The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-01
FEW PEOPLE WHOLLY SOUND.
Nearly Everybody Has Some Organ Which
Is Below Normal Condition.

Nearly Everybody Has Some Organ Which
Is Below Normal Condition.
The autopsy performed the other day
on the body of a murderer disclosed the
fact that he was a very much diseased
man. Judging from the statement of
the physicians it seems as though near
" every vital organ from the brain to
the spleen had something the matter
with it. Reports of post mortem ex-
animal ions always seem to disclose
remarka bic number of such abnormal
tiles, even in the apparently healthy
person who has been suddenly killed
bv an accident The fact is. that
hardly any human being. even in the
flush of youth and health, is wholly
sound said DR.. D. S. Lamb, of the
Army Medical museum. Even the
sturdiest children are not so. The rea-
son of it is that all human beings are
constantly liable to injuries which are
apt to be permanent Our lungs are
affected by the dust we breathe. The
exposures to colds which we must en-
counter now and then leave their
traces. Of all the people whose bodies
L nave OISStCbct d4lcI ucdlIl I4cl
than one-half have exhibited indica-
tions of an attack of pleurisy at some
time in the past. Doubtless most of
them never knew that they had suf-
fered from the complaint. Beginning
Life as a squalling infant, one goes
through the world meeting injury after
injury through exposure, accident and
disease. These injuries leave their
traces on various organs of the
body. When an autopsy is per
formed they are apparent to the eye Of
the physician. However. even the vital
organs may work very well, notwith-
standing the existence of acquired alb
normalities. Though you yourself
have every appearance of being sound
and healthy, you are not completely SO
in reality. Do you not wear eyeglasses
because the shape of your eyes is not
normal? And are there not gold fill
ings in your teeth where they have de-
cayed?
As I have said, none of US is wholly
sound. An autopsy would not give
either you Or me clean bill OF health.
As we advance in life the complete III
tegrity of our physical structure is
more and more impaired. By the time
we reach old age it has got to be
shaky. What, then, keeps US from dy-
ing? 1t is a power of resistance inner
ent in the individual. Nobody knows
where that power lies, but it exists.
People of temperate and careful habits
live longer than others, because they
avoid injuries and exposures. We often
find abnormalitieS in the skeletons of
human beings Occasionally a man or
woman will have twenty-six ribs-thir-
teen on a side-instead of the usual
twentyfour. This is regarded as re-
version to primitive type of structure
inasmuch as many monkeys have thir-
teen ribs on each side. The anthropoid
apes have only twentyfour ribs. OF
all mammals the bat has the least
number of ribs. Man at his fullest de-
velopment has the smallest number of
bones among all mammals, and rodents
possess the greatest number. All NAM
mails have seven bones in the neck,
with two exceptions. The sloth has
nine and the sea COW eight. No matter
how long the neck is it always has
seven vertebrR. The gira fife has only
as many bones in its neck as a man has;
the difference is that they are longer"
Washington Star.