is usually developed slowly: sometimes,
however, jaundice makes its appearance suddenly. Villeneuve mentions the
case of two youths who brought a discussion to an end by grasping their
swords; suddenly one of them turned yellow, and the other, alarmed at this
transformation, dropped his weapon. The same author speaks of a priest who
became jaundiced on seeing a mad dog jump at him. Whatever may be said of
these cases, we must reckon painful affections of the soul among the
efficient causes of chronic diseases of the liver.

The digestion, says the author of a work published some years ago, is
completely subjected to the influence of the moral and intellectual state.
When the brain is wearied by the passions, appetite and digestion are
almost gone....There is nowhere perfect health, save when the passions are
well regulated, harmonized, and equipoised. Moral temperance is as
indispensable to a calm and tranquil life as physiological
temperance....If it is your desire that your circulatory, respiratory, and
digestive functions should be discharged properly, normally, if you want
your appetite to be good, your sleep sound, your humor equable, avoid all
emotions that are overstrong, all pleasures that are too intense, and meet
the inevitable sorrows and the cruel agonies of life with a firm and
resigned soul. Ever have some occupation to employ and divert your mind,
and to make it proof against the temptations of want or of desire. Thus
will you attain the term of life without overmuch disquiet and
affliction.--FERNAND PAPILLON, _in the Revue des Deux Mondes_.

BRAIN WORK, OVERWORK, AND WORRY (p. 205).--_Overstimulation of the Brain
in Childhood_.--Most civilized communities have enacted laws against
the employment of children in severe physical labor. This is well enough,
for the muscles of young persons are tender and weak, and not, therefore,
adapted to the work to which cupidity or ignorance would otherwise subject
them. But no such fostering care does the State take of the brains of the
young. There are no laws to prevent the undeveloped nervous system being
overtasked and brought to disease, or even absolute destruction. Every
physician sees cases of the kind, and wonders how parents of intelligence
can be so blind to the welfare of their offspring as to force, or even to
allow, their brains to be worked to a degree that, in many cases, results
in idiocy or death. Only a few months ago I saw for the first time a boy
of five years of age, with a large head, a prominent forehead, and all the
other signs of mental precocity. He had read the first volume of Bryant's
"History of the United States," and was preparing to tackle the other
volumes! He read the magazines of the day with as much interest as did his
father, and conversed with equal facility on the politics of the period.
But a few weeks before I saw him he had begun to walk in his sleep, then
chorea had made its appearance, and on the day before he was brought to me
he had had a well-marked epileptic paroxysm. Already his mind is weakened
--perhaps permanently so. Such cases are not isolated ones. They are
continually occurring.

The period of early childhood--say up to seven or eight years of age--is
that during which the brain and other parts of the nervous system are most
actively developing, in order to fit them for the great work before them.
It is safe to say that the only instruction given during this time should
be that which consists in teaching children how to observe. The perceptive
faculties alone should be made the subjects of systematic attempts at
development. The child should be taught how to use his senses, and
especially how to see, hear, and touch. In this manner, knowledge would be
acquired in the way that is preeminently the natural way, and ample food
would be furnished for the child's reflective powers.--DK. WM. A. HAMMOND,
_Popular Science Monthly, November, 1884_.

_Reserve Force_.--The part which "a stock of energy" plays in brain
work can scarcely be exaggerated. Reserves are of high moment everywhere
in the animal economy, and the reserve of mental force is in a practical
sense more important than any other....Without this reserve, healthy brain
work is impossible. Pain, hunger, anxiety, and a sense of mind weariness,
are warning tokens of exhaustion. When the laborious worker, overcome with
fatigue, "rouses" himself with alcohol, coffee, tea, or any other agent
which may chance to suit him, he does not add a unit of force to his stock
of energy; he simply narcotizes the sense of weariness, and, the guard
being drugged, he appropriates the reserve....Meanwhile, the effort to
work becomes daily more laborious, the task of fixing the attention grows
increasingly difficult, thoughts wander, memory fails, the reasoning power
is enfeebled; physical nerve or brain disturbance may supervene, and the
crash will then come suddenly, unexpected by on-lookers, perhaps
unperceived by the sufferer himself.

_Overwork and Worry_.--The miseries of "overwork," pure and simple,
are few and comparatively insignificant....The natural safeguards are so
well fitted for their task that neither body nor mind is exposed to the
peril of serious exhaustion so long as their functions are duly performed.
Overwork is _impossible_ so long as the effort made is natural....There
is then no excuse for idleness in the pretense of possible injury. If
insane asylums were searched for the victims of "overwork," they would
nearly all be found to have fallen a prey to "worry," or to the degeneracy
which results from lack of purpose in life, and of steady employment
....The cause or condition which most commonly exposes the reserve of
mental energy to loss and injury is worry. When a strong and active mind
breaks down suddenly in the midst of business, it is usually worn out by
this cause rather than by the other....Work in the teeth of worry is
fraught with peril. The unhappy victim is ever on the verge of a
catastrophe; if he escape, the marvel is not at his strength of intellect
so much as at his good fortune. Worry is disorder, however induced, and
disorderly work is abhorred by the laws of nature, which leave it wholly
without remedy.

The pernicious system of _Cram_ slays its thousands, because
uneducated, undeveloped, inelastic intellects are burdened and strained
with information adroitly deposited in the memory,--as an expert valet
packs a portmanteau, with the articles likely to be first wanted on the
top. _Desultory occupation_, mere play with objects of which the true
interest is not appreciated, ruins a still larger number. But
_worry_, that bane of brain work and mental energy, counts its
victims by tens of thousands.--DR. J. MORTIMER GRANVILLE, _in "Worry,"
Nineteenth Century_.

SLEEP (p. 206).--_Some Curiosities of Sleep_.--One of the most
refined and exquisite methods of torture is long continued deprivation of
sleep. The demand for unconscious rest is so imperious that nature will
accommodate itself to the most unfavorable surrounding conditions. Thus,
in forced marches, regiments have been known to sleep while walking; men
have slept soundly in the saddle; and persons will sometimes sleep during
the din of battle. It is remarkable how noises to which we have been
accustomed will fail to disturb our natural rest. Those who have been long
habituated to the endless noise of a crowded city frequently find
difficulty in sleeping in the oppressive stillness of the country.
Prolonged exposure to intense cold induces excessive somnolence, and if
this be induced, the sleep passes into stupor, the power of resistance to
cold becomes rapidly diminished, and death is the inevitable result.
Intense heat often produces drowsiness, but, as is well known, is not
favorable to natural sleep....It is difficult to determine with exactness
the phenomena of sleep that are absolutely physiological, and to separate
those that are slightly abnormal. We can not assert, for example, that a
dreamless sleep is the only normal condition of repose of the system; nor
can we determine what dreams are due to previous trains of thought, or to
such impressions from the external world received during sleep as are
purely physiological, and what are due to abnormal nervous influence,
disordered digestion, etc.

The most remarkable experiments upon the production of dreams of a
definite character, by subjecting a person during sleep to peculiar
influences, are those of Maury. The hallucinations produced in this way
are called hypnagogic (from its derivation this term is properly applied
only to phenomena observed at the instant when we fall asleep, or when we
are imperfectly awakened, and not to the period of most perfect repose),
and they occur when the subject is not in a condition favorable to sound
sleep.

The experiments made by Maury upon himself are so curious and interesting
that we quote the most striking of them in full.

_First Observation_.--I am tickled with a feather successively on the
lips and inside of the nostrils. I dream that I am subjected to a horrible
punishment, that a mask of pitch is applied to my face, and then roughly
torn off, tearing the skin of the lip, the nose, and the face.

_Second Observation_.--A pair of pincers is held at a little distance
from my ear, and rubbed with steel scissors. I dream that I hear the
ringing of bells; this soon becomes a tocsin, and I imagine myself in the
days of June, 1848. (The time of the French Revolution.)

_Third Observation_.--I am caused to inhale Cologne water. I dream I
am in a perfumer's shop; the idea of perfumes doubtless awakens the idea
of the East; I am in Cairo, in the shop of Jean Farina....

_Fifth Observation_.--I am slightly pinched on the nape of the neck.
I dream that a blister is applied, which recalls to my mind a physician
who had treated me in infancy.

_Seventh Observation_....The words Azar, Castor, Leonore, were
pronounced in my ear; on awaking I recollected that I had heard the last
two words, which I attributed to one of the persons who had conversed with
me in my dream.--FLINT'S _Physiology of Man_.

The transition stage between the dream simple and the dream acted is
witnessed in the spasmodic movements which a vivid dream produces in the
limbs or person of the sleeper. The dreamer engages in a fierce struggle,
and twitchings of his legs and arms indicate the feeble response of body
to the promptings of mind removed from its wonted power over the frame.
Even the dog, as he sleeps, apparently dreams of the chase, and gives vent
to his sensations by the short, sharp bark, or sniffs the air, and starts
in his slumber as if in response to the activity with which, in his
dreaming, he is hurrying along after the object of pursuit....Persons have
been known to swim for a considerable time in the somnambulistic state
without waking at the termination of their journey; others have safely
descended the shaft of a mine, while some have ascended steep cliffs, and
have returned home in safety during a prolonged sleep vigil. (See p.
204.)--DR. ANDREW WILSON, F.R.S.E., _What Dreams are Made of_.

_Sleep and Conscience_.--Edward Everett Hale says: Never go to bed in
any danger of being hungry. People are kept awake by hunger quite as much
as by a bad conscience. Remembering that sleep is the essential force
which starts the whole system, decline tea or coffee within the last six
hours before going to bed. Avoid all mathematics or intricate study of any
sort in the last six hours. This is the stuff dreams are made of, and hot
heads, and the nuisances of waking hours. Keep your conscience clear.
Remember that because the work of life is infinite, you can not do the
whole of it in any limited period of time, and that therefore you may just
as well leave off in one place as another.

_The Art of Rising Early_.--The proper time to rise is when sleep
ends. Dozing should not be allowed. True sleep is the aggregate of sleeps,
or is a state consisting in the sleeping or rest of all the several parts
of the organism. Sometimes one and at other times another part of the
body, as a whole, may be the least fatigued, and so the first to awake; or
the most exhausted, and therefore the most difficult to arouse. The secret
of good sleep is, the physiological conditions of rest being established,
so to work and weary the several parts of the organism as to give them a
proportionately equal need of rest at the same moment. To wake early, and
feel ready to rise, a fair and equal start of the sleepers should be
secured; and the wise self-manager should not allow a drowsy feeling of
unconsciousness, or weary senses, or an exhausted muscular system, to
beguile him into the folly of going to sleep again when once he has been
aroused. After a few days of self-discipline, the man who resolves not to
doze, that is, not to allow some sleepy part of his body to keep him in
bed after his brain has once awakened, will find himself, without knowing
why, an early riser.

INFLUENCE OF SUNLIGHT (p. 207).--Light is an essential element in
producing the grand phenomena of life, though its action is ill
understood. Where there is light there is life, and any deprivation of
this principle is rapidly followed by disease of the animal frame, and the
destruction of the mental faculties. We have proof of this in the squalor
of those whose necessities compel them to labor in places to which the
blessings of sunshine never penetrate, as in our coal mines, where men
having everything necessary for health, except light, exhibit a singularly
unhealthy appearance. The state of fatuity and wretchedness to which those
individuals have been reduced, who have been subjected for years to
incarceration in dark dungeons, may be referred to the same deprivation.--
ROBERT HUNT, _Poetry of Science_.

_Effect of Dungeon Life_.--"You can not imagine, Mr. Kennan," said a
condemned revolutionist to me in Siberia, "the misery of prolonged
confinement in a casemate of the fortress under what are known as dungeon
conditions. My casemate was sometimes cold, generally damp, and always
gloomy. Day after day, week after week, month after month, I lay there in
solitude, hearing no sound save that of the high-pitched, melancholy bells
of the fortress cathedral, which slowly chimed the quarter hours, and
which always seemed to say: 'Here thou liest--lie here still.' I had
absolutely nothing to do except to pace my cell from corner to corner, and
think. For a long time I used to talk to myself in a whisper; to repeat
softly everything in the shape of literature that I could remember, and to
compose speeches which, under certain imagined conditions, I would
deliver; but I finally ceased to have energy enough to do even this, and
used to sit for hours in a sort of stupor, in which, so far as I can now
remember, I was not conscious of thinking at all. Before the end of the
first year, I grew so weak, mentally and physically, that I began to
forget words. I knew what ideas I desired to express, but some of the
words that I needed had gone from me, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that I could recover them. It seemed sometimes as if my own
language were a strange one to me, or one which, from long disuse, I had
forgotten. I greatly feared insanity, and my apprehension was increased by
the fact that two or three of my comrades in cells on the same corridor
were either insane or subject to hallucinations; and I was often roused at
night and thrown into a violent chill of nervous excitement by their
hysterical weeping, their cries to the guard to come and take away
somebody, or something which they imagined they saw, or their groans and
entreaties when, in cases of violent delirium, they were strapped to their
beds by the _gendarmes_."--GEORGE KENNAN, _in Russian State
Prisoners, The Century, March, 1888_.

THE GROWTH AND POWER OF POISON HABITS (p. 218).--In order to distinguish a
poison stimulant from a harmless and nutritive substance, Nature has
furnished us three infallible tests:

1. The first taste of every poison is either insipid or repulsive.

2. The persistent obtrusion of the noxious substance changes that aversion
into a specific craving.

3. The more or less pleasurable excitement produced by a gratification of
that craving is always followed by a depressing reaction....

