Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1877-08-09
Murvcls of Man.

| While the gastric juice has mild, bland,
sweetlsll taste, It possesses the power of dis.
solving the hardest food that can be swaI-
lowed; it has no influence whatever on the
soft and delicate fbres of the living stomach,
nor upon the living hsods, but at the mo-
ment of death, it begins to eat them away
with the power of tue strongest acids.
Thoro ia dust on sea, on land; in tho
valley, and on the mountain top; there is
dust always aud everywhere; the atmosphere
is full Of it; it penetrates the noisome dun
geon, 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
encc; every breath of wind dashes it upon
the open eye, and yet that eye is not blinded,
because there is fountain of the blandcst
fluid in nature necessarily euptyng itself
under the eyelid, which spreads it over the
surface of the ball at every winking, and
washes every atom of dust away. But this
liquid, so mild, and so we'll adapted to tho
eye itself, has aomo acidity, which under
certain circumstances, becomes 80 decided
as to become soaldng to the skin, aud
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 impervous 20 the
liquids necessary for keeping the eycbalI
washed clean as tho best yarnish is imper..
vious to water. ..a
The breath which leaves the lungs has
been 20 perfectly divested of its life giving
properties that to rebreathe it, unmixcd
with other air, the moment it escapes from
the mouth, would cause immediate death by
suffocation; while if it hovcred about us,
a moro or less destructive influence over life
and health would be oocasioned; but it is
made of nature so much lighter t'an the
common air that tho Instant it escapes the
lips and nostrils it ascends to the higher
regions, above the breathing point there 10
be rectifed, renovated and sent back again,
replete with purity and life. How rapidly
it ascends is beautifully exhibited every
frosty morning. But foul and deadly as
the expired air is, nature wise, economical
in oil her works and ways, turns it to good
account in it's outward passage through the
organ of voice, and makes of it the whispers
of love, the soft words of affection, the
tender tones Of human sympathy, the sweet
est strains of ravishing music, tic persuasive
eloquepce Of the finished orator.
If we'll made man bo extended on the
ground, his arms Mt right angles with the
body. circlo, 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 came as that between the tips
of tho fiogers when the aims are extended
The length of the body is just six times
that of the foot; while the distance from
the edge of the hair on the forehead to the
end of the chin, is one-tenth of tho length
of tho whole statue.
Of the sixty.two primary elements known
in nature, only eighteen are found in the
human body, and Of these seven arc metallic.
Iron is found in blood, phosphorus in the
brain, limestone 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 whioh the universe is
made. have their essential basis in the four
substances, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen ond
carbon, representing the more familiar
names of fire, water, saltpeter aud charcoal;
and auch is man, the lord of the earth!
spark of fire, a crop of water, a grain of
gunpowder, on atom of charcoall ...
HuWs Journal of Health.