The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1891-08-08
WONDERS IN homes,
Some Curious Facts in OsseOus struct-
ure Little Dreamed OF.

Some Curious Facts in OsseOus struCt-
uro Little DREAMED or
Exhibited in glass case at the Ma
tional Museum there is a bone-a human
tibia-tied in knot. 1t has been rem
dered thus flexible by soaking it in acid,
which has dissolved out of it all its min
eral parts, leaving only the animal por-
tion This portion makes about one-third
of the bone, which fact might surprise
some people who suppose that their bones
are almost wholly lime.
"There are funny things about bones
other than funny bones, said an osteolo-
gist connected with the Smithsonian
Institution to a writer for the Star. "For
example, the bones of birds are hollow
and filled with warm air from the lungs,
so it may be said that a bird breathes
down to its very toes and to the tips of
its wings. In fact, if you break off the
wing of duck the animal can actually
breathe through the broken end of the
bone, though you hold its head under
water. Some of the gigantic reptiles of
the mesozoic epoch, which some scientists
claim to have been the ancestors of man,
had hollow bones similarly filled with air
from the lungs, for the support of their
bodies in the water while they browsed
upon seaweeds near shore, their massive
and solid leg bones serving them as
anchors, in depth about sufficient to
cover their backs.
@'People continually imagine that their
bones are of solid mineral construction
without any feeling in them. No one
who has ever had a leg OF an arm cut off
is likely to indulge such mistaken no.
ton. Comparatively speaking, little
pain is felt when the flesh is being cut
through, but when the bone is attacked
by the saw, oh, myl
"You see, as a matter of fact, there are
blood vessels and nerves inside the bones,
| just as there are outside. Any one who
has purchased beefsteak at the market
knows about the marrow in the bone. 1t
is the same with other animals than the
beef, including human beings. Through
the marrow run the nerves and blood
vessels, entering the bones from the flesh
without by little holes, which you can
see for yourself any time by examining a
skeleton or part of one. When the dis
ease called rheumatism, which no ply
sician understands, affects the nerves
within the bones no way has been dis
covered for treating it successfully. 1t
does not do to smile when person says
that he feels thing in his bones.
Nature adapts the bony structure of
various animals to their habits in very
interesting manner. Sluggish creatures
like the sloth have solid bones, whereas
the bones of the deer and the antelope
are comparatively light, so that they may
run fast, and the leg bones of the ostrich
are hollow. You will find in the bones
of any skeleton the application of me-
chanical principles which have only
become known to man through the
processes of laborious and long con
sidered invention. In your own
shoulder you have a most beautiful
and perfect illustration of the "ball and
socket joint, while at your elbow there
is combination Of the hinge and ball
and socket which in its way surpasses
anything that human invention has been
able to accomplish thus far. But these
are simple things compared with the
hands, the bones of which exhibit the
most perfect and complete apparatus, in
its adaptation to the purposes for which
it is intended, that has ever been i'm
agined. How is it possible for any one
who has studied the structure of his OWL
hand to say that there is no God ?"-
Washington Star.