One radical fallacy identifies the stimulant habit in all its disguises:
its victims mistake a process of irritation for one of invigoration....
Sooner or later the tonic is sure to pall while the morbid craving
remains, and forces its victims either to increase the quantity of
the wonted stimulant, or else to resort to a stronger poison. A boy begins
with ginger beer and ends in ginger rum; the medical "tonic" delusion
progresses from malt extract to Mumford's Elixir; and the nicotine habit
once introduced, the alcohol habit often follows. The tendency of every
stimulant habit is toward a stronger tonic....We have found that the road
to the rum shop is paved with "mild stimulants," and that every bottle of
medical bitters is apt to get the vender a permanent customer. We have
found that cider and mild ale lead to strong ale, to lager beer, and
finally to rum, and the truth at last dawns upon us that the only safe,
consistent, and effective plan is Total Abstinence from all Poisons.

...More than the hunger after bread, more than the frenzy of love or
hatred, the poison hunger overpowers every other instinct, even the fear
of death. Dr. Isaac Jennings has illustrated this by the following
example: A clergyman of his acquaintance attempted to dissuade a young man
of great promise from habits of intemperance. "Hear me first a few words,"
said the young man, "and then you may proceed. I am sensible that an
indulgence in this habit will lead to the loss of property, the loss of
reputation and domestic happiness, to premature death, and to the
irretrievable loss of my immortal soul; and now, with all this conviction
resting firmly on my mind and flashing over my conscience like lightning,
if I still continue to drink, do you suppose anything you can say will
deter me from the practice?"

...Ignorance is a chief cause of intemperance. The seductions of vice
would not mislead so many of our young men if they could realize the
significance of their mistake. There is still a lingering belief that,
with due precaution against excess and adulteration, a dram drinker might
"get ahead" of Nature, and, as it were, trick her out of some extra
enjoyment. There is no hope of a radical reform till intelligent people
have realized the fact that this "trick" is in every instance a losing
game, entailing penalties which far outweigh the pleasures that the novice
may mistake for enjoyments. For the depression of the vital energy
increases with every repetition of the stimulating process, and in a year
after the first dose all the "grateful and exhilarating tonics" of our
professional poison venders can not restore the vigor, the courage, and
the cheerfulness which the mere consciousness of perfect health imparts to
the total abstainer. A great plurality of all beginners underrate the
difficulty of controlling the cravings of a morbid appetite. They remember
that their natural inclinations at first opposed, rather than encouraged,
the indulgence; and they feel that at the present stage of its development
they could abjure the passion without difficulty. But they overlook the
fact that the moral power of resistance decreases with each repetition of
the dose, and that the time will come when only the practical
impossibility of procuring their wonted tipple will enable them to keep
their pledge of total abstinence. It is true that, by the exercise of a
constant self-restraint, a person of great will force may resist the
progressive tendency of the poison habit and confine himself for years to
a single cigar or a single bottle of wine per day....But the attempt to
resist that bias will overtask the strength of most individuals. According
to the allegory of the Grecian myth, the car of Bacchus was drawn by
tigers; and it is a significant circumstance that war, famine, and
pestilence have so often been the forerunners of veritable alcohol
epidemics....The explanation is that, after the stimulant habit has once
been initiated, every unusual depression of mental or physical vigor calls
for an increased application of the accustomed method of relief....Nations
who are addicted to the worship of a poison god will use his temple as a
place of refuge from every calamity; and children whose petty ailments
have been palliated with narcotics, wine, and cordials, will afterward be
tempted to drown their greater sorrows in deeper draughts of the same
nepenthe.--FELIX L. OSWALD, M.D., _Remedies of Nature, Popular Science
Monthly, October and November, 1883_.

DANGERS FROM THE USE OF NARCOTICS.--It may seem a paradox, it is a truism,
to say that in the value of narcotics lies their peril. Because they have
such power for good, because the suffering which they alleviate is in its
lighter forms so common, because neuralgia and sleeplessness are ailments
as familiar to the present generation as gout, rheumatism, and catarrh
were to our grandfathers, therefore the medicines which immediately
relieve sleeplessness and neuralgic pain are among the most dangerous
possessions, the most subtle temptations of civilized life. Every one of
these drugs has, besides its instant and beneficial effect, other and
injurious tendencies. The relief which it gives is purchased at a certain
price; for, at each repetition of the dose, the immediate relief is
lessened or rendered uncertain, while the mischievous influence is
enhanced and aggravated; till, when the drug has become a necessity of
life it has lost the greater part, if not the whole, of its value, and
serves only to satisfy the need which itself alone has created....We read
weekly of men and women poisoned by an overdose of some favorite sedative,
burned to death or otherwise fatally injured, while insensible from self-
administered ether or chloroform....The narcotist keeps chloroform or
chloral always at hand, forgetful or ignorant that one sure effect of the
first dose is to produce a semistupor more dangerous than actual
somnolence. In that semistupor the patient is aware, or fancies, that the
dose has failed. The pain that has induced a lady to hold a chloroformed
handkerchief under her nostrils returns while her will and her judgment
are half paralyzed. She takes the bottle from the table beside her bed,
intending to pour an additional supply upon her handkerchief. The unsteady
hand perhaps spills a quantity on the sheet, perhaps sinks with the
unstoppered bottle under her nostrils, and in a few moments she has
inhaled enough utterly to stupefy, if not to kill. The sleepless brain
worker also feels that his usual dose of chloral has failed to bring
sleep; he is not aware how completely it has stupefied the brain, to which
it has not given rest. His judgment is gone, so is his steadiness of hand;
and he pours out a second and too often a fatal dose....But the cases that
end in a death terrible to the family, though probably involving little or
no suffering to the victim himself, are by no means the worst. A life
poisoned, paralyzed, rendered worthless for all the uses of intellectual,
rational, we might almost say of human existence, is worse for the
sufferer himself and for all around him than a quick and painless death;
and for one such death there must be twenty, if not a hundred, instances
of this worst death in life....The demoralization of the narcotist is not,
like that of the drunkard, rapid, violent, and palpable; but gradual,
insidious, perceptible at first only to close observers and intimate
friends. Here and there we find a constitution upon which opium exerts few
or none of its characteristic effects. Such cases are, of course, wholly
exceptional; but their very existence is a danger to others, misleading
them into the idea that they may dally with the tempter without falling
under its yoke, or may fall under that yoke and find it a light one. I
doubt, however, whether the most fortunate of its victims would encourage
the latter idea; whether there be an opium eater who would not give a limb
never to have known what opium slavery means....Besides, no one can be
sure, or indeed reasonably hope, that the mischief will be confined to the
individual victim. That the children of drunkards are often predisposed to
insanity is notorious; that the children of habitual opium eaters inherit
an unmistakable taint, whether in a diseased brain, in morbid cravings, or
simply in a will too weak to resist temptation, is less notorious, but
equally certain.--PERCY GREG, _Narcotics and Stimulants, Contemporary
Review_.

Thus also in America scarcely a week passes but we see announced in the
public prints deaths or suicides resulting from the use of narcotics. Now,
it is from tobacco: A Yale College student dies from excessive smoking;
another student in the same college, and as a result of the same habit,
commits suicide; a third young man is found dead in his bed in New York,
from heart disease induced by cigarettes; and so, month by month, and year
by year, grows in rapid increase the list of tobacco deaths.--Or, again,
it is from opium. A Harvard student with two of his college companions in
search of a new sensation, tries opium smoking one fatal night and dies
before morning; a woman in Ohio, belonging to a prominent family, dies at
the age of thirty-three years, from an overdose of morphine, her body
covered with hypodermic scars; another, once the respected wife of a
Baptist clergyman, becomes a morphine drunkard, drifts, step by step, into
a Central New York Almshouse, and there hangs herself; a third, young,
accomplished, and wealthy, falls first a victim to the morphine habit,
then to opium smoking, finally becomes the frequenter of a New York opium
joint, and so is lost forever to home, friends, and respectability.--
Occasionally it is cocaine, as in the case of the Chicago physician, who,
for the purposes of investigation, experiments with this new drug upon
himself, his wife, and finally upon his innocent children; the entire
family being found unconscious from the effects of the subtle narcotic.
These are but solitary instances in an appallingly long list of similar
cases, most of which have occurred within the last two years (1887-'88).

_Cigarette Smoking_ is chargeable with a growing demoralization and
mortality among boys and young men. It is no uncommon sight to see lads of
ten years old and under, with the irresponsibility of ignorant childhood,
puffing the dangerous cigarette, and thus undermining health and intellect
at the very outset of useful existence. Even when told of the near and
remote perils thus incurred, they scarcely listen, for do not they see
their elders smoke and prosper?--Most of them do not understand that there
is more danger to the young than to the old in the tobacco habit, more
danger to some constitutions than to others, and more danger in the
cigarette than even in the pipe or the cigar. Pause a moment to consider
it, boys, when you are tempted to light the clean-looking, paper-covered
roll and place it in your mouth. Think of the heated smoke irritating the
delicate membrane in your throat, dulling your brain, and vitiating the
blood which should be bounding fresh and pure through your veins. Think of
the many filthy and diseased mouths from which have been cast away the
tobacco refuse, picked up in streets and public places to reappear in the
"Cheap and Popular Brand" which looks to you so innocent and so
attractive. It is astonishing, indeed, how an otherwise cleanly boy will
consent to defile himself with these vile abominations. And yet, I have
known lads who--not always with perfect politeness--would fastidiously
refuse "hash" at their mother's breakfast table, but who would shortly
afterward serenely place one of these unknowable compounds between their
lips and walk away with the air of superior manhood!

_Of Chloral Hydrate_, Dr. Fothergill remarks: "When this was
announced with a flourish of trumpets as a perfectly innocuous narcotic,
the sleepless folk hailed its advent with eager acclamation. But a little
experience soon demonstrated that the innocuous, harmless drug was far
from the boon it was proclaimed. In fact, the impression of its
harmlessness was the outcome of ignorance of its properties. Death after
death, even among medical men themselves, as well as nonprofessional
persons, have already resulted from the use, or rather misuse, of this
narcotic agent."

_The Bromides_ (of Soda or Potash), also, should be used with
caution, and only on the prescription of a conscientious physician. "The
bromide of potash," says Percy Greg, "is claimed not to produce sleep by
stupefaction, like chloral or opium, but, at least in small doses, to
allay the nervous irritability which is often the sole cause of
sleeplessness. But in larger quantities and in its ultimate effects, it is
scarcely less to be dreaded than chloral." Overdoses of the bromides will
produce among other evil effects a peculiar eruption upon the face, which,
though generally temporary, is liable to reappear from time to time under
certain conditions of the system, and especially upon a subsequent dose,
however dilute.

_Absinthe_ is a compound of absinthium (the essence of wormwood),
various aromatic oils, and alcohol. Absinthium, taken in small doses,
induces trembling, stupor, and insensibility; in larger doses, epilepsy.
When, therefore, this dangerous essence is added to alcohol, it
strengthens its influence to specific disease. Absinthe drinking is
recognized in France as such a serious vice that it has been officially
prohibited in the army and navy.

_Hasheesh_ is a syrup prepared from the leaves and flowers of Indian
Hemp. Though its use in this country is comparatively small, instances are
not unknown in which reckless or curious persons have fatally experimented
with it. As a medicine, it is in limited use, and with results not always
satisfactory. It acts in a peculiar manner upon the nervous centers,
occasioning that strange condition of the nervous system called catalepsy,
in which the limbs of the unconscious patient remain stationary in
whatever position they may be placed. After an average dose of hasheesh,
the subject becomes the helpless victim of rapidly shifting ideas, a
prominent characteristic of which is an entire loss of judgment as to time
and place. A larger dose produces hallucinations and delirium, with that
distressing sensation of falling through endless space which is induced in
some people by opium. [Footnote: In an article entitled "An Overdose of
Hasheesh" (_Popular Science Monthly_, February, 1884), Miss MARY A.
HUNGERFORD gives a vivid description of a painful experience with this
drug, some portion of which is as follows:

"Being one of the grand army of sufferers from headache, I took, last
summer, by order of my physician, three small daily doses of hasheesh in
the hope of holding my intimate enemy in check....I grew to regard the
drug as a harmless medicine, and one day, when I was assured by some
familiar symptoms that my headache was about to assume an aggravated form,
I took a larger quantity than had been prescribed. Twenty minutes later I
was seized with a strange sinking or faintness which gave my family so
much alarm that they telephoned at once for the doctor.

"...One terrible reality--I can hardly term it a fancy even now--that came
to me again and again, was so painful that it must, I fear, always be a
vividly remembered agony....I died, as I believed, although by a strange
double consciousness I knew that I should again reanimate the body I had
left. In leaving it I did not soar away, as one delights to think of the
freed spirits soaring....I sank, an intangible, impalpable shape, through
the bed, the floors, the cellar, the earth, down, down, down! Like a
fragment of glass dropping through the ocean, I dropped uninterruptedly
through the earth and its atmosphere, and then fell on and on
forever....As time went on, and my dropping through space continued, I
became filled with the most profound loneliness, and a desperate fear took
hold of me that I should be thus alone for evermore, and fall and fall
eternally....There was, it seemed to me, a forgotten text which, if
remembered, would be the spell to stop my fatal falling. I sought in my
memory for it, I prayed to recall it, I fought for it madly, wrestling
against the terrible fate which seemed to withhold it. Single words of it
came to me in disconnected mockery, but erased themselves instantaneously.
Mentally, I writhed in such hopeless agony that, in thinking of it, I
wonder I could have borne such excess of emotion and lived....I began,
then, without having reached any goal, to ascend. As I rose, a great and
terrible voice from a vast distance pronounced my doom: 'Fall, fall, fall,
to rise again in hopeless misery, and sink again in lonely agony forever.'
...Then ensued a wild and terrible commingling of unsyllabled sounds, so
unearthly that it is not in the power of language to fitly describe them.
It was something like a mighty Niagara of shrieks and groans, combined
with the fearful din and crash of thousands of battles and the thunderous
roar of a stormy sea....I fought my upward way in an agony which resembled
nothing so much as the terrible moment when, from strangling or
suffocation, all the forces of life struggle against death, and wrestle
madly for another breath. In place of the woeful sounds now reigned a
deadly stillness, broken only at long but regular intervals by a loud
report, as if a cannon, louder than any I ever heard on earth, were
discharged at my side, almost shot into me, I might say, for the sound
appeared to rend me from head to foot, and then to die away into the dark
chaos about me in strange, shuddering reverberations. Even in the misery
of my ascending I was filled with a dread expectancy of the cruel sound.
It gave me a feeling of acute physical torture, with a lingering intensity
that bodily suffering could not have. It was repeated an incredible number
of times, and always with the same suffering and shock to me. At last the
sound came oftener, but with less force, and I seemed again nearing the
shores of time. Dimly in the far distance I saw the room I had left,
myself lying still and deathlike upon the bed, and the friends watching
me....Then, silently and invisibly I floated into the room, and was one
with myself again.

