The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1882-01-26
WHAT Is MANI
A spark or Fire, n Drop Of water-some
Iaterestsng Observations About the Hu.
man Anatomy.

New York Eews.I
While the gastric Juice has mild,
bland, sweetish taste, it possesses the
power of dissolving the hardest food
that can be swallowed. 1t has no infu-
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 lard, in the
valley, and ON the mountain there is
dust always and everywhere the atmos-
phere 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 presence; every breath
of wind dashes it upon the open eye,
yet that eye is not blinded, because
under the eyelid there is necessarily
empting itself q fountain of 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 well
adapted to the eye, itself has some
acridity, which. under some circum-
stances, becomes SO decided as to be
scalding to the skin, and would rot away
J the eyelids, were it not that along the
edges of them are little oil mapufac-
tories, which spread over their surface
coating as impervious to the liquid
necessary for keeping the eyelids washed
clean as the best varnish is impervious
to water.
The breath which leaves the lungs has
been SO perfectly divested of its life
| fxfv fhat 10 ha
unmixed with other air the moment it
escapes from the mouth, would cause
immediate death by suffocation; while
II 1t hover about us, more or less de-
structive influence over health and life
would be occasioned. But it is made of
q nature 80 much lighter than the COM
mon air, that the instant that it escapes
the lips and nostrils it ascends to the
higher regions above the breathing point,
there to be rectified, 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 or
gans of the voice, making of it the
whispers of love, the soft words of affec-
ton, the sweetest strains of ravishing
music, the persuasive eloquence of the
finished orator.
II o well-made man be extended on
the ground, his arms at right angles
with the body, circle making the navel
its center 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 arms 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 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 knowr
to the human body, and of these sever
are metallic. Iron is found in the blood
phosphorus in the brain, limestone il
the bile, lime in the bones, and dust ant
, ashes in all.
, Not only these eighteen human ele
ments, but the whole sixty-two of whicl
) the universe Is made, have their essen
/ tial basis in the four substances of oxy
, gen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon
representing the more familiar names O
l fire, water, saltpeter, and charcoal.
3 And such is man, the lord of the earth
; "a spark of fire, drop OF water, q graf.
Of powder. an atom of charcoal.