Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1864-11-30

/ have never been heard of.
5 Marvelg of Mas.
WHILE the gastric juice has a mild
bland, sweetish taste, it possesses the
power of digesting the hardest food that
can be swallowed. It has no influence
whatever on the fibres of the living ami,
NAL, but at the momento of death, it begins
to eat them away with the power of the
strongest acid.
There is dust on the sea and land-in
the valley and on the mountain top
there is dust always and everywhere
The atmosphere is full oft. Itpenetra-
tes the noisome dungeon, and visits the
deepest and darkest caves Of the earth.
No palace door can shut it out; no draw
er is SO secret as to escape its presence.
Every breath of wind dashas it upon
the open eye which yet is not blinded,
because there is a fountain Of the bland
fluid in nature incessently emptying it
self under the eyelid, which spreads it
self over the surface of the eyeball, at
every winking, and washes every atom of
dust away. This liquid, so well adapted
to the eye itself, has some ariditv. 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 eye
balls washed clean, as the best varnish is
impervious to water.
The breath which leaves the lungs has
been so perfectly divested of its life Civ
ing properties, that to re-breathe it un-
mixed with other air, the moment it es-
capes from the mouth, would cause i'm
mediate death by sufocation; while, if it
hovered about us, a more or less destruc-
tive influence over health would be oc-
casioned. But it is made of nature so
much lighter than the common air, that
the moment it escapes the lips and nos
trils it ascends to higher regions, above
the breathing point, there to be rectifed,
renovated and sent back again, replete
with purity and life How rapidly it as
cends is beautifully 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 passage throunh the organs of |
voice, and makes it the whisper of love,
the soft words of affection, the tender
tones of human sympathy, the sweet
strains GO rayishing music, and the per-
suasive eIoquence of the finished orator
If a we'll made man be extended on the
ground, his arms at right angles with his
dOdy, circle, making the navel the cen
tire, will just take in the head, the finger
ends and the feet. The distance from
q 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 foot
while the distance from the edge of the
hair On the forehead to the end of the
chin is one tenth 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
but the whole sixty two, of
which the universe is made, have their
basis in the four substances
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon
the more familiar names of
fire, water, saltpeter and charcoal. And
such is man, the lord of the earth-a
spark of fre-a drop of water-a grain
of gunpowder-an atom of charcoal!
But looking at him in another direc-
ton, these elements shadow forth the
higher qualities of diviner nature, Of
an immortal existence. In that spark Is
the caloric which speaks of irrepressiblc
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 serVitOr Of
his pleasures while in that atom of
charcoal there is a diamond, which speaks
at once oflight and purity-ofi indestruct-
able and resistless progress. There is
nothing which outshines it; it is purer
than the dew drop. Moth and rust"
corrupt it not nor can ordinary fires de-
stroy it; while it cuts It's way alike
through brass and adamant and hardest
steel. In that light We see an eternal .
toward vlDu.sviOuce - that