"...'She is conscious now,' I heard one of the doctors say, and he gently
lifted the lids of my eyes and looked into them. I tried my best to throw
all the intelligence I could into them, and returned his look with one of
recognition. But, even with my eyes fixed on his, I felt myself going
again in spite of my craving to stay. I longed to implore the doctor to
save me, to keep me from the unutterable anguish of falling into the
vastness and vagueness of that shadowy sea of nothingness again. I clasped
my hands in wild entreaty; I was shaken by horrible convulsions--so, at
least, it seemed to me at the time--but, beyond a slight quivering of the
fingers, no movement was discernible by the others....For five hours I
remained in the same condition--short intervals of half-consciousness and
then long lapses into the agonizing experiences I have described....Coming
out of the last trance, I discovered that the measured rending report like
the discharge of a cannon, which attended my upward way, was the throbbing
of my own heart."]

Concerning all these and other narcotics, it should never be forgotten
that they are true poisons, sold with the mark of skull and crossbones,
useful, like strychnine and henbane, in the hands of a skillful physician,
but fraught with deadly danger when otherwise employed. Their private use
is never safe. The weak and nervous invalid, who can not by hygienic means
build up new strength, need never hope to gain it by surreptitiously
indulging in popular narcotics. Instead, he will soon discover that he has
but added to his list of ills a new and fatal one.--E. B. S.

THE SPECIAL SENSES.

AN EDUCATED SENSE OF TOUCH (p. 230).--Laura Dewey Bridgman, teacher in the
Perkins Institute for the Blind, South Boston, lost her sight, hearing,
and sense of smell, when she was two years of age. At the age of eight
years she was taken to the institution where she yet remains. At this
time, by following her mother around the house she had become familiar
with home appointments, and by feeling her mother's hands and arms had
also learned to sew and knit. When she first became an inmate of the
Perkins Institute, she was bewildered by her strange surroundings, but
after she had become used to place and people, through her one and only
sense, her education was carefully begun. Through indomitable effort on
the part of her preceptor, she was taught to write, read, and spell, by
means of her fingers, and thus to exchange sentiments with her teachers
and with others skilled in the mysterious language of the blind and the
mute. She is now as proficient in the ordinary branches of learning as is
the average person, possessed of all the senses. Her studies include
geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, history, and philosophy. She
makes her own clothing, can run a sewing machine, and observes great
neatness in her dress and the arrangements of her room. Her character is
religious, and she has great success as a teacher. Not long since, she
celebrated, on the same day, her fifty-eighth birthday and the fiftieth
anniversary of her entrance to the Perkins Institute. During her earlier
years, it was her practice to keep a journal, and she now has about forty
manuscript books of her own making. She has also written three
autobiographical sketches, several poems, and is an accomplished
correspondent. When Miss Bridgman expresses pleasure, she clasps her hands
and smiles. So keen and refined are her sensibilities, that it is said she
can, in a small way, appreciate the beauty of music by means of the sound
vibrations on the floor.--MRS. GEORGE ARCHIBALD. (Laura D. Bridgman died
in 1889.)

THE NOSE (p. 232).--_The Anatomy of the Nose_.--Probably most of us
look upon the nose as a double hole in the head, by which we get, with
more or less acuteness, a sense of smell, and through which we
occasionally breathe. The intricate mechanism, and the skillful adaptation
of means to end, which, in common with the other organs of special sense,
it exhibits, naturally do not reveal themselves to any but the students of
anatomy and physiology. Its fourteen bones are probably better hidden than
any other fourteen bones of the body, and assist in converting what would
otherwise be a mere channel of communication, into a series of cavities
designed and adapted for particular purposes. The arch of four bones which
forms the bridge of the nose, and which is of such strength as to enable
the gymnast of the circus to perform the feat of supporting with it a man
on a ladder, is pieced on with cartilage to form the nostrils, through
which the nose communicates with the outer air. Similar openings behind
connect it with the upper and posterior parts of the mouth. The space
between these anterior and posterior openings makes a large chamber,
divided by a vertical wall into halves, each of which is still further
separated into three irregular cavities by three bones, called spongy,
from the porosity and delicacy of their texture. The ceiling of these
chambers is formed by a bone of the thinness of paper, upon which lies the
front part of the brain,--a fact the Egyptians made use of in embalming
their corpses, easily crushing this bone, and extracting the brain through
the nostrils. This bone is called cribriform (sieve-like), because it is
perforated by many minute holes, through which, from the olfactory bulbs
(specialized parts of the brain in which is resident the capacity of
smell) that rest on its upper surface, issue the delicate filaments of the
olfactory nerves, to spread themselves over the lining membrane of the two
upper spongy bones. It is in the upper chambers of the nose, therefore,
that the function of smell is performed; the nerves that supply the lower
spongy bone being entirely unconnected with the organs of smell. Over
these latter, however, sweep in and out the currents of air when the act
of respiration is properly carried out, and it is these that are
especially concerned in its abnormal performance. Usually but a very
little of the volume of air that traverses the lower chamber of the nose
has any influence upon its upper regions; and therefore, when our
attention is attracted by an odor, we sniff, in order to bring a larger
quantity of air into contact with the higher parts of the nose, or
olfactory cavities, where odors are perceived.

But the half has not been told of the anatomical and physiological
arrangements of the nose. By minute openings its chambers have
communication with many other parts of the head,--with the hollow that
forms the greater part of the cheek bone; with the eye by a minute spout
that carries off the lachrymal secretion, unless the tears are so abundant
as to roll down the cheeks; with the front of the roof of the mouth; with
the abundant cells of the bone that makes the forehead, and the congestion
of whose lining membrane probably accounts for the severe headache that so
often accompanies and aggravates a "cold in the head." The gateway to the
inner air passages, its abundant surfaces raise the air inspired to the
temperature of the body, supply it with the moisture it lacks, and sift
from it more or less of the mechanical impurities with which the
atmosphere of our houses and shops is laden.--MAURICE D. CLARKE, M.D.,
_Popular Science News, April, 1888_.

_Smell Necessary to Taste_.--What we are in the habit of calling a
"taste," is in most cases a compound of smell, taste, temperature, and
touch--these four sensations ranking in gastronomic importance in the
order in which they are here named....Amusing experiments may be made,
showing that without the sense of smell it is commonly quite impossible to
distinguish between different articles of food and drink. Blindfold a
person and make him clasp his nose tightly, then put successively into his
mouth small pieces of beef, mutton, veal, and pork, and it is safe to
predict that he will not be able to tell one morsel from another. The same
result will be obtained with chicken, turkey, and duck; with pieces of
almond, walnut, and hazel-nut; with slices of apple, peach, and pear; or
with different kinds of cheese, if care be taken that such kinds are
chosen as do not, by their peculiar composition, betray their identity
through the nerves of touch in the mouth. To hold an article of food under
the nose at table would be justly considered a breach of etiquette. But
there is a second way of smelling, of which most people are quite
unconscious, viz., by _exhaling through the nose_ while eating and
drinking....It is well known that only a small portion of the mucous
membrane which lines the nostrils is the seat of the endings of the nerves
of smell. In ordinary expiration, the air does not touch this olfactory
region, but by a special effort it can be turned into that
direction....Instinct teaches most persons while eating to guide the air,
impregnated with the fragrance of the food, to a part of the nostrils
different from that used during ordinary exhalation; but, being
unaccustomed to psychologic analysis of their sensations, they remain
quite unconscious of this proceeding, and are, indeed, in the habit of
confusing their sensations of taste, smell, touch, and temperature in a
most absurd manner....

In trying to ascertain by experiment how far smell, touch, and temperature
enter into this compound sensation, popularly known as "taste," it is best
to make use of the pungent condiments. Mustard and horse-radish, for
example, have little or no taste, but reserve their pungent effect for the
mucous membrane of the nose during expiration. It is an advantage to know
this, for if care is taken to breathe only through the mouth, we need no
longer prepare to shed tears every time we help ourselves to the mustard.
The pungent quality of mustard, the fiery quality of ginger, and the cool
sensation in the mouth after eating peppermint, are due to the nerves of
touch and temperature, which are commonly classed as one sense, though
they are quite as distinct sensations as sight and hearing, or taste and
smell....

There are two ways in which the effort to extract all its fragrance from a
morsel of food confers a benefit.

(1.) It is necessary to keep the morsel in the mouth as long as possible.
Now the habit thus formed of eating very slowly is of the utmost
importance, for if farinaceous articles of food are swallowed before the
saliva has had time to act on them, they are little better than so much
waste material taken into the system; and if meat is not thoroughly
masticated, the stomach is overloaded with work which should have been
done by the teeth; the result, in either case, is dyspepsia. It has been
suggested that Mr. Gladstone owes his remarkable physical vigor to certain
rules for chewing food, which he adopted in 1848, and to which he has
adhered ever since. "He had always," we are told, "paid great attention to
the requirements of Nature, but he then laid down as a rule for his
children that thirty-two bites should be given to each mouthful of meat,
and a somewhat lesser number to bread, fish, etc."

(2.) Besides this indirect advantage resulting from the effort to get at
the fragrant odors of food, there is a still more remarkable direct
advantage. It is one of the most curious psychologic facts that odors
exert a strong influence on our system, either exhilarating or depressing.
While an unpleasant odor may cause a person to faint, the fumes of the
smelling bottle will restore him to consciousness. The magic and value of
gastronomic odors lies in this, that they stimulate the flow of saliva and
other alimentary juices, thus making sure that the food eaten will be
thoroughly utilized in renovating the system.--HENRY T. FINCK, _in "The
Gastronomic Value of Odors_." HYGIENE OF THE EAR (p. 236).--_Never
Box a Child's Ear_.--Children and grown persons alike may be entirely
deafened by falls or heavy blows upon the head. Boxing the ears produces a
similar effect, though more slowly and in less degree, and tends to dull
the sensibility of the nerve, even if it does not hurt the membrane. I
knew a youth who died from a terrible disease of the ear. There had been a
discharge from it since he was a child. Of course his hearing had been
dull; and _his father had often boxed his ear for inattention!_ Most
likely that boxing on the ear, diseased as it was, had much to do with his
death. And this brings me to the second point. Children should never be
blamed for being inattentive, until it has been found out whether they are
not a little deaf. This is easily done by placing them at a few yards'
distance, and trying whether they can understand what is said to them in a
rather low tone of voice. Each ear should be tried, while the other is
stopped by the finger. Three things should be remembered here: 1. That
slight degrees of deafness, often lasting only for a time, are very common
among children, especially during or after colds. 2. That a slight
deafness, which does not prevent a person from hearing when he is
expecting to be spoken to, will make him very dull to what he is not
expecting. 3. That there is a kind of deafness in which a person can hear
pretty well while listening, but is really very hard of hearing when not
listening.

_Avoid Direct Draughts in the Ear_.--There are some exposures
especially to be guarded against. One is sitting or driving with the ear
exposed to a side wind. Deafness has also been known to come from letting
rain or sleet drive into the ear.

_Do not Remove the Earwax_.--It ought to be understood that the
passage of the ear does not require cleaning by us. Nature undertakes that
task, and, in the healthy state, fulfills it perfectly. Her means for
cleansing the ear is _the wax_. Perhaps the reader has never wondered
what becomes of the earwax. I will tell him. It dries up into thin fine
scales, and these peel off, one by one, from the surface of the passage,
and fall out imperceptibly, leaving behind them a perfectly clean, smooth
surface. In health the passage of the ear is never dirty; but, if we
attempt to clean it, we infallibly make it so. Washing the ear out
frequently with soap and water keeps the wax moist when it ought to become
dry and scaly, increases its quantity unduly, and makes it absorb the dust
with which the air always abounds. But the most hurtful thing is
introducing the corner of the towel, screwed up, and twisting it round.
This does more harm to ears than all other mistakes together. It drives
down the wax upon the membrane, much more than it gets it out. But this
plan does much more mischief than merely pressing down the wax. It
irritates the passage, and makes it cast off small flakes of skin, which
dry up, and become extremely hard, and these also are pressed down upon
the membrane. Often it is not only deafness which ensues, but pain and
inflammation, and then matter is formed which the hard mass prevents from
escaping, and the membrane becomes permanently diseased.

_The Eustachian Tube_.--The use of this tube is twofold. First, it
supplies the drum with air, and keeps the membrane exactly balanced, and
free to move, with equal air pressure on each side; and, secondly, it
carries off any fluid which may be in the drum, and prevents it from being
choked by its own moisture. It is not always open, however, but is opened
during the act of swallowing, by a little muscle which is attached to it
just as it reaches the throat. Most persons can distinctly feel that this
is the case, by gently closing the nose and swallowing, when a distinct
sensation is felt in the ears. This sensation is due to a little air being
drawn out of the ears through the open tube during swallowing; and it
lasts for a few minutes, unless the air is again restored by swallowing
with the nose unclosed, which allows for the moment a free communication
between the ear and the throat. We thus see a reason for the tube being
closed. If it were always open, all the sounds produced in the throat
would pass directly into the drum of the ear, and totally confuse us. We
should hear every breath, and live in a constant bewilderment of internal
sounds. At the same time the closure, being but a light contact of the
walls of the tube, easily allows a slight escape of air _from_ the
drum, and thus not only facilitates and regulates the oscillations of the
air before the vibrating membrane, but provides a safety valve, to a
certain extent, against the injurious influence of loud sounds.

