Complete Text (Part 2)

instance, when a bee flies against the eye to sting you, he first strikes the winkers, and your eye-lids shut, and the delicate eye- ball is sheltered from danger. We have hair on other parts of our body, for the purpose of keeping the sweat that comes from the sudoriferous glands from scalding or chafing the skin. We have two eyes to see; two ears to hear; two nostrils to breathe; a mouth to taste; a nose to smell; and a body and lingers to feel with; through \yhich organs we have the live grand senses transmitted to the brain, through which we recognize all of God's blessings: seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and tasting. AVe have two sets of muscles — voluntary and involun- tary. The voluntary muscles are those that are controlled by the will ; the involuntary are those that are governed by the fixed chemical laws of animal creation, free from the will, and cannot pos- sibly be controlled by it. We are fearfully and won- derfully made. We are a greater mystery to our- selves than all of our surroundings. No one can 16 tell why a man's vital force begins to fail at the age of forty-five or fifty ; but every organ that consti- tutes his body fades, in the healthy man, at the above-named age, in sweet harmony, and he has reached the summit of life, and taken the swift wings that carry man to the bosom of his Father and his God. With these few anatomical remarks, my kind readers, I will say that my object has been to give you a profitable glimpse of the temporal body we own and dwell in that you may profit by it and be partially enabled to know thft man has the finest machinery in his body to care, for that our Allwise God ever created in the animal kingdom of the earth. Physiology and Hygiene. Physiology treats of the functions or actions, or in other words, the work the healthy organs of our bodies perform. In these remarks I can give you a few of the most essential facts, warranting you, if you remember them, that you may profit by them and lengthen the number of your years of life. We will first consider the process of digestion. When we take food in our mouth and commence to chew !7 it, we find that there is a slippery fluid thrtiwn out into the mouth. This is intended by nature to accomplish a very important purpose : first, to moisten the food, so that when it is ground up into a bolus or ball, it may be slippery and moist, that it wTill readily pass down the stomach tube to the stomach when swallowed, and be in a fit condition for the gastric juice to enter and dissolve. Second- ly, it has a chemical property that unites with the starchy portion of the food, and converts it into glu- cose or sugar. After the food enters the stomach, the gastric follicle of the stomach throws out a fluid as sour as the juice of a lemon, called gastric juice, which is caused to mingle with the food and satur- ate it, and dissolve it ready to be absorbed and as- similated. The greater portion of the albuminous part of the food is taken up by the stomach, and that which remains is carried with the fatty portion of the food through the pyloric orifice, or valve of the lower portion or end of the stomach, into the bowels, where it is taken up by the lacteals of the bowels, and carried to perform its mission. The bowels have what is called a peristaltic or vermicu- lar action, which means, in common language, a worm-like or squirming motion, which worms the food-through the bowels. When there is a cathartic medicine taken into the system, it irritates and stimulates this action, and the result is frequent 18 actions on the bowels. Then, after the stimulation find irritation subsides, the vermicular action falls- as far behind the normal or natural standard as it was stimulated above it, and the usual result is, constipation or costiveness follows for a few days, till nature can regain herself again. We have an organ called the heart, which has four chambers or apartments, consisting of two apartments called auricles and ventricles, situated it the left breast, in a sack called pericardium. The two auricles are called right and left, and the ventricles are called the same. The muscular power of the left ventricle is greater than that of the right, from the fact it has to throw the blood farther. With the heart is> connected two main arteries; aortic and pulmonary The auricles are to receive the blood, and the ven- tricles to throw it out to all parts of the body. The heart, in a healthy person, pulsates seventy times per minute. The blood is thrown from the left ventricle into the aortic artery, which has branches that lead to all parts of the system. After it reaches the end of the arteries, it enters a system of vessels called capillaries, which means hair-like, and carries the blood through the tissues of the body, and empties it into the veins, which carries it back to the right auricle, and from there it goes to the right ventricle, which throws it to the lungs, through the pulmonic artery, where it receives oxygen from the 19 air we inhale or breathe into our lungs, which con- verts the blood from a dark venous character to that of a bright arterial character. From there it enters the pulmonic veins, and is carried to the left auricle, and from there to the left ventricle, from whence it is propelled in the same course as I have just described. The lungs are two organs situated in the thorax or breast. They