The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-01-18
FACTS ABOUT THE BODY.

| Ihere are ABOUT TWO hundred bones In the
human body, exclusive of the teeth. These
! bones are composed of animal and earthly ma
terials the former predominating in youth and
the latter in old age, rendering the bones
brittle. The most important of these bones is
the spine, which is composed of twenty four
| small bones, called the vertebre, one top
of the other, curiously hooked together and
fastened by elastic ligaments, forming pillar
by which the human body is supported.
| The bones moved by the muscles, of
which there are more than 500. The red meat
or beef, the fat being excluded, Is the muscu-
lar fabric of the OK. There are two sets of
muscles, to draw the bones one way and
the other to draw them back again. We can
not better describe the muscles than eompar-
ing them to fine elastic thread bound up in
| their cases of skin. Many muscles ternninate
in tendons which are stout cords, such as may
be seen trayersing the back of the hand just
without the skin, and which can be observed
to move when the hand is open OF shut. Ev-
cry motion we make, even the involuntary
of breathing, is performed through the agency
of muscles.
In adults there are fifteen quarts of blood,
each weighing about two pounds This blood
is of two kinds, arterial and venous. The first
is the pure blood, it leaves the heart to nour-
ish the frame, and is of bright vermillion
color. The last is the blood as it runs to the
heart loaded with the impurities of the body,
to be there refined, and is of purple hue
Every pulsation of the heart sends out two
ounces of arterial blood, and as there are from
70 to 80 beats in minute, hogshead of blood
passes through the heart every hour. In fe-
vers the pulsations are accelerated, and conse-
quently heat ensues if the fever is not checked.
The stomach is boiler, if we may use such
a figure, which drives the human engine
Two sets of muscles, crossing each other, turn
the food over and over, churning it up in the
gastric juice till it has been reduced to the
consistency Of thin paste. This process re-
quires from two to four hours.
Emerging from the stomach the food enters
the small intestines where it is mixed with
the bile and pancreate in;ee, and converted in
to chyle. These small intestines are twenty
four feet long, closely packed of course, and
surrounded through their whole length with
small tubes which are like sockets, and draw
ing off the chyle, empty into large tube nam
ed the thoraic duct, which runs up the back
and discharges the contents into the jugular
vein, whence it passes to the heart to assist in
forming the arterial blood.
The lungs are two bags connected with the
open air by the windpipe, which bran into
innumerable small tubes, all over the inside
of the lungs, each terminating in a minute air
cell. The other surface of these air cells is
1ull Ol SildI NciuS,
thin membrane only dividing the air from
the blood.
The impure portion of venous blood is car
bonic acid, which, having stronger affinity ft
air than for blood passes through this mem
brance to a gaseous state, combines with the
air in the air cells, and is expelled with the
next respiration. Meanwhile the oxygen of
the air unites with the blood, and becomes pu-
rifed; then passing into the heart, being mix
ed with chyle, it is forced through the body
as life giving and arterial blood
The skin serves an important purpose in
carrying off impurities of the system 1t is
traversed with capiltaries of the body. 1t is |
also perforated with countless perspiration tubes,
the united length of which amounts to twenty
eight miles, and which drains away from three |
or four pounds of waste matter every twenty
four hours or five-eighths of all the body dis
charges.
The nerves are another curious feature of
the animal economy They are however, but
little understood. They act as feelers to tell the
wants of the body, and also as conductors to
will the muscles to act. They branch out from
the brain and spine over the whole frame in |
infinitely fine fbres, ike branches or twigs to !
TIRE es.