The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-05-08

The MECHANISM OF MAN.-Wonders at
home by familiarity cease to excite aston
know 90 little about the house we live
Jinn-fhe human body. We look upon .
!, house from the outside just as whole or
unit, never thinking Of the many rooms,
the curious passages, and the ingenious in
ternal arrangements of the house, or of the
'mony and adaptation of all his parts. In
the human skeleton, about the time of ma
turity, are 165 bones. The muscles are
about 500 in number. The almentary
canal is about SO feet long. The amount
of blood in An adult averages thirty pounds
or one-fifth of the entire weight. The
heart is six inches in length, and four
inches in diameter, and beats seventy
times per minute; 42OO times per hour;
LOG, 800 per day 35,772,2 200 per year;
1865, 44O, 600 in three score aud ten and at
each beat, two and q half ounces of blood
are thrown out of it us ounces per minute
CSC pounds per hour ~ tons per day. All
the blood in the body passes through the
heart in three minutes. The lungs will
contain about one gallon of air at the usual
average 1900 times per hour; inhale 600
gallons of air, or a. 900 gallons per day.
The aggregate surface of the air cells of the
lungs exceeds &c, 900 square inches, an area
very nearly equal to the floor of q room
twelve feet square. The average weight of
the brain of an adult male is three pounds
and eight ounces of a female, two pounds
and four ounces. The nerves are all con-
nected with it, directly or by the spinal
marrow. These nerves, together with their
branches and minute qualifications, pro-
baby exceed 10000, 600 jn number, form
ing the body guard" outnumbering by far
the greatest army that ever was marshalled.
The skin is composed of three layers, and
varies from one fourth to one eighth of an
| inch in thickness. Its average area in an
adult is estimated to be 1000 square inches.
The atmospheric pressure being about four
teen pounds to the square inch, a person of
medium size is subjected to pressure OF
40, 600 pounds. Each square inch of skin
contains $500 sweating tubes, or persplra-
tory pores pores, each of which may be
likened to a little drain tile one fourth of
an inch long, making an aggregate length
of the entire surface of the body of 2O1,
l66 feet, or a tile ditch for draining the
body almost forty miles long. Man is made
marvellously. Who is eager to investigate
the curious, to witness the wonderful works
the wide world round to seek them, but
examine himself. "The proper study of
mankind is man."
The Cockatoos of Austraha.-In their wild
state cockatoos assemble in large focks, which
remain more or less united even during the
the leafy shelter of the trees, and at break OF
day make the woods resound with theirnoisy
! screams, as they rise into the air with light
strokes of the wing, lowering and gliding till
they reach field yielding suitable food. Fruit,
corn and seeds constitute their principal nour-
| ishment, and they will also devour buds and
the help of their long beaks. Every fresh oc-
currence in their daily life is greeted with loud
| cries; and should q second flock pass ov,r the
place where they have settled, their combined
shreks are perfectly appalling, and can only
be imagined by those who have heard the yelis
| of a few captive cockatoos are capable of pro-
| ducing. AS soon hunger is appeased, these
focks retire to rest beneath the shelter of the
| branches, where they remain some hours in
comparative quiet: they then again go in
on their accustomed trees Thus they live Till
the breeding season, when they pair, and each
couple sets out to find a suitable home, prefer
in the rocks. Certain precipices near the South
| Australian rivers are yearly visited by thou
| sands of cockatoos, just as the cliffs of the
north seas are infested by huge focks of sea-
gulls. We are told that some of these rocks
| are completely honeycombed by them, and the
| strength and firmness of their beaks render
| this assertion easily credible. They lay two
white pointed eggs, about the size of those of
n bantam fowl, but in what manner lncuba-
! ton is carried on we are not aware. We are
told by travellers that they soon become timid
| if they suspect danger, and, like other kinds
| of parrots, carry on their deprcdatons with SO
much cunning that it is very difficult, or in
deed Impossible to drive them from tne neldS
| CasselPs Book of Birds.
| Sandy Soils and Muck.-The power of fertility
which exists in the silcates of soil is unlimited.
An improved agriculture must depend upon the
skill with which this is brought into action. 1t
| can be done only by the conjunction of salts,
| GENE, muck and plants. Barren sands are
| worthless, a peat bog is little better; but a
practical illustration of the principles which
| have been maintained is afforded by very
sandy knoll made fertile by spreading swamp
muck upon it. This is giving GENE to silicates
The very act of exposure of this swamp-muck
| has caused an evolution of carbonic acid gas
| that decomposes the silcates of potash in the
| sand3 the potash converts the insoluble into
\ soluble manure, and 10! a crop. Dry crops,
plowed in, no matter how scanty, their volume
| constantly will increase and can supply the
| place of swamp muck. Of all soils to be Guilt
| waited or restored, none are preferable to the
sandy light Soils By their porousness free &C
cess is given to the powerful effects of the air.
| They are naturally in that state to which
| trenohing, draining and sub-soil blowing are
| reducing the sitter lands of England. Manure
| land underlaid by water. Drain this, and no
matter if the upper sand be almost qnicksand,
manure will convert it into fertile, arabic
land. The thin covering of mold, scarcely an
| inch in thickness, the produce of a century,
may be initiated by studying the laws of it's
+ fornfatiofs." Fhis-is- the-work- of % Natures
prentice hand" Man has long been her jour
| neyman, and now, guided by science, the far
| mer becomes the master workman, and pro-
| duces in one year quite as much as the appren-
1 tice made in seven. t'
A late number of the Revue des Dear Mondes
| contains an article headed, "La Verge de