The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-06-14
Marvels of Man.

While the gastric juice has mild,
bland, swedish taste, it possesses the
power of dissolving the hardest food
that can be swallowed; it has no intiu- |
ence whatever on the soft and delicate
fibers of the living stomach, nor upon
the living hand, but, at the moment OF
death, it begins to eat them away with the
power of the strongest acids.
There is dust on sea, on land in the
valley, and on the mountain top; there
is dust always and everywhere; the at
mosphere is full of it; it penetrates the
noisome dungeon, and visits the deep
est, darkest caves of the earth; no pal
ace door can shut it out, no drawer so
secret as to escape its presence; every
breath of wind dashes it upon the open
eve, and vet that eye is not blinded, be-
cause there is fountain of the blandeSt
fluid in Nature necessarily emptying it
self under the eyelid, which spreads it
over the surface of the ball at every
wlnking, and washes every atom of dust
away. But this liquid, so mild, and so
well adapted to the eye itself, has some
acridity, which, under cirtain circum-
stances, becomes SO decided as to be
scalding to the skin, and would rot
away the eyelids were it not that along
the -dges of them there are little oil
manufactures, which spread over their
surface coating, as impervious to the
liquids necessary for keeping the eye
| ball washed clean as the best varnish is
imperviouS to water.
The breath which leaves the lungs has
been so perfectly Invested of its life Civ
ing properties that to rebreathe it, I'M
mixed with other air. the moment it es-
capes from the mouth, would cause i'm
mediate death by suffocation; while if it
lowered about us, a more or less de-
structive influence over health and life
would be occasioned; but it is made of
a nature so much lighter than the COM
mon air that the instant it escapes the
lips and nostrils it ascends to the higher
regions, above the breathing point, there
to be rectifed, renovated, and sent back
again, replcte with purity and life.
How rapidly it ascends is beautifully ex-
hibited every frosty morning.
But foul and deadly as the expired air
is, Nature, wisely economical in all her
works and ways, turns it to good ac-
count in its outward passage through
the organs of voice, and makes of it the
whisper of love, the soft words of affec-
ton, the tender tones of human SYM
pathy, the sweetest strains of ravishing
music, the persuasive eloquence of the
; finished orator.
!, If well made man be extended on
) the ground, his arm at right angles with
the body, circle, making the navel its
center, will just take in the head, the
: finger ends, and feet.
The distance from top to toe is pre-
: cisely 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 fore
| head to the end of the chin is one-tentl
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 metallic Iron is found in thu
= blood, phosphorus in the brain, lime
stone in the bile, lime in the bones, dus
and ashes in all! Not only these eigh
2 teen human elements, but the whole six
F.. ty-two, of which the universe is made
, have their essential basis in the fou
substances, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen
I and carbon, representing the NOR
I familiar names of fire, water, saltpeter
l and charcoal; and such is man, tn,
: lord of earth! spark of fire, drop o
G water, grain of gunpowder, an atom
D of charcoal !-HaU's Journal of Health