Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-03-16
WHAT Is MAN?

While the gastric juice has mild, bland,
sweetish taste, it possesses the power of dis
solving the hardest food that can be swallowed.
It has no influence whatever on the soft and
delicate fbres 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 there is dust always
and everywhere; the atmosphere is full OF it {;
it penetrates the nois0me dungeon, and visits
the deepest darkest caves of the earth no
palace door can shut it out, no drawer SO Sc
cret as to escape it's presence every breath of
wind dashes it upon the open eye, yet that eye
is not blinded, because under the eyelid there
is incessantly emptying itself a fountain Of the
blandest fluid in nature, which spreads itself
over the surface Of the eye at every winking,
and washes every atom of dust away. But
this liquid is mild and so we'll adapted to the
eye, itself has some acridity, which, under
some circumstances, becomes 80 decided as to
be scalding to the skin, and would rot away
the eyelids, were it not that along the edges
of them are little oil manufactures, which
spread over their surface coating as imper-
vious to the liquid necessary for keeping the
eyelids washed clean as the best varnish is
imperyiouS to water.
The breath which leaves the lungs has been
so perfectly divested of its life-giying proper
ties, that to rebreathe it unmixed with other
air the moment it escapes from the mouth,
would cause immediate death by suffocation !;
while if ithover about us, more or less destruc-
tive influence over health and life would be
Occasioned. But it is made of nature so
much lighter than the common air, that the
instant it escapes the lips and nostrils it as
cends to the higher regions above the breath
ing point, there to be reeGified, renovated, and
sent back again, replete with purity and life.
How rapidly it ascends is fully exhibited on
frosty mornings.
But, foul and deadly as the expired air is,
nature wisely economical in all her works and
ways, turns it to good account in its outward
passage through the organs of the voice, ma
king of it the whispers of love, the soft words
of affection, the sweetest strains Of ravishing
music, the persuasive eloquence of the finished
orator.
If well-made man be extended on the
ground, his arms at right angles with the
will just take in his head, the fingers ends,
and the feet. The distance from top to toe
is precisely the same as that between the
tips of the fingers when the arm is extended.
The length of the body is just six times that
of the foot, while the distance from the edge
of the hair to the edge of the chin is one
tenth the length of the whole stature.
OF the sixty-two primary elements known
in nature, only eighteen are known to the hu-
man body, and Of these seven are metallic.
Iron is found in the 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 which the universe
is made, have their essential basis in the four
substances of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and
carbon, representing the more familiar names
of fire, water, saltpetre, and charcoal.
And such is man, the lord of the earth IA
spark of fire, a drop Of water, a grain of pow
der, an atom of charcoal.
TERRORs OF TIE SNOW SLIDE.-TO those
who have never witnessed a snow slide, the
term has no terror, while those who have seen