Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1872-07-25
Breathing.


ton of breathing is wonder of Won
ders. Because we are familiar with the
process of inhaling and expelling air
from the chest, it excites neither admi-
ration, surprise, or even thought. By
watching the play of the respiratory
apparatus, however, some perplexing
phenomena are presented well worth
studying. r s44.t.....- .s 5a
The lungs are membranous sacks,
one on each side,of unequal dimensions
in any man, separated by vertical par
tition, but united at the bottom of the
neck in single tube-the wind pipe.
When one lung is diseased, life is
maintained by the other. If both are
severely infiamed, liberated, or in any
way incapaciated for vital service death
inevitably ensuses. st 5al Hi {.
By taking breath of air about six
millions of minute cells, which make
up the body of lungs, are distended and
at that instant of imitation oxygen is
separated from it and taken into the
system. Life, therefore, is solely and
exclusively sustained by that element.
Every living thing, from animals to
the whole vegetable kingdom, is just as
dependent for life on atmospheric air as
men. Trees breathe through their
leaves. If torn away the trunk will
languish and die. Were all the leaves
of full grown apple tree placed side
by side, were it possible to have their
edges exactly touch, so as to appear
like a carpet,it is calculated they would
cover over an acre of ground. Some of
the gigantic forest trees yield leaves
enough to cover an area of two acres
very nearly. .s..f.-. ....t,.....,.
Our own lungs afford an absorbing
surface on which air infringes equal to
almost one hundred square feet, it is as
sumed by some Psychologists.
In transplanting young trees, it is an
unphilosophical practice to trim the
limbs so closely that only few twigs
are left. In that mutilated condition
the effort to live is hard struggle.
More die than survive the violence, be-
cause they are deprived of their breath
ing organs. One side of each leaf i'm
bibes carbon from the air for. making
wood, while the other throws off oxy-
gen for keeping the atmosphere supplied
with material which supports life,
without which death would reign tri-
umphantly. ......f --..-..-
Nearly all leaves of trees contain a
large amount of astringent property
called tannin. When quite dry and
driven about by the wind,if boiled they
yield just what is needed for tanning
leather. Barks, now extremely expen-
sive, might be given up almost entirely
if this proposed economy were pursued.
Maple, willow, chestnut, and indeed al
most all those of familiar growth here
at the North might be utilized in that
important art to the saving of millions
of dollars in this country annually.
After the tanni n is dissolved in the
leaf cells, the strong decoction is ready
for the watts. The pulps, thus deprived
of matter which prevents leaves from
decomposing for very long while, be-
comes an excellent fertilizer. Farmers
make mistake in gather leaves into
piles or mixing them with other man
ures, because it is a loss of time and Ia
Dor, it is so long before they decompose
and become food for living plants.
Thus in contemplating the mechan-
ism and the object of respiration, we
have incontestable evidence of the pos
tive existence of power superior to
ourselves whose creations and whose
laws declare that power to be sover-
eign God.