White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1929-12-20
WHY WE BEHAVE
LIKE HUMAN BEINGS
By GEORGE DORSEY. Phi. D.. LII D.
Why Walking Is More Restful
Than Standino

erect also ache from the strain In
standing. AS we nap in chair the
head mods.
Flat feet are not due to a giving
way Of ligaments: llgaments limit
joint movement. Feet become "fiat''
when the muscles of the arch fall to
support 1t; the arch breaks down. The
result is mid-tarsal joint. This Is
most likely to happen In long, narrow
feet.
Short feet and high insteps go with
large calves. To raise our body on
our toes, we lift our heel. The toes
are the fulcrum, the power is the calf
muscles; the weight falls on the foot
at the ankle joint but nearest the
power at the heel. Hence the greater
need for large calf muscles. But
small calves go with long heel bones.
AS the foot Is lever Of the second
order, the long heel brings the weight
nearer the fulcrum-that Is, the toes.
Hence "fat-foots" do not step of
their toes; the fallen arch destroys
the lever of the foot.
We nod our head between skull and
first vertebrae, or atlas; rotate, be-
tween atlas and second vertebrae, or
axis. Both movements are limited by
ligaments; otherwise the signal cord
would be crushed.
The main business of the face is to
hold the teeth-bearing jaws; eyes and
nose moved in by accident. The in.
fant's face and neck seem small be-
cause the brain is SO large. Their
real growth begins with the eruption
of the teeth.
The skull is fulcrum for the jaw
muscles in chewing. Muscles to hold
the fulcrum steady develop with the
teeth. The neck grows larger. With
the teeth all in place the neck reaches
normal size, the rounded "baby-face"
disappears; strong Jaws, powerful
muscles, and prominences and ridges
on bones of face ana head support
the muscles of mastication. The tiny
mastoid processes below the infants
ears become adult structures as big
as thumbs, required tor muscle sup.
port.
The first, or milk, teeth should be
in place by the end Of the second
year. Meanwhile the transverse
ridges in the roof Of the infants mouth
disappear. The permanent dentition
begins with the first molars in the
seventh year; incisors in the eighth
and ninth; premolars in the tenth and
eleventh; canine and second molars In
the thirteenth to fourteenth; third
molars, or wisdom teeth, in the seven
teenth to fortieth year.
Startling changes Of far-reaching
consequence mark the years Of adde's.
cence for both sexes. AS these
changes are both physical and mental,
and as they proceed under impulses
from the gonnds acting as glands OF
internal secretion, they will be de.
scribed in the chapter devoted to the
endocrine organs.
After maturity the body's chief task
is to maintain its equilibrium: pro
duce enough energy and heat to keep
up repairs and carry on. But, from
ovum to death, the body never ceases
to change.
Old age or senile changes precede
natural death. These appear toward
the end of span Of life which
varies in different species. This span
of life for some invertebrates is less
than 100 hours; for some insects, II
years; for some fishes and reptiles.
over 200 years; for some birds and
mammals, 100 years.
Longevity is not, as Weismann
claimed, related to size of body. Some
mammals live less than two years
some locusts seventeen. A dog Is old
at 20. I have seen parrot lit years
old; 1t matured in its first year. A
tortoise can live $50 years. No ele
plant known has exceeded 1870 years.
Nor does death naturally" follow the
reproductive stage; .innumerable ami
mails long survive their sex life. But
every animal must reach sex ma.
turity or it's kind dies with 1t.
Old age is decrepitude; the body is
worn out. The mechanism the infant
acquired to walk with breaks down.
The spine is not 80 supple, the
cartilage disks between vertebrae
shrink. This decreases stature-as
much as three inches after fifty. The.
spine both collapses and ''stoops with
age" The knees are bent, the hip
joints stiff. The muscles shrink. The
body loses it's natural fat. Folds OF
skin appear on neck and face. The
toothless jaws 'atrophy and the mouth
loses its shape. Cheeks and temples
cave in.
The brain loses weight-in the last
40 years Of life as much as three
ounces. The heart is enlarged from
over-action to keep the blood coursing
through thick. hard arteries. The
pulse mounts again. 1t was 1874 at
birth, 40 at the end of the first year.
u at twenty-one. After eighty. It Is
60. The lungs lose their elasticity,
the walls become thicker.
Many women after fifty show a
thicker neck, hair on the face. deeper
toned voice, more prominent cheek
bones, ridges over the eyes. Their
feminine" traits are less feminine.
II is as though the inactivity of the
gonads permitted return to neu-
raj condition. halfway between male
and female.
Old age, senility. decrepitude: the
hodv is worn out. II can no longer |
junction. Death.
"a by George A. Dorsey.>
Volunteer Fighting Force
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