Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1901-03-21

perSplratlon through Tie Walls VI tue
tube and it wells up to the surface OF
the skin. 1t is estimated that the av-
erage-aized man has 100000 OF
these sweat glands, aggregating 2S
miles of tubing. Think OF it Twen-
ty-eight miles if all those tiny tubes
could be straighted out and put end
to end These figures, wonderful
though they may seem, are on the
very best medical authority. They
ale the figures of men who have given
their lives to,the study of this subject
There is just as good medical au-
thority for the statement that there
are 100000 sweat glands on the
human body, each one-ffteenth ofinch
long, and that their aggregate length
is two miles and halt
l find only one figure, however, for
the amount of liquid secreted by the
skin of an average person in a year,
though it is evident that the Quanti-
ty must vary greatly according as the
person works in an icehouse or rides
bicycle up hill. From the average
person in years time there oozes
through the pores of the skin 1900
pounds of water.
The skin, being a secretory organ,
all the fluids that promote the process
es of life are within its province. But
to consider them would be practically
writing treatise on physiology, so |
shall have to stick to what We COM
monty think of as the skin. Most of
its secretion is an oily substance that
keeps the epithelium and the hairs
soft and pliable. The sebaceous glands
always open into hair tube With
the exception of few spots like the
palms of the hands, the soles of the
feet, the eyelids and the first joints OF
the fingers man is furry animal. He
is covered with a little short fuzz
called lanugo.
It is a popular notion, sedulously
fostered by the BARRIERS who get an
extra fee for singeing, that the hair is
a tube and that when it is cut off II
bleeds and the natural vitality Of ii
dribble. out into the atmosphere. !
think people have often been shown
the hollowness of hairs when they have
looked at them through microscope.
You will be pleased to hear that the
human hair is a solid bundle of cpl
thelial cells, the inner ones being
rather more loosely packed like pith.
Gray hairs have air bubbles in their
outer layers. Blonde hair is the finest
and most thickly set. Black hair is
less so and red hair is the coarsest and
most sparsely planted. The human
hair is not perfect cylinder and the
fatter it is the more natural curl 1t
has, and being affected by dampness
the more it kinks up. The hair grows
six or seven inches in year, but the
reason why woman's hair is not five
feet longer today than it was 10 years
ago is that each persons seems to have
definite normal length, beyond which
the hair refuses to grow.
Beard appears to grow at the same
rate and to follow the same rules of
personal conduct as the hair Of the
head. So if man began shaving
when he wa. l6 and lives to be 70
years old be will have cut more than
a little bit off the top. If he could
keep in position all he has thrown
away, head OF hair 50 feet long and
beard 81 feet long, all in one bunch,
would enable him to travel with cir
Gus in summers and sit in store win
dow to advertise a hair restorer in the
winter. don't know but he could
get into the United States Senate, al
though l hear that they don't run go
much to whiskers there now as they
did while ago.
Finger nails and toe nails, being
merely fattened growths Of the same
kind of cells that the hairs are made
of, increase in about the same way,
though their rate of progress has not
! been so carefully studied. Some say
that the finger nails grow at the rate
of one-thirtieth Of an inch week.
The smallest difference in tempera-
ture that can be perceived Oy the skin
in health is 10. Some people would
call it sultry if they were exposed to
temperature of 800, but Drs. Blagden
and Banks report case where 26O'
were endured for eight minutes. Til
let mentions girl that stayed seven
minutes in an oven at 324.5o Sir F
Chantry tolerated $500 in an oven
where molds were drying, and Chab-
ert, the fire king, is said to have stood
| IL R(0o The