Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1852-10-21
The Human Flesh.

in the composition of the human body
More than nine -tenths of the whole bulk
of the system is composed of four gases
which are invisible when in free and
uncombined state, viz: oxygen, hydrogen,
carbon and nitrogen. Besides these sub
stances, there is, in every full man, enough
phosphorus and sulphur to tip gross of
friction matches; enough potash. soda and
lime, to form lye sufficiently strong to
bear up half dozen eggs at once; enough
iron to make good sized penknife- blade;
enough of flint to load the cock of an old
fashioned "Queen's arms" and enough
copper to give flea heavier burthen in
proportion to its size than was ever borne
on the back of a camel.
The entire body, that part of it which
possesses vitality, is but collection of
cells, each one of which is a mere round,
pearl colored bag, filled with fluid, and
| far too small to be seen with the naked
eye-so small are they, in fact, that l2,-
600 of the smallest of them could be strung
upon single inch in length of the thread
of a SPIDERS web.
All the bones, before birth, are soft,
like jelly; only six of the two hundred
and forty-six which we find in the adult
being fully formed, or ossifed, at birth
those are the bones of hearing, three in
each ear.
Every bone in the body is in immedi-
ate connection with some other bone, ex
cept the hyoid bone, which is situated at
the windpipe, just under the lower jaw.
Its length is about two inches; but twen-
muscles, seven ligaments and one mem
brane are attached to it. More than one
half of the substance of the bones is com
posed of phosphate of lime, that substance
about which SO much has recently been
said as remedy for consumption
Some physicians appear to have just dis
covered that phosphorus composes part
of the human system, although the more
scientific members of the profession have
long used it with great advantage, especi-
ally in chemical union with iron.
The muscles of the human system are
somewhat over 500 in number. Some of
them, as on the back of an adult, are 27
inches in length; and some, as in the ear,
are not over fourth of an inch long
Muscle is termed lean meat. Muscle is
divided into fbres and if we take the
the smallest of these fbres which can be
seen by the naked eye, and place it in
the field of a powerful microscope, we shall
find that it is in itself bundle of minute
fbres, each of which is not more than
ten thousandth part of an inch in diane
ter, some of them are even less than half
that size. A rope formed by twisting ff-
ty of these fbres together, would be too
small to be seen by the unaided vision.-
Could we unravel the fbres of a single
cubic inch of clear muscle, they would be
found to stretch out over 5000 miles in
length. Could all the muscular fbres of
an adult be placed in a continuous line,
they would form thread which would
reach more than 400 times round our
globe, or over 1O, 100000 of miles. Chem
ically examined, dried blood and dried
muscle are found to be precisely the same
The little glands which produce the
sweat are situated beneath the cults, or
true skin. Each gland sends up through
the skin little tube, about quarter of
an inchin length, through which the sweat
is poured out. These glands number a
bout $500 in a square inch Of the palms
of the hands and soles of the feet, and "a
bout 1900 in square inch of the remain
der of the surface of the body. The to-
tai number of pores, therefore, in the hu-
man body is about 1000, 900, and the to-
tai length of the tubes through which the
sweat is poured out, is nearly 2s miles.
The weight of the brain and spinal cord
of the male ranges between 46 & 63 oun-
ces, but that of the female is often found
as low as Al ounces, and very seldom
higher than AZ ounces. In man, one
thirty-sixth of the whole is brain, yet it re-
ceives one-sixth of the blood of the entire
system. Surrounding and within the rev.
olution of every healthy brain, there are
about two ounces of water.