A Practical Physiology Part 55

Nails Care of Nasal bones Nerve cells fibers cells and fibers, Function of Nerves, Cranial Spinal Motor Sensory spinal, Functions of Nervous system, General view of compared to telegraph system Divisions of Effect of alcohol on Effect of tobacco on Nitrogenous foods.

Non-proteid vegetable foods animal foods Nose, Bleeding from Foreign bodies in

Occipital bone sophagus Opium Poisonous effects of In patent medicines Victim of the, habit Organic compounds Outdoor games Oxidation

Pain, Sense of Palate bones Pancreas Pancreatic juice Parietal bones Patella Pepsin Pericardium Periosteum Peritoneum Phalanges Pharynx and sophagus Physical exercise Physical education in school Physical exercises in school Physiology defined Study of what it should teach Main problems of, briefly stated.

Physiological knowledge, Value of Pia mater Pneumogastric nerve Poisons Poisons, Table of Antidotes for Practical points about Poisoning, Treatment of Portal circulation Portal vein Presbyopia Pressure, Where to apply Proteids Proteid vegetable foods Protoplasm Pulmonary artery veins Pulmonary infection Pulse Pupil of the eye

Radius Receptaculum chyli r.e.c.t.u.m Reflex centers in the brain Reflex action, Importance of Renal secretion Residual air Respiration, Nature and object of Nervous control of Effect of, on the blood Effect of, on the air Modified movements of Effect of alcohol on Effect of tobacco on artificial, Methods of Rest, for the muscles Need of Benefits of The Sabbath, a day of of mind and body Retina Ribs and sternum

Saline or mineral foods Saliva Salt as food Salts, Inorganic, in the body Scalds or burns Scapula School, Physical education in Positions at School and physical education Secretion Semicircular ca.n.a.ls Sensations, General Sensation, Conditions of Sense, Organs of Sense organ, The essentials of Serous membranes Sick-room, Arrangement of Ventilation of Hints for Rules for Sighing Sight, Sense of Skating, swimming, and rowing Skeleton Review a.n.a.lysis of Skeleton and manikin, Use of Skin, The regulating temperature Action of, how modified Absorbent powers of and the kidneys Skull Sutures of Sleep, a periodical rest Effect of, on bodily functions Amount of, required Practical rules about Smell Sense of Sneezing Snoring Sobbing Special senses Speech Sphenoid bone Spinal column Spinal cord Structure of Functions of conductor of impulses as a reflex center Spinal nerves Functions of Spleen Sprains and dislocations Stammering Starches and sugars Sternum Stomach Coats of Digestion in Effect of alcohol on Bleeding from Strabismus Stuttering Sunstroke Supplemental air Suprarenal capsules Sutures of skull Sweat glands Sweat, Nature of Sylvester method for apparent drowning Sympathetic system Functions of Synovial membrane sheaths and sacs

Taste, Organ of Sense of Taste, Physiological conditions of Modifications of the sense Effect of alcohol on Effect of tobacco on Tea Tear gland and tear pa.s.sages Tears Technical terms defined Teeth Development of Structure of Proper care of Hints about saving Temperature, Regulation of bodily Skin as a regulator of Voluntary regulation of Sense of Temporal bones Tendon of Achilles Tendons Thigh Thoracic duct Throat Care of Effect of alcohol on Effect of tobacco on Foreign bodies in Thymus gland Thyroid gland Tibia Tidal air Tissue, White fibrous Connective Yellow elastic Areolar Adipose Adenoid Muscular Tissues, Epithelial Tissues, epithelial, Varieties of Functions of Connective Tobacco, Effect of, on bones Effect of, on muscles Effect of, on physical culture Effect of, on digestion Effect of, on the heart Effect of, on the lungs Effect of, on the nervous system Effect of, on the mind Effect of, on the character Effect of, on taste Effect of, on hearing Effect of, on throat and voice Touch, Organ of Sense of Trachea Trunk, Bones of Tympanum, Cavity of

Ulna Urine

Valve, Mitral Valves of the heart Valves, Tricuspid Semilunar Vegetable foods Veins Ventilation Conditions of efficient of sick-room Vestibule of ear Vermiform appendix Vision, Common defects of Effect of tobacco on Vivisection and dissection Vocal cords Voice, Mechanism of Factors in the production of Care of Effect of alcohol on Effect of tobacco on Vowel sounds

Walking, jumping, and running Waste and repair Waste material, Nature of Waste products, Elimination of Water as food Whispering Wounds, Incised and lacerated

Yawning

Footnotes:

[1] The Value of Physiological Knowledge. "If any one doubts the importance of an acquaintance with the fundamental principles of physiology as a means to complete living, let him look around and see how many men and women he can find in middle life, or later, who are thoroughly well. Occasionally only do we meet with an example of vigorous health continued to old age; hourly do we meet with examples of acute disorder, chronic ailment, general debility, premature decrepitude.