The chief use of the Eustachian tube is to allow a free interchange of air
between the ear and the throat, and it is very important that its use in
this respect should be understood. Persons who go down in diving bells
soon begin to feel a great pressure in the ears, and, if the depth is
great, the feeling becomes extremely painful. This arises from the fact
that in the diving bell the pressure of the air is very much increased, in
order to balance the weight of the water above; and thus it presses with
great force upon the membrane of the drum, which, if the Eustachian tube
has been kept closed, has only the ordinary uncompressed air on the inner
side to sustain it. It is therefore forced inward and put upon the
stretch, and might be even broken. Many cases, indeed, have occurred of
injury to the ear, producing permanent deafness, from descents in diving
bells, undertaken by persons ignorant of the way in which the ear is made;
though the simple precaution of frequent swallowing suffices to ward off
all mischief. For, if the Eustachian tube is thus opened, again and again,
as the pressure of the outside air increases, the same compressed air that
exists outside passes also into the inside of the drum, and the membrane
is equally pressed upon from both sides by the air, and so is free from
strain. The same precaution is necessary in ascending lofty mountains.--
DR. JAMES HINTON.

THE COLORED CURTAIN IN THE EYE (p. 238).--This ring-like curtain in the
eye, of gray, green, bluish-green, brown, and other colors, is one among
the very many remarkable contrivances of the organic world. The eye can
not bear the entrance of too much light, and the colored curtain so
regulates its own movements as to serve this requirement. The dark
circular aperture in the center, known as the pupil, is consequently
forever altering in size; on a bright, sunshiny day, out in the open, it
may be only the size of a pin's head, but at night, when there is no light
stronger than starlight, it is even bigger than a pea. The eye curtain is
fixed at its outer edge, leaving the inner edge to contract or expand,
which it does automatically and quite independent of the will, ever
preserving its circular outline. Its movements may be watched in a variety
of ways, some of which we shall describe.

The common way of watching the movements of the iris is to regard it
closely in a looking-glass while the amount of light entering the eyes is
varied. Place yourself before a looking-glass and with your face to the
window. Probably the iris will be expanded, and there will only be a very
small opening or pupil in the center. Now shut one eye suddenly, while
narrowly watching the other in the glass all the time. At the moment the
light is cut off from one eye, the iris of the other contracts or is drawn
up so as to enlarge the pupil. This shows that there is a remarkable
interdependence between the curtains of the two eyes, as well as that they
are affected by variations in the quantity of light falling on them.

Perhaps one of the most interesting ways of watching the movements of
these sympathetic eye curtains is one which may be followed while you are
out walking on the street some dark winter night. A gas lamp seen at a
distance is, comparatively speaking, a point of light, with bars of light
emanating from it in many directions. These bars, which give the peculiar
spoked appearance to a star, are probably formed by optical defects of the
lens within the eye, or by the tear fluid on the exterior surface of the
eye, or by a combination of all these causes. Be that as it may, the
lengths of the spokes of light are limited by the inner margin of the eye
curtain; if the curtain be drawn up, then the spokes are long; if the
curtain be let down, or, in other words, if the pupil be very small and
contracted, then one can not see any spokes at all. Hence, as I look at a
distant gaslight, with its radiating golden spokes, I am looking at
something which will give me a sure indication of any movements of the eye
curtains. I strike a match and allow its light to fall into the eyes; the
spokes of the distant gas lamp have retreated into the point of flame as
if by magic; as I take the burning match away from before my eyes, the
spokes of the gas-lamp venture forth again. The experiment may be utilized
to see how much light is required to move the window curtains of the eyes.
Suppose you are walking toward two gas lamps, A and B; B about fifty yards
behind A. If you steadfastly look at B and at the golden spokes apparently
issuing from it, you may make these spokes a test of how soon the light of
A will move your iris. As you gradually approach A, you come at last to a
position where its light is strong enough to make the spokes of B begin to
shorten; a little nearer still and they vanish altogether. I have found
that about a third of the light which is competent to contract the pupil
very markedly will serve to commence its movement.--WILLIAM ACKROYD.

PURKINJE'S FIGURES (p. 222).--Stand in a dark room with a lighted candle
in hand. Shutting the left, hold the candle very near the right eye,
within three or four inches, obliquely outward and forward, so that the
light shall strongly illuminate the retina. Now move the light about
gently, upward, downward, back and forth, while you gaze intently on the
wall opposite. Presently the field of view becomes dark from the intense
impression of the light, and then, as you move the light about, there
appears projected on the wall and covering its whole surface, a shadowy,
ghost-like image, like a branching, leafless tree, or like a great
bodiless spider with many branching legs. What is it? It is an exact but
enlarged image of the _blood vessels of the retina_. These come in at
the entrance of the optic nerve, ramify in the middle layer, and therefore
in the strong light cast their shadows on the bacillary layer of the
retina. The impression of these shadows is projected outward into the
field of view, and seen there as an enlarged shadowy image. These have
been called Purkinje's Figures, from the discoverer.--PROF. JOSEPH LE
CONTE, _in Sight_.




XI.


APPENDIX.

QUESTIONS FOR CLASS USE.

_The questions include the Notes and the Selected Readings. The figures
refer to the pages_.

INTRODUCTION.

Illustrate the value of physiological knowledge. Why should physiology be
studied in youth? When are our habits formed? How do habits help us? Why
should children prize the lessons of experience? How does Nature punish a
violation of her laws? Name some of Nature's laws. What is the penalty of
their violation? Name some bad habits and their punishments. Some good
habits and their rewards. How do the young ruin their health? Compare
one's constitution with a deposit in the bank. Can one in youth lay up
health as he can money for middle or old age? Is not the preservation of
one's health a moral duty? What is suicide?

THE SKELETON.

3. How many bones are there in the body? Is the number fixed? Is the
length of the different bones proportional? What is an organ? A function?
Name the three uses of the bones. Why do the bones have such different
shapes?

4. Why are certain bones hollow? Round? Illustrate. Compare the resisting
property of bone with that of solid oak. What is the composition of bone?
How does it vary? How can you remove the mineral matter? The animal
matter? Why is a burned bone white and porous? What food do dogs find in
bones?

5. What is the use of each of the constituents of a bone? What is
"boneblack"? What is ossification? Why are not the bones of children as
easily broken as those of aged persons? Why do they unite so much quicker?
What are the fontanelles?

6. Describe the structure of a bone. What is the object of the filling?
Why does the amount vary in different parts of a bone? What is the
appearance of a bone seen through a microscope?

7. What is the periosteum? Is a bone once removed ever restored? What are
the lacunæ? The Haversian canals? Why so called? _Ans_. From their
discoverer, Havers. Define a bone. [Footnote: Bone structure may be
summarized as follows: A bone is a collection of _Haversian
elements_, or rods. An Haversian element consists of a tube surrounded
by _lamellæ_, which contain _lacunæ_, connected by _canaliculi_.--DR.
T. B. STOWELL.] What occupies the lacunæ? _Ans_. The bone cells
(osteoblasts). How do bones grow?

8. Illustrate. How does a broken bone heal? How rapidly is bone produced?
Illustrate. Objects of "splints"? Describe how a joint is packed.
Lubricated.

9. How are the bones tied together? What is a tissue? Illustrate. Name the
three general divisions of the bones. What is the object of the skull?
Which bone is movable? How is the lower jaw hinged? Describe the
construction of the skull. What is a suture?

10. Tell how the peculiar form and structure of the skull adapt it for its
use. Illustrate the impenetrability of the skull.

11. Describe the experiment of the balls. What does it show? What two
cavities are in the trunk? Name its principal bones. Describe the spine.

12. What is the object of the processes? Of the pads? Why is a man shorter
at night than in the morning? Describe the perfection of the spine.

13. Describe the articulation of the skull with the spine. Why is the
atlas so called?

14. Describe the ribs. What is the natural form of the chest? Why is it
made in separate pieces? How does the oblique position of the ribs aid in
respiration? (See note, p. 80.)

15. How do the hipbones give solidity? What two sets of limbs branch from
the trunk? State their mutual resemblance. Name the bones of the shoulder.
Describe the collar bone.

16. Describe the shoulder blade. Can you describe the indirect
articulation of the shoulder blade with the trunk? Name the bones of the
arm. Describe the shoulder joint. The elbow-joint.

17. Describe the wrist. Name the bones of the hand. How many bones in the
fingers? The thumb? What gives the thumb its freedom of motion?

18, 19. Name and describe the fingers. In what lies the perfection of the
hand? How do the gestures of the hand enforce our ideas and feelings?
Describe the hip joint. What gives the upper limbs more freedom of motion
than the lower? How does the pressure of the air aid us in walking?
Illustrate.

20. Name the bones of the lower limbs. Describe the knee joint. The
patella. What is the use of the fibula? Can you show how the lower
extremity of the fibula, below its juncture with the tibia, is prolonged
to form a part of the ankle joint? Name the bones of the foot. What is the
use of the arch of the foot? What makes the step elastic? Describe the
action of the foot as we step.

21. In graceful walking, should the toes or the heel touch the ground
first? What are the causes of deformed feet? What is the natural position
of the big toe? Did you ever see a big toe lying in a straight line with
the foot, as shown in statuary and paintings? How should we have our boots
and shoes made? What are the effects of high heels? Of narrow heels? Of
narrow toes? Of tight-laced boots? Of thin soles? What are the rickets?
Cause of this disease? Cure? Is there any provision for remedying defects
in the body? Name one.

22, 23. What is a felon? Cure? Cause of bowlegs? How can they be
prevented? Causes of spinal curvature? Cure? What is the correct position
in sitting at one's desk? Is there any necessity for walking and sitting
erect? Any advantage aside from health? Describe the bad effects of a
stooping position. What is a sprain? Why does it need special care? What
is a dislocation? How is it generally caused? How soon should it be
treated?

269. What relation does man, in his general structure, bear to other
vertebrates? Mention some marked physical peculiarities which distinguish
him from the lower mammals.

270, 271. Describe the state of a fracture a week after its occurrence.
What is this new formation called? What marks the termination of the first
stage of curative progress? How do the broken ends of the bone now appear?
What is the state of the fracture at the end of the second stage? What is
the condition of the callus at this time? Describe the third and last
series of changes. Is the process of union completed sooner in old people
or in young? In the upper or lower extremities? In smaller animals or man?
What length of time is required to heal a broken arm? A broken leg?

272. What gives the human hand its peculiar prehensile power? What
advantage has the human thumb over that of the ape? Compare the foot of
man with that of the ape. What peculiarity of the foot is particularly
noticeable in man? Contrast the function of the great toe in man and in
the ape.

273. Are the toes naturally flexible? How are their powers crippled? Give
an instance in which the toes were trained to do the work of the fingers.

274. Why are an elastic step and a graceful carriage such rare
accomplishments? What is the natural shape of the foot? Which is the
longer, the great toe or the second toe? Is an even-sided symmetry
necessary to the beauty of a boot?

THE MUSCLES. 29. What relations do the skeleton and the muscles bear to
each other? How is the skeleton concealed? Why is it the image of death?
What are the muscles? How many are there? What peculiar property have
they? Name other properties of muscles. _Ans_. Tonicity, elasticity.

30. How are they arranged? Where is the biceps? The triceps? How do the
muscles move the limbs? Illustrate. What is the cause of squinting? Cure?
(See p. 244.)

31. Name and define the two kinds of muscles. Illustrate each. What is the
structure of a muscle? Of what is a fibril itself composed? How does the
peculiar construction of the muscle confer strength?

32. Describe the tendons. What is their use? Illustrate the advantages of
this mode of attachment.

33. What two special arrangements of the tendons in the hand? Their use?
How is the rotary motion of the eye obtained?

34, 35. What is a lever? Describe the three classes of levers. Illustrate
each. Describe the head as a lever. What parts of the body illustrate the
three kinds of levers? Give an illustration of the second class of levers.
The third class. Why is the Tendon of Achilles so named? What is the
advantage of the third class of levers? Why desirable in the hand? What
class of lever is the lower jaw?

36. What advantages are gained by the enlargement of the bones at the
joints? Illustrate. How do we stand erect? Is it an involuntary act?

37. Why can not a child walk at once, as many young animals do? Why can we
not hold up the head easily when we walk on "all fours"? Why can not an
animal stand erect as man does?

38. Describe the process of walking. Show that walking is a process of
falling. Describe the process of running. What causes the swinging of the
hand in walking? Why are we shorter when walking? [Footnote: Stand a boy
erect against a wall. Mark his height with a stick. Now have him step off
a part of a pace, and then several whole paces. Next, let him close his
eyes, and walk to the wall again. He will be perceptibly lower than the
stick, until he straightens up once more from a walking position.] Why
does a person when lost often go in a circle? In which direction does one
always turn in that case? [Footnote: Take several boys into a smooth grass
lot. Set up a stick at a distance for them to walk toward. Test the boys,
to find which are left-handed, or right-handed; which left-legged or
right-legged. Then blindfold the boys and let them walk, as they think,
toward the mark. See who varies toward the right, and who turns to the
left.]

39. What is the muscular sense? Value of educating it? How do we gratify
it?

40. What effect has exercise upon a muscle? Is there any danger in violent
exercise? For what purpose should we exercise? Should exercise be in the
open air? What is the rule for exercise? Is a young person excusable, who
leads a sedentary life, and yet takes no daily outdoor exercise? What will
be Nature's penalty for such a violation of her law? Will a postponement
of the penalty show that we have escaped it?

41. Ought a scholar to study during the time of recess? Will a promenade
in the vitiated air of the schoolroom furnish suitable exercise? What is
the best time for taking exercise? What class of persons can safely
exercise before breakfast?

