Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-04-23
Marvels of Man.

While the gastric juice has mild and
bland sweetish taste, it possesses that power
of digesting the hardest food that can be
swallowed. It has no influence whatever on
the fibers Of living animals, out a. the mo-
ment Of death, it begins to eat them away
with the power Of the strongest acid.
There is dust on sea and land-in the
valley and on the mountain top-there is
dust always and everywhere. The atmos
phere is full Of it. 1t tpenetrates the noisomc
dungeon, and visits the deepest and darkest
caves of the earth. No palace door can shut
it out; no drawer is so secret as to escape its
presence. Every breath Of wind dashes it
upon the eve; which yet is not blind, because
there is fountain Of the blandest fluid in
nature incesantly emptying itself under the
eyelid, which spreads itself over the surface
Of the eye-ball, at every winking, and washes
every atom of dust away. 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 cyelids, were it
not that along the edges Of them are little
oil manufactures, which spread over their
surface a coating as inpervious to the liquids
necessary for keeping the eye-ball washed
clean, as the best yarnish is impervious to
water.
The breath which leaves the lungs has
been so perfectly divcsted Of its life-giying
properties, that to re-breathe it unmlxed
with other air, the moment it escapes from
your mouth, would cause immediate death By
sufocation while, if it hovered about US,
more or less destructive influence over health
would be occasioned. But it is made OF ma
ture so much higher than the common air,
that the momen; it escapes the lips and nos
trils it asccnds to higher regions, above the
breathing point, there to be rectihed, renova-
ted and sent back again, replete with purity
and life exhibited any frosty morning.
But foul and deadly as the expired air Is,
nature-wisely economical in all her works
and ways-turns it to good account in the
outward passage through the organs Of voice,
and makes Of it the whisper Of love, the soft
words Of affection, the tender tones Of human
sympathy, the sweet strain Of ravishing
music, and the persuasive eloquence Of the
finished orator.
Ifawell made man be extend on the ground
his arms at right angles with his body, ci:-
Gle making the naval center will just take in
the head, the finger ends and the feet. The
distance from "toe to toe" is precisely the
same as that between the tips Of the fingers
when the arms are extended. The length Of
the body is Just six times that Of the loot
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 statue.
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
human elements, but the whole SixtytwO, Of
which the universe is made, have their essen
tial basis in the four substances-oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen and dcarbon-representing
the more familiar name of fire, water, salt
peter and charcoal. And such is man, the
lord OF the earth, spark Of FIRE, drop OF
water, grain of gunpowder, an atom Of
charcoal!
But, looking at him in another direction,
these elements shadow forth the higher quali
ties of n divine nature, Of an immortal exis-
tence. In that spark is the caloric which
speaks Of irrcprcssible activity; in that drop
is the water which speaks OF purity; in that
grain is the force By which he Subdues all
things to himself, makes the wide creation
the supplier OF his wants, and the seryitor OF
his pleasure; OF indcstructible and restless
progress. There is nothing which outshine,
it; it is purer than the dew drop. "Moth and
rust" corrupt it not; nor can ordinary fires
destroy it while it cuts its way alike through
brass, and adamant and hardest steel. In
that light we see an eternal progression TO-
ward omniscience; in that purity the good Of
divine nature; in that indestructi5ility an
immortal existence; in that progress a steady
ascension toward the home and bosom OF
God.