The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-01-22

woman the great organs OF the body
do their work impsTaoptibiy; in other
words. healthy human being ought
not to know that it has heart, lungs,
stomach, liver, or anything Of that
sort; and yet their working depends
on come Of the merest tri1es--if such
q word can be used in connection with
natures workings-and the absence Of
any one Of them would mean the stop
page Of the whole vital machinery.
For instance. to begin at the top:
When you swing your head from side
to side, or bend it backward or for
ward, you have only little cord Of
ligament between you and death. The
head is balanced on double joint, a
pivot on which it turns from side to
side, and sort of swing-joint, not
exactly hinge, on which it swings
backward and forward. It is this check
ligament, as it is called, which pre-
vents it from going too far either way.
The reason is this: Immediately in
front of the peg Of the pivot-ioint is
the channel in tbe spine through
which the spinal cord passes to the
brain, and if it were not for this vital
oheck-string the head, which is, bulk
for bulk, the heaviest part Of the
body, would fall too far backyard or
forward and crush the spinal cord.
Here is another vital trifle which,
perhaps, you. have never considered.
Bare yonr arms and press your finger
hard on the upper part OF one Of the
veins and pass it slowly down. You
will see the vein swell up into little
knots; take your finger away and they
will vanish. The reason for this is
that nearly all the veins have little
cups in them. The cups open toward
the heart, and thus, when the blood
is flowing in the right direction they
fold back and offer no resistance.
But they prevent any fluid flowing in
the opposite direction.
During vaking life msny of the
long veins are more or less perpen-
dicular, and but for these cups, or
valves, the blood would naturally tend
to flow down the vein. ( This would
partially, If not entirely, arrest
the circulation; the heart would be
unable to pump the poisoned blood
into the lungs, 70 be renewed By con-,
tact with the air, and suffocation
would follow in q few minutes. Where
fore, without these insignificant little
cups, none Of which hold quarter of
q thimbleful, no human being could
live.
The blood is composed Of o gray
fluid in which myriads Of tiny little
hedies, some white and some red, are
floating. They are about q 3,20Oth
part Of an inch in diameter. They
are inclosed in an envelope which has
the peculiar property Of permitting
gases, but not liquids, to pass
through it. 1t is this which enables
them to take up the oxygen Of the 81.
as it goes into the lungs and to convey
it to all parts Of. the body Oxygen
is, Of course, as necessary to the body
as air is to FIRE.
Now, If liquids could pass through
these tiny envelopes the fluid in
which they float would enter them,
crowd out the oxygen and put out the
vital fame just as surely as q food Of
water would put out fire. In fact,
if this property Of admitting gases
aud excluding Anids were to be re-
versed, the human race would cease to
exist inside a minute, because the
time taken for the blood to traverse
the whole system is about half p,n-
ute. "A
The same curious but benefioent
property is possessed by the vast net
work of tiny tubes, one 3,500th part
Of an inch in diameter, which lie inn
mediaSeiy under the skin all over the
body; but their function is even stran-
ger still, for they will allow nothing
to pass through their walls save what
is directly hurtful or surerAuous.
The result is perspiration, which
passes from them through myriads Of
tiny glands to the skin. At reli-
gious festival in france during the
Middle Ages a child was gilded over
to make it represent a golden image Of
the Saviour. It died in few hours,
poisoned by the impurities of its own
/ blood, which were prevented from
getting through the skin.
Butperhaps the most striking fea-
ture connected with the working Of
che human body is the fact that We
S have two brains, q mechanical and q