Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-21
Interesting Facts Concerning the Human
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Interesting Facts Concerning the Human
1850 Body.
There are about two hundred bones in the
human body, exclusive of the teeth. These
bones are composed of animal and earthly
materials, the former predominating in youth,
and the latter in old age, rendering the bones
brittle. The most important Of bones is the
spine; which is composed of twenty-four
small bones called the vertebre on the tor
of the other, curiously hooked together and
fastened by elastic ligaments, forming O
pillar by which the human body is sup
ported.
The bones are moved by the muscles, OF
which there are more than five hundred
The red meat or beef the fat being excluded,
is the muscular fabric of the OK. There are
two sets of muscles, one TO draw the bones
one way, and the other to draw them back
again. We cannot better describe the mus
cles than by comparing them to fine, elastic
thread, bound up in their cases of skin
Many muscles terminate in tendons, which
are stout cords such as may be seen travers-
ing the back of the hand, just without the
skin, and which can be observed to move
when the hand is open or shut Every mo-
tion we make, even the involuntary one OF
breathing is performed through the agency
of muscles.
In adults there are fifteen quarts of blood,
each weighing. about two pounds. This
-.
The first is the pure blood as it leaves the
heart to nourish the frame, and is of a bright
vermillion. The last is the blood as it runs
to the heart loaded with the impurities of the
body, to be there refined, and it is of purple
hue. Every pulsation of the heart sends out
two ounces Of arterial blood, and as there are
from seventy to eighty beats in minute, q
hogshead ofblood passes through the heart
every hour. In fever5 the pulsations are
accelerated, and consequently death ensues if
the fever is not checked.
The stomach is n boiler if we may use such
n figure, which drives the human engine.
Two sets ofmuscles 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. The process re-
quires from two to four hours.
Emerging from the stomach the food en-
ters the small intestines, where it is mixed
up with the bile and pancrete juice, and con-
verted into 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 sock
cts, and drawing off the chyle, empty into q
large canal named Thoracic Duct, which
runs up the back and discharges the con-
tents 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 branches into
innumerable small tubes, all over the inside of
the lungs, each terminating in q minute air
cell. The outer surface of these air cells is
full ofsmall capillaries, infinite small veins,
thin membrane only dividing the air from
the blood.
The impure portion of venous blood is
carbonic acid, which, having n stronger
affinity for air than BLOOD passes through
this membrane TO gaseous state, combines