Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-07-11
Maryeis of Man.


bland, sweetish taste, ii possesses the
power of dissolving the hardest food
that can be swallowed; it has no influ-
ence whatever ON the soft and delicate
fibres of the living stomach, nor upon
the living hands, 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
deepest, darkest caves of the earth !;
no palace door can shut it out, no
drawer so secret as to escape ITS pres
ence; every breath of wind dashes it
upon the open eye, and yet that eye is
not blinded, because there is fountain
of the blandest fluid in nature inees-
sanity emptying itself under the eyelid,
which spreads it over the surface of the
bali at every winking, and washes every
atom of dust away. But this liquid, so
mild, and so well adapted to the eye it
self, has some acidty, which under GER
tain circumstances, becomes so decided
as to become scalding to the skin, and
would rot away eyelids were it not that
along the edges of them there are little
oil manufactures, which spread over
their surface coating, as imperyious
to the liquids necessary for keeping the
eyeball washed clean as the best varnish
is impervious to water.
The breath which leaves the lungs
has been so perfectly divested of its life
giving properties that to rebreathe it,
unmixed with other air, the moment it
escapes from the mouth. would cause
Immediate death by suffocation; while
if it hovered about us, more or less
destructive influence over life and
health would be occasioned; but it is
made of Il nature so much lighter than
the common air that the instant it es-
capes the lips and nOstrils it ascends to
the higher regions, above the breath
ing point there to be rectified, reno
waited, and sent back again, replete with
purity and life. How rapidly it aseends
is beautifully exhibited every frosty
morning. But foul and deadly as the
expired air is, nature, wisely economi-
cal in all her works and ways, turns it
to good account in its outw ard passage
through the organ of voice, and makes
of il the whispers of love, the soft words
of affection, the tender tones of human
sympathy, the sweetest strains of raw
ishing music, the persuasive eloquence
of the finished orator.
If a well made man be extended on
the ground, his arms at right angles
with the body, a circle, making the
navel its centre, will just take in the
head, the finger ends, and feet. The |
distance from top to toe is precisely the
same as that between the tips of the |
fingers when the arms are extended. |
The length of the body is just six times
that of the foot; while the distance from 1
the edge of the hair on the forehead TO |
the end of the chin, is one-tenth of the I
length OF the whole statue.
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
blood, phosphorus in the brain, lime
stone in the bile, lime in the bones, and
dust and ashes in all. Not only these
eighteen human elements, but the
whole siXty-two, of which the universe
is made, have their essential basis in
the four substances, oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen and carbon, representing the
more familiar names of fire, water salt
peter and charcoal; and such is man,
he lord of the earth. a spark of fire, a
lrop of water, grain of gunpowde, an
ltom of charcoal ,-Hdl's journal cf
Health.