42. What are the advantages of the different kinds of exercise? Should we
not walk more? What is the general influence upon the body of vigorous
exercise?

43. State some of the wonders of the muscles. What is the St. Vitus's
Dance? Cure?

44. What are convulsions? What is the locked-jaw? Causes? The gout? Cause?
Cure? The rheumatism? Its two forms? Peculiarity of the acute?

45. Danger in acute rheumatism? In what does chronic rheumatism often
result? What is lumbago? Give instances. What is a ganglion? Its cure? A
bursa?

275. What is meant by the origin of a muscle? The attachment? Is a muscle
always extended between two contiguous bones? Give an illustration. Can
the points of origin and of attachment change offices? Illustrate. What is
an important consequence of the attachment of the muscles to the bones?
If, in the limb of a dead body, one end of a muscle is separated from its
point of attachment, what occurs? Would the result be the same during
life? To what is this phenomenon due?

276. Why are the muscles continually striving to shorten? Describe the
effect when several opposing muscles are attached to one bone. When is the
balanced position of the limbs best observed? Are the muscles always
attached to bones? Give example. How does the flesh of man differ from
that of an ox? How may the structure of muscular fibers be rudely
illustrated? Describe smooth muscle fibers. How do they differ from
striated muscle fibers?

277. In what form do smooth muscle fibers frequently occur? In such cases,
how are they usually arranged? What is the effect of their contraction? Of
what especial use is this power in case of the smaller arteries? In case
of the intestine?

278. In the latter instance, how does the contraction take place? Are the
striated muscle fibers voluntary or involuntary? Name an exception to this
rule. Give other peculiarities of the muscle fibers of the heart. What
causes the contraction of smooth muscle fibers? Of striated muscle fibers?
Why do little children seldom injure themselves by overexertion? How is
the danger increased in youth?

279. What class of people are in most peril from violent or excessive
exercise? Why? At what age should one cease from haste of all kinds? Give
instances of valuable lives lost from personal imprudence.

280. What are the effects of insufficient exercise upon the young? How
does it predispose to disease? What makes the children of the laboring
classes so hardy? Is a regulation step desirable in walking? Why not? Why
is it more fatiguing to walk uphill than on level ground?

281. How does the management of the breath affect this fatigue? How should
a belt be worn, if used during exercise? Can other forms of exercise be
successfully substituted for walking? Why not? What is the difference in
movement between walking and skating? Which is the better exercise? What
are the dangers from skating? What precaution should be used by those who
have weak ankles?

282. Name the different action of the muscles in the forward and backward
movements in rowing. What is the comparative value of rowing as an
exercise? Why is it especially desirable for women? How should women dress
when rowing, horseback riding, tennis playing, etc.? What rules should be
observed by rowers? Why should the breath be allowed to escape while the
oar is in the water?

283. What sanitary measures should be observed after a row? What effect
has too frequent and too prolonged immersion on young swimmers? Does
swimming require much muscular exertion? Why? Why does an occasional
swimmer become exhausted sooner than an experienced one? On what do ease
and speed in swimming depend? Is the habit of diving desirable? Should
diving ever be practiced in shallow water?

284. Why is lawn tennis the most desirable of outdoor games? _Ans_.
Not only because nearly every muscle of the body is brought into exercise,
but because it is one of the few field sports in which women can
gracefully join. In this it shares the honor with croquet. What are the
dangers attendant on lawn tennis? From what do many of them arise? Why
should tennis shoes have heels? To what class of people is horseback
riding particularly suited? What class of invalids should not indulge in
bicycling and tricycling? To what class is it peculiarly beneficial?

285. What are the dangers attendant on baseball games? Football? When may
light and heavy gymnastics be profitably employed? Name a sufficient
apparatus. What are the objections to gymnasium exercise? Its advantages?

THE SKIN.

49. What are the uses of the skin? Describe its adaptation to its place.
What is its function as an organ? Describe the structure of the skin. The
sensitiveness of the cutis. The insensitiveness of the cuticle.

50. How is the skin constantly changing? The shape and number of the
cells? Value of the cuticle? How is the cuticle formed? _Ans_. By
secretion from the cutis.

51. What is the complexion? Its cause? Why is a scar white? What is the
cause of "tanning"? What are freckles? Albinos? Describe the action of the
sun on the skin.

52. Why are the hairs and the nails spoken of under the title of the skin?
Uses of the hair? Its structure? How can it be examined? What is the hair
bulb? What is it called? How does a hair grow? At what rate? When can it
be restored, if destroyed? Does hair grow after death?

53. When hair has become gray, can its original color be naturally
restored? What is the danger of hair dyes? Are they of any real value? How
can the hair stand on end? How do horses move their skin? Is there any
feeling in a hair?

54. Illustrate the indestructibility of the hair. What are the uses of the
nails? How do the nails grow? What is the mucous membrane?

55. Its composition? The connective tissue? Why so called? What uses does
it subserve?

56. What is its character? How does the fat exist in the body? Its uses?
State the various uses of membrane in the body. Where is there no fat?
Where is there always fat?

57. Why are the teeth spoken of in connection with the mucous membrane?
Name and describe the four kinds of teeth. What are the milk teeth?
Describe them. What teeth appear first?

58. Give the order and age at which they appear. When do the permanent
teeth appear? Describe their growth. Which one comes first? Last?

59. Describe the structure of the teeth. How are the teeth fitted in the
jaw?

60. Why do the teeth decay? What care should be taken of the teeth? What
caution should be observed? What are the oil glands?

61. Use of this secretion? What are the perspiratory glands? State their
number. Their total length. What are the "pores" of the skin?

62, 63. What is the perspiration? What is the constitution of the
perspiration? Illustrate its value. Name the three uses of the skin.
Illustrate the absorbing power of the skin. What precaution should be
observed in handling a dead body? Why are cosmetics and hair dyes
injurious? What relation exists between the skin and the lungs? What
lesson does this teach? When is the best time for a bath? Why?

64, 65. What is the value of friction? Why should not a bath be taken just
before or after a meal? Is an excess of soap beneficial? What is the
"reaction"? Explain its invigorating influence. How is it secured? General
effect of a cold bath? Of a warm bath? If we feel chilly and depressed
after a bath, what is the teaching? Describe the Russian vapor bath. Why
is the sea bath so stimulating?

66. How long should one remain in any bath? How does clothing keep us
warm? Explain the use of linen as an article of clothing. Cotton. Wool.
Flannel. How can we best protect ourselves against the changes of our
climate?

67. What colored clothing is best adapted for all seasons? Value of the
nap? Furs? Thick _vs_. thin clothing? Should we wear thick clothing
during the day, and in the evening put on thin clothing? Can children
endure exposure better than grown persons? What is the erysipelas? How
relieved?

68, 69. Eczema? What do its various forms denote? Corns? Cause? Cure?
Ingrowing nails? Cure? Warts? Cure? Chilblain? Cause? Preventive?

286. Name some causes of baldness. Give Dr. Nichols's opinion. Why is
frequent shampooing inadvisable? One probable reason why women are less
frequently bald than men? What is the best general treatment for the hair
and scalp? Upon what does the color of the hair mainly depend?

287. In cases of sudden blanching of the hair what is the effect upon the
pigment? Give an illustration. How do the extra air bubbles find their way
into the hair? Does air naturally exist in the hair? What relation do the
nails bear to the scarfskin?

288. What causes the horny appearance of the nails? Describe the root of
the nail in its relation to the sensitive and the scarfskin. Upon what
does the nail rest? What is its appearance? What is the lunula? Why is it
lighter than the rest of the nail? How does the nail increase in length?
In thickness? Where is the greatest thickness? How does the growth of the
nail during disease compare with its growth in health?

289. How long does it take the thumb nail to grow from its root to its
free extremity? The great toe? Give general rules for the care of the
nails. How does physical cleanliness promote moral purity? What does its
neglect indicate?

290. What especial care should be taken in regard to the feet? Why? Are
baths a modern refinement? What can you say about the ancient Greek and
Roman baths? What constitutes the value of the Turkish bath?

291. What class of people should never use this bath? To what class of
invalids is it particularly beneficial? Is sea bathing advisable for
persons of all ages? How should an inexperienced sea bather begin? When
should the sea bath be taken?

292. How long should a delicate person remain in the water? State the
danger of bathing when overheated. Under what conditions of body and of
temperature should sea or river bathing be avoided? Why? Give illustration
of the English soldier. How should the temperature of the water, in
bathing, compare with that of the air? Of the body?

293. Describe the bathers' cramp. What are its causes? What precaution
should be used by bathers in regard to the mouth and ears? Why?

294. How can a person who does not know how to swim, save himself from
drowning?

295. What are the advantages of woolen clothing? Why is it particularly
desirable in malarial countries? What double purpose does woolen clothing
serve in semitropical climates?

296. Does the warmth of clothing depend on its weight? What errors are
often made and with what effect? State what is said in regard to poisonous
dyes in wearing apparel. Give illustration.

297. What effect has uncleanly attire on the health? Does this apply to
outer as well as under garments?

RESPIRATION AND THE VOICE.

73. Name the organs of respiration and the voice. Describe the larynx. The
epiglottis. The œsophagus. What is meant by food "going the wrong way"?

74. Describe the vocal cords. Their use. How is sound produced?

75. How are the higher tones of the voice produced? The lower? Upon what
does loudness depend? A falsetto voice? What is the cause of the voice
"changing"? What is speech? Is the tongue necessary to speech? Illustrate.
(See also page 298.)

76. What is vocalization? How are talking machines made?

77. How is _a_ formed by the voice? What is _h_? Difference
between a sigh and a groan? What vowel sounds are made in laughing? Does
whistling depend on the voice? Tell how the various consonants are formed.
What are the labials? The dentals? The linguals? What vowels does a child
pronounce first?

78. Describe the windpipe. The bronchi. The bronchial tubes. Why is the
trachea so called? Describe the structure of the lungs. What are the lungs
of slaughtered animals called? Why will a piece of the lungs float on
water?

79. Name the wrappings of the lungs. Describe the pleura. How is friction
prevented? What are the cilia? Their use?

80. What two acts constitute respiration? In what two ways may the
position of the ribs change the capacity of the chest? Describe the
process of inspiration. Describe the diaphragm.

81. What is the process of expiration? How often do we breathe? What is
sighing? Coughing? Sneezing? Snoring? Laughing? Crying?

82. Describe hiccough. Yawning. Its value? What is meant by the breathing
capacity? How does it vary? How much, in addition, can the lungs expel
forcibly? How much of the breathing capacity is available only through
practice? Value of this extra supply? Can we expel all the air from our
lungs? Value of this constant supply?

83. How constant is the need of air? What is the vital element of the air?
Describe the action of the oxygen in our lungs. What does the blood give
up? Gain? What are the constituents of the air? What are the peculiar
properties and uses of each?

84. How can we test the air we exhale? What does its analysis reveal?
Which is the most dangerous constituent? What occurs when we rebreathe
exhaled air?

85. Describe its evil effects. What is denoted by the "Black Hole of
Calcutta"? Give other illustrations of the dangers of bad air. Describe
the need of ventilation. Will a single breath pollute the air?

86-95. How can we detect the floating impurities in the air? What is the
influence of a fire or a light? Of a hot stove? When is the ventilation
perfect? What diseases are largely owing to bad air? Should the windows
and doors be tightly closed, if we have no other means of ventilation? Is
not a draught of air dangerous? How can we prevent this, and yet secure
fresh air? What is the general principle of ventilation? Must pure air
necessarily be cold air? Are schoolrooms always properly ventilated? What
is the effect? Are churches? Are our bedrooms? Should children or delicate
people sleep in cold rooms? Can we, at night, breathe anything but night
air? Is the night air out of doors ever injurious? _Ans_. In times
and places of malaria, and also in very damp weather, it should be
avoided, even at the risk of bad air in doors. Describe some of the
wonders of respiration.

96. How is constriction of the lungs produced? When may clothing be
considered tight? What are the dangers of tight lacing? Which would make
the stronger, more vigorous, and longer-lived person, the form shown in
_A_ or _B_, Fig. 33? Is it safe to run any risk in this
dangerous direction?

97. What is Bronchitis? Pleurisy? Pneumonia? Consumption? What is one
great cause of Consumption? How may a constitutional tendency to this
disease be warded off in youth? _Ans_. Besides plenty of fresh air
and exercise, care should be taken in the diet. Rich pastry, unripe fruit,
salted meat, and acid drinks should be avoided, and a certain quantity of
fat should be eaten at each meal.--BENNETT. What is asphyxia? Describe the
process for restoring such a person. (See p. 264.)

98. What is diphtheria? Its peculiarities? Danger? The croup? Its
characteristics? Remedy? (See p. 260.) Causes of stammering? How cured?

297. How does the singing voice differ from the speaking voice? How can
you prove the effect of duration of sound in speaking and singing? How do
the intonations of the voice affect the meaning of words?

298. Give illustrations of speech in persons without a tongue. What is the
effect of alcohol and tobacco on the throat? Do they have an influence on
the voice? Does the excessive use of tea and coffee ever affect the voice?
How? To what is the hoarse tone of an inebriate due?

299, 300. What was Adelina Patti's advice with regard to stimulants and
late hours? Does the respiration of woman differ from that of man? Give
experiments with Indian women. What lessons do we draw from these facts?
What rule should be observed in regard to the size of a bodice? What are
bacteria or microbes? How is their existence revealed? What does the Germ
Theory of Disease teach in regard to microbes?

