Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-08-01
from Halls journal Of Health !
NEarVcls OF Man.

While the gastric juice has mild,
bland, sweetish taste, it possesses the
power of dissolving the hardest food that
can be swallowed it has no influence
whatever on the soft and delicate tibers
Of the living stomach, nor has it any up
on the living hand, but, at the moment
of death, it begins 10 eat them away
with the powor Of the strongest acids.
There is dust on sea, on land, in the
valley, and on the mountain-top; there is
dust always and every where; the atmos-
pherc is full of it, it penetrates the moi
some dungeon, and visits the deepest,
dakest caves of the earth, no palace
door can shut it out, no drawer SO Csc
cret" as to escape its presence; every
breath of wind dashes it upon the open
eye, and yet that eye is not blinded; be-
cause there is fountain Of the blandest
fluid is in nature incessantly emptying
itself under the eyelid, which spreads 1t
over the surface of the ball at every
winking, and washes every atom of dust
away. But this liquid, SO well adapted
to the eye itself, has some acridity, which
under certain circumstances, becomes so
decided as to be scalding to the skin,
and would rot away the eyelids were it
not that along the edges of them there
are little oil manufactures, which spread
over their surface a coating as impervious
to the liquids necessary for keeping the
eyeball washed clean, as the best var
nish is imprevious to water,
The breathe which leaves the lungs has
been so perfectly divested, of its life giving
properties, that to re-brcathe it, unmxed
with other air, the moment it escapes
from the mouth, would cause immediate
death by suffocation; while if it hovered
about us, more or less destructive in
huence over health and life would he oc-
casioned; but it is made of a nature SO
much lighter than the common air, that
the instant it escapes the lips and nostrils,
it ascends to the higher regions, above
the breathing point, there to be rectifed,
renovated, and sent back again, replete
with purity and life. How rapidly it
asccnds, is beautifully exhibited any fros-
ty morning,
But foul and deadly as the expired air
! is, Nature, wisely ecomical in all her
works and ways, turns it to good ac-
count in its outw ard passage through the
organs of voice, and makes of it the whis-
per of love, the soft words of affection,
the tender tones of human sympathy,
the sweetest strains of ravishng music,
the persuasive eloquencc of the finished
orator.
If we'll made man be extended on
the ground, his arms at right angles with
| the body, II circle, making the naval its
center, will just take in the head, the
fnger-ends, and feet
The distance from "top to toe is pre-
cisely the same as that between the tips
of the fingers when the arms arc extended.
The length of the body is just six
times that of the foot; while the distance
from the edge of the hair on the forehead,
to the end OF the chin, is one tenth the
! length of the whole stature.
OF the sixty two primary elements
known in nature, only eighteen are
found in the human body, and of these,
seven are metallic. Iron is found in the
blood; phosphorus in the brain; limestone
| in the bile; lime in the bones, dust and
ashes in all! Not only these eighteen
| human elements, but the whole sixty
/ two of which the universe is made, have
| their essential basis in the four subStan
/ ccS oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, car
| bon, representing the more familiar names
of fire, water, Saltpeter, and charcoal;
| and such is man, the lord of earth,
spark of fire, drop of water; grain of
gunpowder. an atom of charcoal, But
/ looking at him in another direction, these
elements shadow iolth the higher quail
| ties of diviner nature, of an immortal
existence. In that spark is the caloric
which speaks Of irrcpressible activity; IN
that drop is the water which speaks of
purity, in that grain is the force by which
he subducs all things to himself, makes
wide creation the supplier of his wants,
and the scrvitor OF his pleasure; while in
that atom of charcoal, there is the dla-
mond, which speaks at once of light and
purity, of indestructibilty and OF resist
less progress, for there is nothing which
outshines it; it is purer than the dew drop;
"moth and rust corrupt" it not nor can
ordinary fire destroy it; while it cuts its
way alike the, brass and adamant and
hardest steel. In that light we see an
eternal progression towards omniscience;
in that purity the goodness of divine ma
ture; in that indestructiblity. an immor-
tai existence; in that progress, steady
accession towards the home and bosom
Of God