Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-05-23
MYSTERIES OF THE BODY.
THE MINUTE WORKERS THAT PRO-
DUCE VITAL ACTIVITY.


Some days ago person remarked in my
hearing that, while science dealt with both
the big things and the little things of life
and nature, it had in reality thrown very
little light indeed on the more intricate
bodily processes in virtue of which life is
carried on. The plant of my friend was
that science knew about things 'in the
rough" but could not descend to take cog
nizance in the same degree of things of
minute estate. $50 much the worse for
science and mankind at large" l replied,
'were your assertion true" AS a matter
of fact, there is no field of inquiry which
has yielded such a large harvest to the truth
seeker of late years as that of microscopic
research. There is scarcely a great discov-
cry which has been made within the past
decade in which our knowledge of the in
finitely little, as shown forth by the micro
scope, has not figured most prominently.
Disease germs and countless other lower
forms of life have been traced out in their
development and tracked to their orr gin.
Living things whose dimensions are to be
estimated by the thousandth parts of inches
are as well known to us today as is the os-
trich or the elephant. So far from the
little things of the universe escaping our
attention, | should be inclined to maintain
that they largely monopolize science to the
exclusion of big things. We are beginning
to find out, in fact, that only by knowing
something of the actions which proceed in
the lower byway of life can existence in the
main be understood at all. Hence, if any
preparation for knowledge of humanity
be required, | should say one would find it
in a microscopic study of what the bitches
contain and of what a leaf harbors. 1.-THE
proper study of mankind is man." said
the poet of Twickenham. To this very
proper aphorism lin its way science adds
that the only safe preparation for the study
of mankind is the knowledge of what lower
life is and what lower life does
MAN \ WORLD WITHIN HIMSELF.
The remark of my friend suggested that
within the compass even of human struct-
ures land that strictly following out Pope's
aphorism) one may find many phases of
life such as will warrant the declaration
that to the microscope we owe a vast
amount of knowledge of ourselves. 1t has
often been asserted that man is a micro
cosm-a world within himself and this is
highly true if we apply the saying to the
| microscopic structures of his frame. No
sooner do we begin to investigate the COM
position of mans tissues than we discover
that, so far from a human being having
any right to be regarded as a single entity,
he might claim a title to be considered q
compound or colonial organism One man
in his time is said to play many parts, ac-
cording to the Bard of Avon; physiolo9ic-
ally, it may be said, one man is very many
parts or entities working together to form
and to maintain an harmonious whole.
This statement is easily proved. We do
not speak without knowing when we make
such an assertion.
Glance through the body's constitution,
and you will find first of all, that, wher-
ever you have life and vital activity, it re-
sides in particular kind of living jelly
which everybody knows (by name, at least
as "protoplasm." This is the matter OF
lfe''-it is life stuff, in the truest sense;
since no other matter on the face of this
earth, save protoplasm, shows the phenom.
ena or actions of life. Now, what is true
of mans body in this respect is equally
true of the body of every other living
thing-animal or plant. When we come
to investigate how this protoplasm (or a
speck of which the whole body in its germ
state once consisted) is disposed in oui
frames we discover that it is represented
!, in its most active state by microscopic bod
les to which the name of cells is given.
WORKS OF THE BODY.
These cells, then, are the workers of the
bodv They are the nonulation of the win
kingdom. The democrats are the cells
useful and necessary and respectable mem
, hers of societv-which toll and labor r.
; h,iId nm bones to form muscles and n
make the various secretions. The arsto
crafts are the nerve cells which are Inv n,
means an idle plutocracy, however, bu
which work hard enough in the ruling, di
, rection and povernance of the frame Their,
, is nerfect division of labor in the liv;nt
state One gronn of cells does not interfar,
> With the work of another gronn Each
} niece of labor from the building Of hone +,
the making Of Gastric mice is carried ON
indenend.ntlv and tborougblv NV ,,,orl orr
2 set anart for the given nurnose The econ
, omv of bee,s hive Is not moro r;oidI,
: ordered than is the work of our own bod,
, in resnect 70 its labors and their snecifi,
: duties. and in the vast nronortion If tbai
ofraire these workers of ours arc salf direc
l tive even while they own the supremacy n
= hrain and nerves ne tbeir controIling noyyer