301. What can you say about the microbe of putrefaction? How can you
obtain it for examination? What office in Nature do bacteria seem to
serve? Give the theory in regard to propagation of special disease germs.
Do they always cause disease when taken into the body? [Footnote: Of the
immense number and variety of microorganisms found in Nature, only very
few are disease producing. Dr. Austin Flint says in _The Forum_, for
December, 1888: "It is probable that future investigations into the
physiology of digestion, will show that bacteria play an important part in
this function. Pasteur has recently isolated no less than seventeen
different microorganisms in the mouth, which were not destroyed by the
gastric juice. Some of these dissolved albumen, gluten, and caseine, and
some transformed starch into sugar. Bacteria normally exist in great
number and variety in the intestines, although the part which they take in
intestinal digestion has not been accurately determined."--The number of
spores introduced into the human system by respiration, when the health is
perfectly sound, has been estimated at three hundred thousand a day.]

302. State some conditions which favor the growth of disease germs. Which
prevent or retard their growth. Relate the effect of vaccination,
according to the germ theory.

303. 304. If a drop of an infusion charged with bacteria be put in the
extract of beef or mutton, what is the result? What would be the effect
upon an open wound? Give Dr. Tyndall's personal experience. Name some
efficient antidote against the bacteria of putrefaction. _Ans_.
Carbolic acid solution is extensively used for this purpose. How are
disease germs often disseminated? State the necessity of disinfection in
regard to soiled clothing.

305. Illustrate how disease has been communicated by clothing. What is the
first necessary condition to a sanitary home? What is the meaning of the
word malaria? What are three active agents in the production of malaria? A
fourth? Describe a typical malarious locality. How does newly broken
ground induce malaria?

306. State the different ways in which running water can be contaminated.
What care should be taken in regard to the level of building site?

307. Give some of the results of a wet foundation. What rules should be
observed in regard to shade? What is the effect of too dense foliage about
a dwelling? In building a house, what precautions should be taken against
dampness? What about the cellar? Sewerage? Plumbing? Ventilation?
Fireplaces? Piazzas and balconies? Sleeping rooms?

308. What general purpose does a house serve? What care should be taken in
regard to the dust or ash heap? What is the effect if liquids or table
refuse be thrown upon it? Where should it be situated? How often should
refuse be carted away? If its frequent removal be inexpedient, what
precaution should be used? What are the best of all deodorizers? How
should the back premises be cared for? What is the best way to dispose of
household garbage?

309. How can this be done? With what additional advantage? Give Dr.
Derby's remarks in regard to sewers, their condition, and the results. How
should traps and drains be cared for? How should bad smells be treated? Is
a foul smell always the most dangerous? How do poisonous gases often find
entrance to a house? What rule should be observed in regard to ventilating
and soil pipes?

310. What precautions should be observed in digging about a dwelling? How
do waste pipes often become closed? How may they be cleared? What dangers
arise from unventilated waste pipes? How are washbasin pipes contaminated?
Tell what came from a neighbor's cesspool. Can you name similar instances
which have come under your own observation?

311, 312. Describe the condition and effects of a neglected cellar. Tell
what came from a crack in a cellar wall.

313. What effect have brick and mortar in keeping out gases? How do bed
coverings take the place of day garments? What kind of bed covering is
desirable? Is a comfortable bed necessary to perfect health? How often and
for how long time should a bed be ventilated?

THE CIRCULATION.

105. Name the organs of the circulation. Does the blood permeate all parts
of the body? What is the average amount in each person? Its composition?
The plasma? The red corpuscles? The white?

106. What is the size of a red cell? Are the shape and size uniform? Value
of this? Illustrate. Are the disks permanent? What substances are
contained in the plasma? What is fibrin?

107. In what sense is the blood "liquid flesh"? What is the use of the red
disks? What is the office of the oxygen in the body? Where is the blood
purified?

108. What is transfusion? Is it of value?

109. Give some illustrations. What is the cause of coagulation of the
blood? Value of this property? Has the fibrin any other use?

110. What organ propels the blood? What is the location of the heart? How
large is it? Put your hand over it. What is the pericardium? Describe the
systole.

111. The diastole. How many chambers in the heart? What is their average
size? What is meant by the right and left heart? What are the auricles?
Why so called? The ventricles?

112. What is the use of the auricles? The ventricles? Which are made the
stronger? Show the need of valves in the ventricles. Why are there no
valves in the auricles? Draw on the board the form of the valves. Name
them.

113. Describe the tricuspid valve. The bicuspid. How are these valves
strengthened?

114. What peculiarity in the attachment of these cords? Describe the
semilunar valves. What are the arteries? Why so named? What is their use?
Their structure? How does their elasticity act? What is meant by a
"collateral circulation"?

115. How are the arteries protected? Where are they located? Give a
general description of the arterial system. What is the aorta? What is the
pulse? On which arteries can we best feel it? What is the average number
of beats per minute? How and why does this vary?

116. Why does a physician feel a patient's pulse? What are the veins? What
blood do they carry? Describe the venous system. What vein does not lead
toward the heart? Describe the valves of the veins. What valves of the
heart do they resemble? What are varicose veins?

117. Where and how can we see the operation of these valves? What are the
capillaries? What is the function of the capillaries? [Footnote: The
distinctive function of the capillaries is to offer peripheral resistance
to the circulation of the blood. This insures "blood pressure," a
condition indispensable to the "heart beat," and also causes leakage
(transudation). This leakage brings the nutriment in contact with the
tissue cells, whereby they are renewed. In the same way the air passes
from the blood to the cells.] What changes take place in this system?

118. Describe the circulation of the blood as seen in the web of a frog's
foot.

119. Who discovered the circulation of the blood? How was the discovery
received? What remark did Harvey make? What does that show? Name the two
divisions of the circulation. Describe the route of the blood by the
diagram. 1. The lesser circulation. 2. The greater circulation.

120. What is the velocity of the blood? How long does it require for all
the blood to pass through the heart? How long does it take the blood to
make the tour of the body? What is the average temperature of the body?
How much does this vary in health? _Ans_. Not more than 2°, even in
the greatest extremes of temperature.--FLINT.

121. How and where is the heat of the body generated? How is it
distributed? In what diseases is the variation of temperature marked? How
is the temperature of the body regulated?

122. In what way does life exist through death? Is not this as true in the
moral as in the physical world? What does it teach? How rapidly do our
bodies change? What are the three vital organs?

123. Name some of the wonders of the heart.

124-126. What is the lymphatic circulation? What is the thoracic duct? The
lymph? The glands? What is the office of the lymphatics? What are the
lacteals? Give some illustrations of the action of the lymphatics of the
different organs. Should we use care in selecting wall paper? What is
meant by the subcutaneous insertion of morphine? How do hibernating
animals live during the winter? What is a congestion? Its cause?

127. What is blushing? Why does terror cause one to grow cold and pale?
How is an inflammation caused? Name its four characteristics.

128. How may severe bleeding be stopped? How can you tell whether the
blood comes from an artery or a vein? Why should you know this? What is
the scrofula? What are "kernels"?

129, 130. How may a scrofulous tendency of the system be counteracted?
What kinds of food stimulate this disease? What is the cause of a "cold"?
Why does exposure sometimes cause a cold in the head, sometimes on the
lungs, and at others bring on a rheumatic attack? Why is a cold dangerous?
_Ans_. It weakens the system and paves the way for other diseases.
What is the theory of treating a cold? Describe the method. What is
catarrh? Cause?

131, 132. How is alcohol produced? Is alcohol present in domestic wines
and home-brewed ales? Are they, then, harmless drinks? What is a ferment?
(See also pp. 300, 301.) What is the difference between ferments,
bacteria, microbes, and fungi? _Ans_. A few investigators still look
upon the microorganisms known as bacteria and microbes as animal
existences, but the larger part now concede them to be vegetable.

133. What is the effect of fermentation? What can you say concerning
yeast?

134. Explain the process of making beer. Wine. What is distillation?

135, 136. Is there more than one kind of alcohol? What can you say of
methyl alcohol? Amyl? Ethyl? Which is the ordinary alcohol of commerce?
What is the peculiar effect of fusel oil? Is it often found in wines and
spirits? Has alcohol any beneficial properties?

137, 138. Describe one of the striking effects of alcohol. What is the
effect of alcohol on plant and animal life?

139, 140. What is the difference between the alcohol present in beer and
cider, and that in gin and whiskey? Name another dangerous effect of
alcoholic drinks. What business consideration should deter young men from
liquor drinking?

141-143. Illustrate the general effect of alcohol upon the circulation.
Upon the heart. Is alcohol a stimulant or a narcotic? Describe how alcohol
becomes the "Genius of Degeneration." Explain what is meant by "Vascular
Enlargement."

144, 145. Describe the effect of alcohol upon the membranes. Upon the
blood. Does it render the blood thin or heavy? What is the difference
between pure and alcoholized blood?

145-147. Describe the effect of alcohol upon the lungs. What form of
consumption does it induce? Are liquor drinkers more or less liable to
epidemic diseases?

314. How does the pulse felt by the finger correspond with the beat of the
heart? Name some agencies that influence the pulse beat? Which part of the
body has the most varied form of pulsation?

315. Compare the pulses of the wrist and brain in the sleeping and the
waking states. How do catarrhal colds generally arise? How are they best
cured?

316. What is said of the vitality of catarrh germs? What is a popular
fallacy with regard to the care of sick rooms? Give Dr. Austin Flint's
remarks in this connection.

DIGESTION AND FOOD.

151. Why do we need food? Why will a person starve without food? Are the
current stories of people who live without food to be relied upon? How
much food is needed per day by an adult in active exercise?

152. How much in a year? How does this amount vary? Describe the body as a
mold. As an eddy. What does food do for us? What does food contain?

153. How is this force set free? What force is this? How can it be turned
into muscular motion, mental vigor, etc.? Do we then draw all our power
from nature? What becomes of these forces when we are done with them? Do
we destroy the force we use? _Ans_. No matter has been destroyed, so
far as we know, since the creation, and force is equally indestructible.
Compare our food to a tense spring.

154. What three kinds of food do we need? What is nitrogenous food? Name
the common forms. What is the characteristic of nitrogenous food? Why
called albuminous? What is carbonaceous food? Its two kinds? Constituents
of sugar? Where are starch and gum ranked? Why? Use of carbonaceous food?
What becomes of this heat? Composition of fat? How does fat compare with
sugar in producing heat?

155. Name the other uses of carbonaceous food. From what kind of food does
the body derive the greatest strength? Name the mineral matters which
should be contained in our food. What can you say of the abundance and
necessity of water? Ought we not to exercise great care in selecting the
water we drink? [Footnote: Water which has passed through lead pipes is
apt to contain salts of that metal, and is therefore open to suspicion.
Metallic lined ice pitchers, galvanized-iron reservoirs, and many soda-
water fountains, are liable to the same objection. (See pp. 317, 318.)]
Does the character of our food influence the quantity of water we need?

156. What are the uses of the different minerals contained in food?
Illustrate the importance of salt. Could a person live on one kind of food
alone? Illustrate.

157. Describe the effect of living on lean meat. Show the necessity of a
mixed diet. Illustrate. Show the need of digestion. Illustrate.

158. What is assimilation? Describe the general plan of digestion. What
did Berzelius call digestion? Why? What amount of liquid is daily secreted
by the alimentary canal? What is the alimentary canal? How is it lined?
How does the amœba digest its food?

159. The hydra? Define secretion. Describe the saliva. How is it secreted?
What is the amount? Its organic principle? Its use? How soon does it act?
How long? What tends to check or increase the flow of saliva?

160. Describe the process of swallowing. The stomach. Its size. Its
construction. What is the peristaltic movement?

162. What is the pylorus? For what does this open? What is the gastric
juice? How abundant is it? To what is its acidity due? What organic
principle does it contain? How is pepsin prepared? How is the flow of
gastric juice influenced?

163. What is its use? Appearance of the food as it passes through the
pylorus? Why is not the stomach itself digested? What is the construction
of the intestines? How are the intestines divided? What is the duodenum?
Why so called? What juices are secreted here?

164. What is the bile? Describe the liver. What is its weight? Its
construction? _Ans_. It consists of a mass of polyhedral cells only
1/100 to 1/2000 of an inch in diameter, filling a mesh of capillaries. The
capillaries carry the blood to and fro, and the cells secrete the bile.
What is the cyst? What does the liver secrete from the blood besides the
bile? Is the bile necessary to life? Illustrate. What is its use?

165. What is the pancreatic juice? Its organic principle? Its use?
Appearance of the food when it leaves the duodenum? Describe the small
intestine. What is absorption? In what two ways is the food absorbed?

166. Where does the process commence? How long does it last? Describe the
lacteals. Of what general system do they form a part? What do the veins
absorb? Where do they carry the food? How is it modified?

167. What is glycogen? Describe the complexity of the process of
digestion. What length of time is required for digestion in the stomach?

168. May not food which requires little time in the stomach need more in
the other organs, and _vice versa_? Tell the story of Alexis St.
Martin. What time was required to digest an ordinary meal? Apples? Eggs,
raw and cooked? Roast beef? Pork? Which is the king of the meats? What is
the nutritive value of mutton? Lamb? How should it be cooked? Objection to
pork? What is the trichina?

169. Should ham ever be eaten raw? Value of fish? Oysters? Milk? Cheese?
Eggs? Bread? Brown bread? Are warm biscuit and bread healthful? Nutritive
value of corn?

170. Of the potato? Of ripe fruits? Of coffee? To what is its stimulating
property due? Its influence on the system? When should it be discarded?
Should children use any stimulants?

171. Effects of tea? Influence of strong tea? What is the active principle
of tea? Nutritive value of chocolate? What is its active principle? Story
of Linnæus? How should tea be made? What is the effect of cooking food?
What precaution in boiling meat? In roasting? Object of this high
temperature? What precaution in making soup? Why is frying an unhealthful
mode of cooking?

172. State the five evil results of rapid eating. What disease grows out
of it? If one is compelled to eat a meal rapidly, as at a railroad
station, what should he take? Why? Why does a child need more food
proportionately than an old person? State the relation of waste to repair
in youth, in middle, and in old age. What kind and quantity of food does a
sedentary occupation require? What caution should students who have been
accustomed to manual labor observe? Must a student starve himself?