have a tube that leads to them, and forks into two branches, and these two branches, and all the little ones into which they subdivide, in combination are called the bronchial tubes, and the little cavities to which these little branches lead are called air cells, and the walls of these air cells are called peranchymic Avails, and these delicate walls are filled with nu- merous minute, little, hair-like capillary vessels, which receive oxygen from the air, and in return give off carbonic acid gas. Man has two kidneys that lay in the small of the back, which are filters of the blood, with this peculiar characteristic — they throw off the poison urine, and leave the blood purer than they found it, while the artificial filter lets the pure fluid go through, and retains the dross or the part unfit for use. There is a tube to each kidney about the size of a crow's quill, that leads the urine to an organ of an oval form like unto a cistern, to receive the urine, and when filled, warns the owner that he must evacuate it. The brain is 20 an organ through which we think and exert ner- vous forces that control the voluntary muscles of the body. The liver is an organ that excretes about fourteen ounces of bile every twenty-four hours, of an alkaline nature, to emulcify or saponify the fatty portion of our food. In the common adult it weighs about four pounds and a half, and is one of the most important glands of the human body. The spleen is an organ lying in the left side, in connec- tion with the stomach. Its functions or duty is not thoroughly understood by the ablest physiologists . The common name is melt. The' pancreas lies just under the stomach, and excretes a fluid called pan- creatic fluid, that is similar in character to the bile, and joins hands with it in the process of digestion. This organ, in swine, is commonly called the sweet- bread. The voluntary muscles of the body are the muscles that are under the control of the will, with? which we move, act, walk and talk, and put our ideas into effect. The involuntary muscles are con- trolled by chemical forces. Man breathes, and his heart beats when asleep as well as when awake. The voluntary muscles are organs of perpetual mo- tion, running day and night all the time until they wear out. The two hundred bones constitute the skeleton or framework of the body, and hold it erect^, and serve as levers for the muscles and will power- to work with. There are twelve pairs of nerves sent off from the brain, and thirty-one pairs from the spinal cord, which are distributed to every part of the body. The brain is the temple of thought, the throne of intellect, — the telegraphic office, — and the nerves are the wires on which we send dispatch- es to all parts of our anatomical and physiological government. The sympathetic nervous system, or sympathetic nerves, link the body together in harmonious ac- tion. It guards one part of the system from acting detrimentally against another. It is the principal influence in controlling the circulation, nutrition., digestion, and assimulation. All involuntarv or- gans are governed by this system of nerves, so that when the brain is asleep the work that is vitally essential to our existence will go on correctly. Hygiene is a body of facts or principles that are essential to the preservation of our bodies, health and happiness. I shall abridge my sentences in speaking of this subject. In the first place a man should be regular in his habits : that is, have regu- lar hours for sleep; regular hours for meals, three meals per day when laboring, six hours apart, and should never retire to rest until two hours after supper. Should not drink anything while eating, so that the saliva,- Nature's fluid, may mingle prop- erly with the food, that it may be digested readily and properly. Persons should chew their food so 32 fine before swallowing that they can feel no lumps in it with the tongue, in-order that the gastric-juice may readily penetrate and digest it. The room or place a person sleeps in should be well ventilated, so that the air is pure and refresh- ing, which gives life and activity to the entire body; &nd he should bathe twice per week, in order that the skin may be kept pure and clean, that it may not reabsorb the poisons that are thrown out from the pores. The water should only be a few degrees above the temperature of the body. The body should be well rubbed after bathing with a rough towel till the skin is glowing. This calls the blood to the surface and promotes a healthy circulation, and makes a person feel better every way. The clothiug should be changed once every week, be- cause they become saturated with the fumes and odors of the body, which, if reabsorbed, are poison- ous to the general system. