Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-07-27
From the London Quarterly.
Wonders of the Human System.


Wonders of the Human System.
Paley applauds the coDtrivance by which eV
erything we eat and drink is made to glide OF
its road to tile gullet. over the entrance OF TN
wind pipe without falling into it. A little nova
ble lid, the epiglottis, which is lifted up whel
we breathe, is passed down upon the ch'nK
air passage by the weight of the TODD and the ac
tinn of the muscles in swallowing it. Nelthe
solids nor liquids, in short can pass without shut
ting down the traploor a. they proceed. bu
this is only part of lie safe guard. The slit a
the top of the wind pipe, which never closes en-
tirely while we breathe, is endned with an acute
sensibity to the slightest particle OF matter
The least thing which touches the margin OF ths
aperture causes its sides to come firmly together
and the intruding body is stopped at the inlet
IL is stopped, hut. unless removed, must drop al
the next inspiration into the lungs. To effect liz
expulsion the sensibity OF the rim at the top o
the Wild pipe actually puts into vehement ac
ton whole class ot muscles placed lower than
It's bottom, and which, COMPRISING the clesl
over which they are distributed, drives out the
mir with force that sweeps the offending sub
stance before it. The cnnvulsive coughing which
arises when we are choked is the energetic ef
fort of nature for our relief when anything
chances to have evaded the protective epigotfls
Yet this property, to which we are constantly
owing our lives. is confined TO 9 single spot in
the throat. 1t does not, as Sir Charles Bell at
firms belong to the rest of the wind-pipe, but Is
limited to the or6ce, where alone it is needed.
Admirable. TOO, it is to observe, that while thus
sensitive to the most insignificant atom, it bears
without resentment the atmospheric currents that
IL. ff> nd
table Inns. vt rejects" says Psley.'the touch of
a crumb of bread, or drop of water, with a
spasm which convulses the whole frame; yet, left
to tselfand its proper office, the intromis>ion of
air alone, nothing can be so quiet. 1t does not
even make itself tet man does not know that
he has trachea. This capacity of perceving
with such acuteness, this impatience of offence,
yet perfect rest and ease when let alone, are
properties, one would have thought, not likely
to reside in the same subject. 1t is to the juno
ton. however of these almost inconsistent quail
tiles, in this, as well as in some other delicate
parts of the body, that we owe our safety and
our comfort-our safety to their sensiblity, our
comfort to their repose.
Another of the examples adduced BY Bell is
that of the heart. The famous DR.. Harvey ex.
amined, at the request of Charles L., nobleman
of the Montgomery family, who, in consequence
of an abscess. had fstulous opening into the
chest, through which the heart could be seen
and handled. The great physiologist was aston
ished to find it insensble. ~ then brought him,
he says, ITO the King, thai he might behold and
touch so extraordinary thing, and that he
might perceive, as did, that unless when We
touched the outer skin, or when he saw our nm
gers in the cavity, this young nohleman knew
not that we touched the heart" Yet it Is to the
heart that we refer our joys, our SORROWS, and
our affections; we speak of good hearted, u
hard hearted, a true-hearted, and heartless
man. Shielded from physical violence by an
outwolk of bones it is not invested with sensa
tious which could have contributed nothing to
its preservation, but while it can be grasped with
the fingers, and give no intimaton OF the fact Z"
its po,sessor, it Enthusiastically responds to the
varied emotions of the mind, and by the general
consent of mankind is pronounced the seat of
our pleasures, grieis, sympathes, hatreds ano
love. Persons have frequently dropped down
dead from the vehemence with which II CON
tracts or expands upon the sudden announcement
of good or bad new>-ltS muscular walls being
strained too far in the upward or downward di
rection to enable them tu return and one of the
purposes which this property of the heart Is
probably designed TO subserve is to put "A check
upon the passions through the alarming physical
sensations they excite.
The brain, again. is enclosed in a bony case.
All our bodily sensations are dependent upon the
nerves, hut even the nerves do not give rise Ia
feeling, unless they are in connection with the
brain. Tie nervous chord which, in familiar
language, is called the spin,l marrow, is the
channel 10y which this communication is kept ~
as to the naj ,r part of them, and when the sec
tion of what may he termed the great trunkroao
for the conveyance of our sensations Is diseased
and by the breach in its continuity the nerves
below the disordered part can no longer send III
accustomed intelligence to the brain, The portion
ut the body which thus becomes isolated may be
burned or hacked, and No more pain will result
than if it belonged to II dead carcass instead o
TO living man. The brain, therefore, in subor
dination to the mind, is the physica! centre o
all sensation Yet, strange to say, it is itself in
sensible to the wounds which are torture to the
skin. and which wounds the brain alone enables
us to feel. ut is as insensble, says Sir Charles
Bell, ''as the leather of our shoe, and piece
may be Cut off without interrupting the patient
in the sentence that lie is uttering. Because the
bone which envelopes it is its protection agains
injuries from without, it has no perception o
them when directed against its own fabric
| though it is at the same time the sole source o
the pain which those injuries intlict upon thu
other portions of the system. But the skull il
no defence against the effects OF intemperance
or vitated atmosphere, or too great menta
toll To these consequently the same brazil
which has been created insensible to the cut o
the knife, is rendered fully alive, and giddiness
headaches, and apoplectic oppression gives am
pie notice to US to stop the evil, unless we ar
prepared to pay the penalty.