The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1904-04-06
THE ANATOMY OF MAN
SOME hlCDEN FEATURES AND oTH-
eRS THAT ARE USELESS.
An Eye That IL Vow Blind and Gtlls
That Are Closed Up-The outer Ears
and the Toe Nails Are More Orna-
mental Than seryiceabIe.

and the Toe Nails Are More Orna-
mental Than servicenbIe.
Has any one ever complmented you
on the beauty OF your upper eye or in
quired after your gills? For though
you may not know it, you number
these among the disused features of
your body.
In the center of your brain, looking
vaguely skyward. lie the atrophied re-
mains of a third eye, which, It is sup
posed, was actually one Of mans use
full features at some previous state of
development 1t is known as the pineal
gland, though covered by skin, and is
formed I'm an almost perfect condition
in certain lizards.
You have four gills, or bronchial
clefts, which, however, are now closed
up and useless. You originally had
siX, but two of them, by forming into
your ear and mouth, respectively,
turned themselves to some account
However, before your lungs developed
and became fitted TO carry on your
breathing system the work was done
by the four gills which have since
childhood ceased to develop and be-
come closed up.
Your ears-that is the outer ones
are quite useless save as ornaments.
You could hear just as well without
them. All the work of hearing is done
by the middle ear, or tympanum and
the internal ear The outer feature Is
purely a pleasant sort of finishing
touch to your hearing system. The
muscles of the outer ear are powerless
and not under our control.
Are you aware that you have a mini
ature grand piano in your auditory
nerve. which is tuned up to every note
in music? This is known as Corti's
organ and consists of series of tiny
hairs which vibrate on the drum of
your ear and enable you to distinguish
the differences of sounds.
AS sometimes when you strike a note
on the piano some ornament in the
room will be found to sing with 1t, so
each of these hairs inside your ear vi
brates in sympathy with the musical
sound corresponding with it.
An appendix is generally useful
thing when applied to books. but mans
appendix is not only useless, but very
troublesome. This is the remains of
an intestine supposed to have formed
part of our ancestors. Though many
other parts of the body are practically
useless, they are supposed to have
been useful at some time, but scien-
lists cannot trace that the vermiform
appendix was ever of any service to
man.
Toe nails are entirely useless, and
toes are quite superfuous. A man
could get along as well without toes.
In fact, doctor removed eight of
mans toes without any inconvenience
being suffered, and the loser got along
quite as well without them.
The teeth are rapidly becoming quite
useless. Now that nearly all our food
is chopped up for us and we do not
have to bite through hard substances
teeth are gradually decaying.
The fact that the teeth of our an
cestors 400 or 800 years ago were in
finitely bigger than our own shows
that nature is gradually taking away
these organs.
Tonsils, too, are almost useless and
fulfill no serviceable object to the body.
People can get along quite well with
out them, and q very large proportion
of the population have had them re-
moved
Both the hair and the skin have end
ed their days Of usefulness to the hu-
man race. The hair was intended TO
cover our heads from the heat of the
sun. We cover up the hair, and by
shutting 1t off from the exposure which
nature intended it to have we are
gradually but surely losing this adorn-
ment, and it Is estimated that in time
we shall cease to grow it.
AS to the skin, 1t was given us to
protect our bodies from the elements.
By covering 1t up with clothing and
preventing it getting proper respira-
ton we deprive ourselves OF its use
1t is not inconceivable that the man of
very remote future period may be
not only hairless and toothless, but
sllinless as well
Inc hiOob thlhB w bt
noted about all this is that those parts
OF the body which are useless give us
the most trouble. while those in con-
stant activity remain quiescent. The
teeth, through lack of work, get lazy,
as it We're, and decay.
The tonsils, having nothing to do,
make your life misery to you through
continually swelling until they are re-
moved. The skin, which is useless to
civilized man, has large variety Of
diseases to vent on us, largely due to
its compressed condition.
The vermiform appendix, which il
absolutely useless, has nice little dis
ease Of its own. which it develops with
often fatal results, known as appendi-
citis.
A man can live without his frontal
bone. At recent accident workman
was struck by crowbar. The only
possibility of saving his life was by
-excising the frontal bone. The result
was that the man survived yithout 90