Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-05-07
WONDERS IN BONES.
Some Curious Facts in Gaseous
Structure Little Dreamed Of.

6OAnO ShAAOaS - 0Seo - 0e'~fte<o
Structure Little Dreamed Of.
Exhibited in glass case at the Nation
al Museum there is a bore-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
mineral parts, leaving only the animal
portion This portion makes about one
third of the bone, which fact might sur
prise some people who suppose that their
bones are almost wholly lime.
"There are funny things about bones
other than funny BONES" said an oste-
ologist connected with the Smithsonian
Institution to a writer for the Washing
ton Star. ''For example, the bones Of
birds are hollow and filled with warm
air from the lungs, so it may be said
that bird breathes down TO its very
toes and to the tips of its wings. In
fact. if YOU break of the wing of Il 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 a
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 leg or an arm cut off
is likely to indulge such q 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, my.
You see, as q matter OF fact, there
are blood vessels and nerves inside the
bones, just as there are on the 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 skeleton or part OF
one. When the disease called rheuma-
tism, which no physician understands,
affects the nerves within the bones, no
way has been discovered for treating il
successfully. 1t does not do to smile
when person says he feels thing In
his bones.
mature 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 applica-
ton of mechanical principles which have
only become known to man through the
processes of laborious and long-consid-
cred invention. In your own shoulder
you have a most beautiful and perfect
illustration of the ball nd-socket
joint, while 1T yonr elbow there is a
combination of the hinge and ball-and-
socket which in its way surpasses any
thing that human invention has been
able TO accomplish thus far. But these
are simple things compared with the
hand, 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 mag
ined"