The Shasta courier., 1868-01-04
NUMBER 43.
Marvels of Man.

while the gastric juice has mild, bland,
sweetlsh taste, it possesses the power of di-
gesting the hardest food that can be swal-
lo"ec; IL has no influence whatever on
'ne nores OF the living animal, but at the
moment OF death it begius to eat them away,
with the power of the strongest acids.
hnere is dust on sea and land-in the
Vaiiey ana on the mountain top-there is dust
always and everywhere. The atmosphere is
tuil OF 1t. 1t tpenetrates the noisome dungeon
and visits the deepest and darkest caves of
the eartn. No palace door can shut it out;
no drawer is so secret as to escape its pres.
ence. Every breath of wind dashes it upon
tne eye which yet is not blinded, because
OF tne biandest fluid in nature essentially
emptyiDg itself under the eyelid. which
| spreads itself over the eyeball, at eyery wink
ing, and washes every atom of the dust
away. This liquid, 50 well adapted to the
| eye itself, has some acridity which, under
i certain circumstances, becomes so decided as
| to be scalding to the skin, and would rot
| away the eyelids were II not that along the
| edges of them there are little oil manufacto-
ries, which spread over their surface coat
| ing as impervious to the liquids necessary to
keep the eyeball washed clean, as the best
varnish is simperviOus to water.
The breath which leaves the lungs has
been perfectly Invested Of its life. giving
properties, that to re breath it, unmixed
with other air, the moment it leaves the
mouth, would cause immediate death by suf.
location while if it lowered about us,
more or less destructive influence over health
would be occasoned But it is made of q
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, reno
waited and sent back again. How rapidly
it ascends is beautifully exhibited any frosty
morning.
But foul and deadly as the expiring air is,
nature-wisely economical in all her words
snd ways-turns it to good account in the
outward passage through the organs of voice,
and makes it the whisper of lover, the soft
words of affection, the tender tones of human
sympathy, the sweet strains of ravishing
music, and the persuasive eloquence of the
flushed orator.
If we'll made man be extended on the
ground, his arms al right angles with his
body, circle, making the naval the centre,
will just take in the head, the finger ends,
and the feet. The distance from "head to
toe" is precisely the same as that between
the tips of the fingers when the arms are ex-
tended. 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 edge of the chin is one-tenth of 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 metal
lic Iron is found in the blood; phosphorus
in the brain limestone in the bile lime in
the bones; dust and ashes in them all. Not
only these eighteen human elements, but
the whole sixty.two, of which the whole
universe is made, have their essential basis
in the four substances-oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen and carbon-representing 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