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and beyond question or doubt, is the key note of man's health. Every one, when eating, should stop before they realize the sensation that they have got enough. Franklin says : "If you would have an appetite stop with one/' and it is true. Knick knacks, if eaten at all, should be eaten before substantial food, because when they are left till the last, you have already eaten all the neces- sary food that you need, and then come dainties 23 that tickle the appetite and cause you to eat more than is demanded by nature: and the result is indi- gestion or dyspepsia. Everybody needs exercise is order that they may have proper development the bodies they own. No one should work in \ room where it is dark, for darkness is a sedative, and light is a stimulant, to the animal organization as well as the vegetable. Take a man and let him work.in a dark cellar, and the result is he soon be- comes pale and poor in flesh. Take a plant and set it in the shade, and it becomes a pale green, slim7 tall, and spindling ; hence my readers, you see the importance of good light In concluding my re- marks on hygiene, I will say that it is strictly im- portant, in order that we may have good health, we should have good light, good air, good food, good water, sufficient clothing, strict cleanliness, and discretion and temperancj in all things. All persons observing these rules will seldom be obliged to call the physician to administer unto him in a case of sickness, unless of a contagious character. Digestion. Digestion is one of the most important features or functions that is performed in our physical or— 24 ganization, from the tact that we receive our sup- port from it, and by it our bodies are entirely re- newed every four months. The weight of the body that we now own in four months will be entirely new in every particular. The old theory was, that the body renewed itself every seven years, but that idea is now exploded. If you will mark the finger nail at the root, or where it comes in contact with the skin or flesh, with a file or piece of caustic, you will find, at the end of four months, that the mark will have grown clear out to the end of the nail, which proves the nail has grown entirely new; and S) it is with the entire body. Knowing this to be a fact, we realize the importance of having a knowl- edge of digestion; how long it takes every article of food to digest that we have in e very-lay life and during life, for good digestion makes good blood, good blood a good body, and without a good body no man can be happy, for the healthy body is the machinery in which we accomplish success and hap- piness in life. So, in order to teach my kind read- ers some facts on digestion ; I will give a list of facts that were actually observed in the human stomach by the naked eye of scientific medical men. This fact, I have the pleasure of stating to my read- ers, I obtained from a statement of Dr. I J. War- ren, of Boston, Massachusetts. I shall simply give .the substance in brief, and the table of digestion. 25 It appears that the medical profession and human- ity in general were providentially presented with this occurence that they might know the true history of their stomachs, in reference to the time it takes to digest the various articles of food we eat in our life time. The following table will profit all those who read it and regard the truths or facts it teaches. The way these facts were discovered areas follows : A man by the name of St. Martin accidentally got the walls of his abdomen and stomach blown away by the explosion of a gun. They refused to heal, but a delicate membranous film grew down and pro- tected the food from falling out of the stomach, yet it was transparent like a window pane, so that the process of digestion could be clearly seen with the naked eye, and the time it took each article of food to digest was taken note of by me. I will give the table from my own observation : Rice boiled 1 h. 00 min. Kig's Feet, soused boiled 1 00 Tripe, soused boiled 1 00 Trout Salmon, or Salmon fresh. boiled 1 30 Trout SaJmoii. or Salmon fresh. fried 1 00 Apples, sweet and mellow raw 1 35 Venison steak broiled 2 00 Sago boiled 2 00 Apple-, sour and mellow raw 2 00 Cabbage, with vinegar raw .4 00 Codfish, cured dry boiled 2 00 Eggs, fresh raw 2 00 26 Beef Liver, fresh broiled 2 00 Milk boiled 2 15 Turkey, wild boiled . .2 30 Turkey, domesticated ..- raw 2 25 Potatoes, Irish baked.. 2 30 Parsnips boiled .2 30 Pig, sucking roasted 2 SO Meat Hash, with vegetables warm 1 30 Lamb, fresh ..broiled ....2 30 Goose roasted.. ...2 30 Cake, sponge baked 2 30 Cabbage, raw.. raw 2 45 Beans, pod boiled 2 50 Custard baked 2 h7> Chicken, full grown fticaseecd 3 00 Apples, sour and hard raw 3 00 Oyster?, fresh raw 4 00 Bass, striped, fresh . broiled 3 00 Beef, fresh, lean and rare boiled 3 0) Steak broiled 3 00 Corn Cake baked 3 CO Dumplings, Apple boiled .... .3 00 Eggs boiled soft. 3 00 Mutton, fresh broiled 3 00 Pork, recently salted... raw ....... .3 15 Pork Steak broiled 3 15 Corn Bread baked 3 20 Mutton, fresh roasted 3 20 Carrots, orange boiled. 3 30 Sausage, fresh broiled....:. 3 30 Beef, fre-h, lean, and dry roasted 3 30 Bread, wheat, fresh baked 3 30 Butter melted 3 30 Cheese, old and strong raw 3 30 Eggs, fresh boiled hard3 30 Flounder, fresh fried 3 30 27 Oysters, fresh fried 3 30 Potatoes, Irish stewed 3 30 Soup, mutton boiled 3 30 Oysters boiled 3 30 Turnips, flat boiled ,.3 45 Beets boiled 3 45 Corn and Green Beans boiled 4 00 Beef, fresh and lean boiled 4 00 Fowls, domestic boiled 4 00 Veal, fresh broiled 4 00 Soup, Beef, Vegetables, Bread.. .boiled 4 00 Salmon, salted boiled 4 00 Heart, animal fried 4 00 Beef, old, hard, and salted boiled 4 15 Pork, recently salted fried 4 15 Cabbage, with vinegar boiled 4 30 Ducks, wild roasted 4 30 Pork, recently salted boiled 4 30 Suet, Mutton boiled 4 30 Veal, fresh fried 4 30 Pork, fat and lean roasted 5 15 Suet, Beef, fresh boiled 5 30 Tendon boiled 5 30 This table of the time it takes to digest the dif- ferent articles of