173. Is there not danger of overeating? Would not an occasional abstinence
from a meal be beneficial? Do not most people eat more than is for their
good? How should the season regulate our diet? The climate? Illustrate.
What does a natural appetite indicate? How are we to judge between a
natural and an artificial longing? What does the craving of childhood for
sugar indicate? [Footnote: It does not follow from this, however, that the
free use of sugar in its separate form is desirable. The ordinary articles
of vegetable food contain sugar (or starch, which in the body is converted
into sugar), in large proportion; and there is good reason to believe that
in its naturally combined form it is both more easily digested, and more
available for the purposes of nutrition, than when crystallized. The
ordinary sugar of commerce, moreover, derived from the sugar cane, is not
capable of being directly applied to physiological purposes. Cane sugar is
converted within the body into another kind of sugar, identical with that
derived from the grape, before it can enter into the circuit of the vital
changes.]

174. What is the effect upon the circulation of taking food? Should we
labor or study just before or after a meal? Why not? What time should
intervene between our meals? Is "lunching" a healthful practice? Eating
heartily just before retiring? Is it never wise to eat at this time? (See
p. 337.) Why should care be banished from the table? Will a regular
routine of food be beneficial?

175, 176. Describe some of the wonders of digestion. What are the
principal causes of dyspepsia? How may we avoid that disease?

177. What are the mumps? What care should be taken? Is alcohol a food?
Illustrate.

178-187. Compare the action of alcohol with that of water. Is the alcohol
taken into the stomach eliminated unchanged? Does alcohol contain any
element needed by the body? What is the effect of alcohol upon the
digestion? Will pepsin act in the presence of alcohol? What is the effect
of alcohol upon the liver? What is "Fatty Degeneration"? What is the
effect of alcohol upon the kidneys? Does alcohol impart heat to the body?
Does it confer strength? What does Dr. Kane say? Describe Richardson's
experiments. Tell what peculiar influence alcohol exerts. What is
alcoholism? What is heredity?

317. What characteristics should good drinking water possess? Are these
always proof of its purity? Will filters remove all danger of
contamination? How may a river infect the entire population of a town?
State how well water may become a dangerous drink.

318. Relate how cases of fever have been caused by carelessness in
dairies. How should suspected water be treated? Describe a convenient
portable filter. Tell how water is affected by foul air.

319. Tell how ice may breed disease. What caution should be observed in
engaging ice for our summer supply? Illustrate the structure of the
glandular coat of the stomach.

320. What is the office of the cells? Describe the life history of a cell.
How does the stomach weep, and what is the character of its tears?

321. What is tyrotoxicon? Give Dr. Vaughan's experiments with cheese,
milk, and ice cream. Tell how milk may be poisoned.

322. Compare the vigor of exclusively fish-eating with flesh-eating
people. What is the peculiar value of fish as a diet? To what class of
people is it best suited? Name examples. Describe the principles contained
in coffee. What is the effect of caffeone? Of caffeine? Give some of the
specific effects of coffee. How does tea differ from coffee? Describe the
injurious effects of excessive tea drinking.

324. Compare theine and cocaine. Should children drink tea and coffee?

325. Give some causes of indigestion. Why are nervous people prone to
dyspepsia? Give the comparative digestibility of various meats.

326. Describe how our food sustains our bodies. Illustrate the energy
contained in one gramme of beef fat. Why is there danger in a "high-
pressure" style of living? Illustrate.

327. State the effects of gluttony. Why is it unkindness to indulge
inordinate appetites in children? What should be the rule in regard to
their food? What effects would follow its observance?

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

191. What are the organs of the nervous system? What is the general use of
this system? How does it distinguish animals from plants? What are the
vegetative functions? What is the gray matter? Its use? The white matter?
Its use?

193. Describe the brain. What is its office? Its size? How does it vary?
Illustrate. Name its two divisions.

194, 195. Describe the cerebrum. The convolutions. The membranes which
bind the brain together. What can you say of the quantity of blood which
goes to the brain? What does it show? What do the convolutions indicate?
What is the use of the two halves of the brain? What theories have been
advanced concerning it? Is every injury to the brain fatal? Illustrate.
Compare the human brain with the brains of some animals.

196. What is the effect of removing the cerebrum? Describe the cerebellum.
What is the arbor vitæ? What does this part of the brain control? What are
the peculiar functions of the cerebellum? Give Dr. Bastian's remarks.

197. What is the effect of an injury to the cerebellum? Describe the
spinal cord. What is the medulla oblongata? Describe the nerves. Is each
part of the body supplied with its own nerve? Prove it.

198. What are the motory nerves? The sensory? When will motion be lost and
feeling remain, and _vice versa?_ What is meant by a transfer of
pain? Illustrate.

199. Name the three classes of nerves. What are the spinal nerves?
Describe the origin of the spinal nerve.

199-201. What are the cranial nerves? How many pairs are there? Describe
them.

201, 202. Describe the sympathetic system. What is its use? How does the
brain control all the vital processes? What is meant by the crossing of
the cords? What is the effect? What exception in the seventh pair of
cranial nerves?

203, 204. What is reflex action? Give illustrations. Give instances of the
unconscious action of the brain. [Footnote: The cerebellum has its
unconscious action in the processes of respiration and in the involuntary
movements which are made in response to the senses, as in winking,
starting back at a sound, etc. The cerebrum acts automatically in oases
familiar to all. A large part of our mental activity consists of this
unconscious brain work. There are many cases in which the mind has
obviously reasoned more clearly and more successfully in this automatic
condition, when left entirely to itself, than when we have been cudgeling
our brains, so to speak, to get the solution. Oliver Wendell Holmes has
aptly expressed this fact. "We wish," he says, "to remember something in
the course of conversation. No effort of the will can reach it; but we
say, 'Wait a minute, and it will come to me,' and we go on talking. Some
minutes later, the idea we are in search of comes all at once into the
mind, delivered like a prepaid parcel, or like a foundling in a basket,
laid at the door of consciousness. How it came there, we know not. The
mind must have been at work, groping and feeling for it in the dark; it
can not have come of itself. Yet, all the while, our consciousness, _so
far as we are conscious of our consciousness_, was busy with other
thoughts."

Some interesting personal experiences upon this point are given in an
article entitled "The Antechamber of Consciousness," by Francis Speir,
Jr., in the _Popular Science Monthly_ for March, 1888.] Can there be
feeling or motion in the lower limbs when the spinal cord is destroyed?
What does the story told by Dr. John Hunter show? Give illustrations of
the independent action of the spinal cord in animals. What are the uses of
reflex action?

205. State its value in the formation of habits. How does the brain grow?
What laws govern it? What must be the effect of constant light reading? Of
overstudy or mental labor?

206. State the relation of sleep to repair and waste. How many hours does
each person need? What kind of work requires most sleep?

206-208. What is the influence of sunlight on the body? Illustrate. Name
some of the wonders of the brain.

208-213. What four stages are there in the effect of alcohol on the
nervous system? Describe each. Does alcohol confer any permanent strength?
What is the physiological effect of alcohol on the brain? On the mental
and moral powers? What is the Delirium Tremens? Should a man be punished
for a crime he commits while drunk?

214-218. What are the principal constituents of tobacco? What are its
physiological effects? Who are most likely to escape injury? Is tobacco a
food? What is its influence upon youth? Why are cigarettes specially
injurious? What effect does tobacco have on the sensibilities? Name
illustrations of the injurious effect of tobacco on young men.

219-221. How is opium obtained? What is its physiological effect? Which
form of using it is most injurious? Can one give up the use of opium when
he pleases? How do people sometimes take opium without knowing it?

221. What is the harmful influence of chloral hydrate? Describe its
different physiological effects.

222. Compare its influence with that of alcohol. How is chloroform
obtained? Does its use require great caution? Illustrate its effects.

223, 224. What is cocaine? What is its value? Its physiological effect?
Its dangers?

331-333. What is the effect of extreme anger? Give the physiological
explanation of this deterioration. What two organs particularly suffer?
Illustrate. To what cause are many suicides referable? How can one secure
a calm and tranquil life? What is the effect of forcing the brain in
childhood?

334. Illustrate. How should a child be taught?

334, 335. Why should we not exhaust our energies to the last degree? What
warnings does Nature give us? Do stimulants supply force? What is the
effect of mental exhaustion? Which is the most common, overwork or worry?
Most dangerous? What is worry? Its effect? What other causes often induce
insanity?

336-338. State some curiosities of sleep. Some conditions necessary to
sound and healthful slumber. How may we acquire the habit of early rising?

338, 339. Give some of the results of dungeon life.

339-347. What can you say of the growth and power of poison habits?
Illustrate. How does physiological ignorance often cause intemperance?
What is the usual result of a stimulant habit? In what virtue lies the
peril of narcotics? Balance the good and the evil in their use. Illustrate
how death often results from chloroform and chloral. What common result is
worse than death? Compare the demoralization in the cases of the opium
user and the alcohol drinker. What principle of heredity attaches to the
use of opium? Give instances of deaths from tobacco, opium, etc. What can
you say of cigarette smoking? Chloral hydrate? The bromides? Absinthe?
Hasheesh?

THE SPECIAL SENSES.

229, 230. What is a sense? Name the five senses. To what organ do all the
senses minister? If the nerve leading to any organ of sense be cut, what
would be the effect? [Footnote: Each, organ is adapted to receive a
peculiar kind of impression. Hence we can not smell with, the eyes nor see
with the nose. Thus, if the nerve communicating between the brain and any
organ be destroyed, that means of knowledge is cut off.] Sometimes persons
lose feeling in a limb, but retain motion; why is this? What is the sense
of touch sometimes called? Describe the organ of touch. What are the
papillæ? Where are they most abundant? [Footnote: If we apply the points
of a compass blunted with cork to different parts of the body, we can
distinguish the two points at one twenty-fourth of an inch apart on the
tongue, one sixteenth, of an inch on the lips, one twelfth of an inch on
the tips of the fingers, and one half inch on the great toe; while, if
they are one inch on the cheek, and two inches on the back, they will
scarcely produce a separate sensation.--HUXLEY.] What are the uses of this
sense? What special knowledge do we obtain by it? Why do we always desire
to handle any curious object? Can the sense of touch always be relied
upon? Illustrate. What is the _tactus eruditus_? Tell how one sense
can take the place of another. Give illustrations of the delicacy of touch
possessed by the blind.

230-232. Describe the sense of taste. How can you see the papillæ of
taste? What causes the velvety look of the tongue? Why do salt and bitter
flavors induce vomiting? Why does an acid "pucker" the face? What
substances are tasteless? Illustrate. Has sulphur any taste? Chalk? Sand?
What is the use of this sense? Does it not also add to the pleasures of
life? Why are the acts of eating, drinking, etc., thus made sources of
happiness?

232, 233. Describe the organ of smell. State the intimate relation which
exists between the senses of smell and taste. Name some common mistakes
which occur in consequence. Must the object to be smelled touch the nose?
What is the theory of smell? How do you account for the statement made in
the note concerning musk and ambergris? What are the uses of this sense?
Are agreeable odors healthful, and disagreeable ones unhealthful?

234-236. Describe the organ of hearing. Describe the external ear. What is
the tympanum or drum of the ear? Describe the middle ear. Name the bones
of the ear. Describe their structure. Describe the internal ear. By what
other name is it known? What substances float in the liquid which fills
the labyrinth? What is their use? Describe the fibers of Corti. What do
they form? Use of this microscopic harp? Give the theory of sound. Where
is the sound, in the external object or in the mind? Can there be any
sound, then, where there is no mind? What advice is given concerning the
care of the ear? How can insects be removed? Which sense would you rather
lose, hearing or sight? Does not a blind person always excite more
sympathy than a deaf one? How does the sight assist the hearing?
[Footnote: In _hearing_, the attention is more or less characteristic.
If we wish to distinguish a distant noise, or perceive a sound, the
head inclines and turns in such a manner as to present the external
ear in the direction of the sound, at the same time the eyes are
fixed and partially closed. The movement of the lips of his interlocutor
is the usual means by which the deaf man supplies the want of hearing; the
eyes and the entire head, from its position, having a peculiar and painful
expression of attention. In looking at the portrait of La Condamine, it
was easily recognized as that of a deaf person. Even when hearing is
perfect, the eyes act sometimes as auxiliaries to it. In order to
understand an orator perfectly, it seems necessary to see him--the
gestures and the expression of the face seeming to add to the clearness of
the words. The lesson of a teacher can not be well understood if any
obstacle is interposed between him and the eyes of the listening pupil. So
that if a pupil's eyes wander, we know that he is not attentive.--
_Wonders of the Human Body_.]

236, 237. Describe the eye. Name the three coats of which it is composed.
Is it a perfect sphere? _Ans_. The cornea projects in front, and the
optic nerve at the back sticks out like a handle, while the ball itself
has its longest diameter from side to side. How is the interior divided?
Object of the crystalline lens? How is the crystalline lens kept in place?
Describe the liquids which fill the eye.

238. What is the pupil? Describe the eyelids. Why is the inner side of the
eyelid so sensitive? What is the cause of a black eye? Use of the
eyelashes? Where are the oil glands located? What is their use? Describe
the lachrymal gland. The lachrymal lake. What causes the overflow in old
age?

239. Explain the structure of the retina. Use of the rods and cones. What
is the blind spot?

240. Illustrate. What is the theory of sight? Illustrate.

241, 242. State the action of the crystalline lens. Its power of
adaptation. Do children ever need spectacles?

243. What is the cataract? How cured? What is color blindness? Illustrate.
What care should be taken of the eyes? Should one constantly lean forward
over his book or work? What special care should nearsighted children take?
By what carelessness may we impair our sight?

244. How is squinting caused? Cured? What care should be used after an
illness? Should we ever read or write at twilight? Danger of reading upon
the ears? What course should we take when objects get into the eye? How
may they be removed?

