The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-08-16

Considered in all its relations, the
function of breathing is a wonder of
wonders. Because we are familiar
with the process of inhaling and ex-
polling air from the chest, it excites
neither admiration, surprise, nor even
thought. By watching the play of the
respiratory apparatus, however, come
perplexing phenomena are presented,
well worth studying.
The lungs are two membranous
sacks, one on each side, of unequal
dimensions in man, separated by YER
teal partition, but united at the bot.
tom of the neck in a single tube-the
windpipe.
When one lung Is diseased, life Is
maintained by the other. II both are
severely infiamed, liberated, or in any
way incapacitated for vital service,
death inevitably ensues.
BY taking breath of air about six
millions of minute cells, which make
up the body of the lungs, are distend-
ed, and at that instant Of initiation oxy-
gen 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 man. Trees breathe through
their leaves. If torn away the trunk
will lavish and die. Were all the
leaves of a full-grown apple tree placed
side by side, were il possible to have
their edges exactly touch, so as to APP
pear like a carpet, it is calculated they
would cover more than an acre of
ground. Some of the gigantic forest
trees yield leaves enough to cover an
area of two acres, very nearly.
/ Our own lungs afford an absorbing
surface on which air infringes equal to
almost one hundred square feet, it is
assumed by some Psychologists.
In transplantiDg young trees it is an
unphilosophlcal practice to trim the
| limbs so closely that only a few twigs
are left. In that mutilated condition
the effort to live is a hard struggle.
More die than survive the violence,
because they are deprived of their
breathing organs. One side of each
leaf imbibes carbon from the air for
making wood, while the other throws
off oxygen for keeping the atmosphere
supplied with a material which sup
ports life, without which death would
reign triumphantly.
Nearly all leaves of trees contain q
large amount of astringent property
called tannin. When quite dry and
driven about by the wind, il boiled,
they yield just what is needed for
tanning leather. Banks, now extreme
ly expensive, might be given up al
most entirely if this proposed economy
were pursued. Maple, willow, chest
nut, and indeed almost 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 tannin is dissolved in the
leaf cells, the strong decoction is ready
for the watts. The pulp, thus deprived
of the matter which prevents leaves
from decomposing for very long
while, becomes an excellent fertilizer.
Farmers make mistake in gathering
leaves into piles or mixing them with
other manure, because it IS a loss of
time and labor, 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 incontestible evidence of the posi-
tive existence of a power superior to
ourselves, whose creations and whose
laws declare that power to be a sove-
reign God.