245. Are "eyestones" useful? Why should we never use eyewashes except upon
the advice of a competent physician? What rule should be observed with
regard to the direction of the light when we are at work? Name some causes
of near-sightedness. Remedies.

346. Give the account of Laura Bridgman.

347-350. Describe the anatomy of the nose. In what part of the nose is the
function of smell performed? Why do we "sniff" when our attention is
attracted by an odor? Give some experiments which illustrate the
connection between smell, taste, and touch. Why should we retain our food
in the mouth as long as possible? Of what use are gastronomic odors?

350. Why should a child's ear never be boxed? Illustrate. How can we
detect inattention from deafness in a child? What should we consider in
this respect?

351. Why should we avoid direct draughts in the ear? Explain the use of
earwax. What common habit is very injurious? Why?

352, 353. What is the office of the Eustachian tube? Illustrate.

353, 354. Describe the action of the "eye curtain." Give experiments. What
are "Purkinje's Figures"? Describe experiment.

HEALTH AND DISEASE.

251-254. State some of the benefits of health. Contrast it with sickness.
How were diseases formerly supposed to be caused? What remedies were used?
What does modern science teach us to be the nature of disease? Give some
illustrations showing how diseases may be prevented. Is it probable that
the body was intended to give out in any one of its organs? What is the
first step to be taken in the cure of a disease? What should be the object
of medicine? What is now the chief dependence of the best physicians? What
do you think concerning the common use of patent nostrums? Ought we not to
use the greatest care in the selection of our physician?

GLOSSARY.

Ab do' men (_abdo_, I conceal). The largest cavity in the body, in
which are hidden the intestines, stomach, etc.

Ab sorb' ent (_ab_, from _sorbeo_, I suck up).

Ac' e tab' u lum (_acetum_, vinegar). The socket for holding the head
of the thigh bone, shaped like an ancient vinegar vessel.

A ce' tic (_acetum_, vinegar).

Ad' i pose. Fatty.

Al bu' men (_albus_, white). A substance resembling the white of egg.

Al bu' mi nous substances contain much albumen.

Al' i men' ta ry. Pertaining to food.

Al' ka line (-lin) substances neutralize acids.

An' æs thet' ic. A substance that destroys the feeling of pain.

A or' ta. The largest artery of the body.

Ap' o plex y (pleks y). A disease marked by loss of sensation and
voluntary motion.

A' que ous (a'-kwe-us). Watery.

A rach' noid (_arachne_, a spider; _eidos_, form). A membrane
like a spider's web covering the brain.

Ar' bor vi'tæ means "the tree of life."

Ar' tery (_aer_, air; _tereo_, I contain). So named because
after death the arteries contain air only, and hence the ancients supposed
them to be air tubes leading through the body.

Ar tic' u late (_articulo_, I form a joint).

Ar tic' u la tion. A joint.

As phyx' ia (-fix-i-a). Literally, no pulse; apparent death.

As sim' i la' tion is the process of changing food into flesh, etc.

At' las. So called because, as in ancient fable the god Atlas supported
the globe on his shoulders, so in the body this bone bears the head.

Au' di to ry Nerve. The nerve of hearing.

Au' ri cle (-kl) (_auris_, ear) of the heart. So named from its
shape.

Bi' ceps. A muscle with two heads, or origins.

Bi cus' pid. Tooth with two points; also a valve of the heart.

Bron' chi (-ki). The two branches of the windpipe.

Bron' chi al Tubes. Subdivisions of bronchi.

Bur sa (a purse). Small sac containing fluid near a joint.

Ca nine' (_canis_, a dog) teeth are like dog's teeth.

Cap' il la ries (_capillus_, a hair). A system of tiny blood vessels.

Car' bon. Pure charcoal.

Car bon' ic Acid. A deadly gas given off by the lungs and by fires.

Ca rot' ids (_karos_, lethargy). Arteries of the neck, so named
because the ancients supposed them to be the seat of sleep.

Car' pus. The wrist.

Car' ti lage. Gristle.

Cell. A minute sac, usually with soft walls and fluid contents.

Cel' lu lar (_cellula_, a little cell). Full of cells.

Cer' e bel' lum. The little brain.

Cer' e brum. A Latin word meaning brain.

Cer' vi cal. Relating to the neck.

Chlo' ral (klo) Hy' drate. A drug used to induce sleep.

Cho' roid. The second coat of the eye.

Chyle (kile). A milky juice formed in digestion.

Chyme (kime). From _chumos_, juice.

Cir' cu la' tion. The course of the blood through the body.

Cil' i a (the plural of _cilium_, an eyelash). Hair-like projections
in the air passages.

Clav' i cle (klav'-i-kl). From _clavis_, a key.

Co ag' u la'tion. A clotting of blood.

Coc' cyx (a cuckoo). A bony mass below the sacrum.

Coch' le a. A Latin word meaning snail shell. See Ear

Com' pound. A substance composed of two or more elements.

Con ta' gious diseases are those caught by contact, the breath, etc.

Con' trac til' i ty (_con_, together; _traho_, I draw).

Con' vo lu' tion (_con_, together; _volvo_, I roll).

Cor' ne a (_cornu_, a horn). A transparent, horn-like window in the
eye.

Cor' pus cle (kor'-pus-l). From a Latin word meaning a little body. It is
applied to the disks of the blood.

Cra' ni al. Relating to the skull.

Crys'tal line (_crystallum_, a crystal).

Cu ta' ne ous (_cutis_, skin). Pertaining to the skin.

Cu' ti cle (ku'-ti-kl). From a Latin word meaning little skin.

Cu' tis, the true skin.

Den' tal (_dens, dentis_, a tooth).

Di' a phragm (-fram). The muscle dividing the abdomen from the chest.

Di as' to le (_diastello_, I put asunder). Dilation of the heart.

Dis' lo ca' tion. A putting out of joint.

Dor' sal (_dorsum_, the back).

Duct. A small tube.

Du o de' num (_duodeni_, twelve each).

Du' ra Ma' ter (_durus_, hard; _mater_, mother). The outer
membrane of the brain.

Dys pep' si a is a difficulty of digestion

E lim' i nate. To expel.

Ep' idem' ic. A disease affecting a great number of persons at once.

Ep' i der' mis. The cuticle.

Ep' i glot' tis (_epi_, upon; _glottis_, the tongue). The lid of
the windpipe.

Ep' i the' li um. The outer surface of mucous or serous membranes.

Eu sta' chi an (u-sta'-ki-an) Tube. So named from its discoverer, an
Italian physician.

Ex cre' tion. Waste particles thrown off by the excretory organs.

Fer' men ta' tion. The process by which sugar is turned into alcohol.

Fi' brin (_fibra_, a fiber).

Fil' a ment (_filum_, a thread).

Func' tion. See Organ.

Gan' gli on (gang'-gli-on). From _ganglion_, a knot; plu. ganglia.

Gas' tric (_gaster_, stomach).

Glands (_glandz_). From _glans_, a Latin word meaning acorn.
Their object, is to secrete in their cells some liquid from the blood.

Glot' tis. The opening at the top of the larynx.

Hu' me rus. The arm bone.

Hu' mor. A Latin word meaning moisture.

Hy' dro gen. The lightest gas known, and one of the elements of water.

Hy' gi ene. From a Greek word meaning health.

Hyp' o glos' sal. Literally "under the tongue"; a nerve of the tongue.

In ci' sor (_incido_, I cut) teeth are cutting teeth.

In' spi ra' tion (_in_ and _spiro_, I breathe in).

In tes' tine (-tin). From _intus_, within.

Lach' ry mal (_lachryma_, a tear). Pertaining to tears.

Lac' te al (_lac_, _lactis_, milk). So called from the milky
look of the chyle during digestion.

La cu' na, plu. lacunæ (_lakos_, a hole). Cavities in the bone
structure.

Lar' ynx (lar'-inx). The upper part of the windpipe.

Lig' a ments (_ligo_, I bind) tie bones together.

Lu' bri cate. To oil in order to prevent friction.

Lum' bar (_lumbus_, a loin). Pertaining to the loins.

Lymph (limf). From _lympha_, pure water.

Lym phat' ic (lim-fat-ik).

Mas' ti ca' tion. The act of chewing.

Me dul' la Ob lon ga' ta. The upper part of the spinal cord.

Mam' brane. A thin skin, or tissue.

Mes' en tery. The membrane by which the intestines are fastened to the
spine.

Met' a car' pal (_meta_, after; _karpos_, wrist).

Met' a tar' sal (_meta_, after; _tarsos_, the instep).

Mi' cro scope (_mikros_, small; _skopeo_, I see).

Mo'lar (_mola_, a mill) teeth are the grinders.

Morp' hine (_Morpheus_, the Greek god of sleep).

Mo' tor. Giving motion.

Mu' cous (-kus) Membrane. A thin tissue, or skin, covering the open
cavities of the body. See Serous.

Mu' cous. A fluid secreted by a membrane and serving to lubricate it.

Mus' cle (mus-l). A bundle of fibers covered by a membrane.

My o' pi a (_muo_, I contract; _ops_, the eye).

Nar cot' ic. A drug producing sleep.

Na' sal (na'-zal). From _nasus_, the nose.

Nerve (neuron, a cord).

Ni' tro gen Gas is the passive element of the air.

Ni trog' e nous. Containing nitrogen.

Nu tri' tion. The process by which the body is nourished.

Πsoph' agus (e-sof'-a-gus). The gullet; literally, a "food-carrier."

Ol fac' to ry. Pertaining to the smell.

Or' gan. An organ is a portion of the body designed for a particular use,
which is called its _function_; thus the heart circulates the blood.

Os' se ous. Bone-like.

Os' si fy (_ossa_, bones; _facio_, I make).

Ox i da' tion. The process of combining with oxygen.

Ox' y gen. The active element of the air.

Pal' ate (_palatum_, the palate). Roof of the mouth.

Pan' cre as (_pas_, all; _kreas_, flesh). An organ of digestion.

Pa pil' la, plu. papillæ. Tiny cone-like projections.

Pa ral' y sis. A disease in which one loses sensation, or the power of
motion, or both.

Pa rot' id (_para_, near; _ous_, _otos_, ear). One of the
salivary glands.

Pa tel' la (a little dish). The kneepan.

Pec' to ral. Pertaining to the chest.

Pep' sin (_pepto_, I digest). The chief constituent of the gastric
juice.

Per' i car' di um (_peri_, around; _kardia_, the heart). The
membrane wrapping the heart.

Per' i os' te um (_peri_, around; _osteon_, bone). The membrane
around the bone.

Per' i stal' tic (_peri_, round; _stallein_, to arrange).
Applied to the worm-like movement of the alimentary canal.

Phar' ynx (far'-inx). From _pharugx_, the throat.

Pi' a Ma' ter (tender mother). See Brain.

Pig' ment. A paint.

Plas' ma (plaz'-ma). The nutritious fluid of the blood.

Pleu' ra (plu'-ra). From _pleuar_, a rib. The membrane that lines the
chest and wraps the lungs.

Pres by o' pi a (_presbus_, old; _ops_, the eye). A defect in
the eye common to old age.

Proc' ess. A projection. Sometimes it retains its ordinary meaning of
"operation."

Py lo' rus (a gate). The doorway through which the food passes from the
stomach.

Pul' mo na ry (_pulmo_, the lungs). Pertaining to the lungs.

Ra' di us. A Latin word meaning the spoke of a wheel, a ray, etc.

Ram' i fy. To spread like the branches of a tree.

Res' pi ra´ tion (_re_, again; _spiro_, I breathe). Act of
breathing.

Ret' i na (_rete_, a net). The expansion of the optic nerve in the
eye.

Sa' crum (sacred). So named, it is said, because this bone of the pelvis
was anciently offered in sacrifice.

Sa li' va. A Latin word meaning spittle; the fluid secreted by the
salivary glands.

Scap' u la. The shoulder blade.

Scav' en ger. A street sweeper.

Sele rot' ic (skie-rot'-ic). The outer coat of the eye.

Se cre' tion (_secretum_, to separate).

Sed' en ta ry persons are those who sit much.

Sen' so ry Nerves. The nerves of feeling.

Se' rous Membrane. A thin tissue, or skin, covering the cavities of the
body that are not open to the external air.

Se' rum. The thin part of the blood.

Sub cla' vi an. Located under the clavicle.

Sub lin' gual (_sub_, under: _lingua_, the tongue). The salivary
gland located under the tongue.

Sub max' il la ry (_sub_, under; _maxilla_, jawbone). The
salivary gland located under the jaw.

Syn o' vi a (_sun_, with; _oon_, egg). A fluid that lubricates
the joints.

Syn o' vi al Membrane packs the joints.

Sys' to le (_sustello_, I contract). Contraction of the heart.

Tem' po ral. An artery on the temple (_tempus_, time), so called
because, as is said, the hair whitens first at that point.

Ten' dons (_tendo_, I stretch). The cords conveying motion from the
muscle to the bone.

Tho' rax (a breastplate). The cavity containing the lungs, etc.

Tib' ia. The shin-bone.

Tis' sue. A general term applied to the textures of which the different
organs are composed; osseous tissue forms bones.

Tra' che a (tra'-ke-a). Means rough, alluding to the roughened surface of
the windpipe.

Tri' ceps. A muscle with three heads, or origins.

Tri' cus' pid (_tres_, three; _cuspis_, point). A valve of the
heart.

Tym' pa num (a drum) of the ear.

Vas' cu lar (_vasculum_, little vessel). Full of small blood vessels.

Ven' tri cle (-kl). A cavity of the heart.

Ver' te bra, plu. vertebræ (_verto_, I turn). A term applied to each
one of the bones of the spine.

Vil' lus (_villus_, tuft of hair), plu. villi.

Vi' ti ate. To taint. To spoil.

Vit' re ous (_vitrium_, glass). Glassy.

Vo' mer (plowshare). A bone of the nose.




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