Scarcely is there one to whom you put the question, who has not, in the course of his life, brought upon himself illness from which a little knowledge would have saved him. Here is a case of heart disease consequent on a rheumatic fever that followed a reckless exposure. There is a case of eyes spoiled for life by overstudy.

"Not to dwell on the natural pain, the gloom, and the waste of time and money thus entailed, only consider how greatly ill health hinders the discharge of all duties,--makes business often impossible, and always more difficult; produces irritability fatal to the right management of children, puts the functions of citizens.h.i.+p out of the question, and makes amus.e.m.e.nt a bore. Is it not clear that the physical sins--partly our ancestors' and partly our own--which produce this ill health deduct more from complete living than anything else, and to a great extent make life a failure and a burden, instead of a benefaction and a pleasure?"--Herbert Spencer.

[2] The word protoplasm must not be misunderstood to mean a substance of a definite chemical nature, or of an invariable morphological structure; it is applied to any part of a cell which shows the properties of life, and is therefore only a convenient abbreviation for the phrase "ma.s.s of living matter."

[3] "Did we possess some optic aid which should overcome the grossness of our vision, so that we might watch the dance of atoms in the double process of making and unmaking in the living body, we should see the commonplace, lifeless things which are brought by the blood, and which we call food, caught up into and made part of the molecular whorls of the living muscle, linked together for a while in the intricate figures of the dance of life, giving and taking energy as they dance, and then we should see how, loosing hands, they slipped back into the blood as dead, inert, used-up matter."--Michael Foster, Professor of Physiology in the University of Cambridge, England.

[4] "Our material frame is composed of innumerable atoms, and each separate and individual atom has its birth, life, and death, and then its removal from the 'place of the living.' Thus there is going on a continuous process of decay and death among the individual atoms which make up each tissue. Each tissue preserves its vitality for a limited s.p.a.ce only, is then separated from the tissue of which it has formed a part, and is resolved into its inorganic elements, to be in due course eliminated from the body by the organs of excretion."--Maclaren's _Physical Education_.

[5] The periosteum is often of great practical importance to the surgeon.

Instances are on record where bones have been removed, leaving the periosteum, within which the entire bone has grown again. The importance of this remarkable tissue is still farther ill.u.s.trated by experiments upon the transplantation of this membrane in the different tissues of living animals, which has been followed by the formation of bone in these situations. Some years ago a famous surgeon in New York removed the whole lower jawbone from a young woman, leaving the periosteum and even retaining in position the teeth by a special apparatus. The entire jawbone grew again, and the teeth resumed their original places as it grew.

[6] The mechanism of this remarkable effect is clearly shown by an experiment which the late Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes used to take delight in performing in his anatomical lectures at the Harvard Medical College.

He had a strong iron bar made into a ring of some eight inches in diameter, with a s.p.a.ce left between the ends just large enough to be filled by an English walnut. The ring was then dropped to the floor so as to strike on the convexity just opposite to the walnut, which invariably was broken to pieces.

[7] For the treatment of accidents and emergencies which may occur with reference to the bones, see Chapter XIII.

[8] "Besides the danger connected with the use of alcoholic drinks which is common to them with other narcotic poisons, alcohol r.e.t.a.r.ds the growth of young cells and prevents their proper development. Now, the bodies of all animals are made up largely of cells, ... and the cells being the living part of the animal, it is especially important that they should not be injured or badly nourished while they are growing. So that alcohol in all its forms is particularly injurious to young persons, as it r.e.t.a.r.ds their growth, and stunts both body and mind. This is the theory of Dr.

Lionel S. Beale, a celebrated microscopist and thinker, and is quite generally accepted."--Dr. Roger S. Tracy, of the New York Board of Health.

[9] "In its action on the system nicotine is one of the most powerful poisons known. A drop of it in a concentrated form was found sufficient to kill a dog, and small birds perished at the approach of a tube containing it."--Wood's _Materia Medica_.

"Tobacco appears to chiefly affect the heart and brain, and I have therefore placed it among cerebral and cardiac poisons."--Taylor's _Treatise on Poisons_.

[10] "Certain events occur in the brain; these give rise to other events, to changes which travel along certain bundles of fibers called nerves, and so reach certain muscles. Arrived at the muscles, these changes in the nerves, which physiologists call nervous impulses, induce changes in the muscles, by virtue of which these shorten contract, bring their ends together, and so, working upon bony levers, bend the arm or hand, or lift the weight."--Professor Michael Foster.

[11] The synovial membranes are almost identical in structure with serous membranes (page 176), but the secretion is thicker and more like the white of egg.

[12] "Smoking among students or men training for contests is a mistake. It not only affects the wind, but relaxes the nerves in a way to make them less vigorous for the coming contest. It shows its results at once, and when the athlete is trying to do his best to win he will do well to avoid it." Joseph Hamblen Sears, Harvard Coach, and Ex-Captain of the Harvard Football Team, Article in _In Sickness and in Health_.

[13] "There is no profession, there is no calling or occupation in which men can be engaged, there is no position in life, no state in which a man can be placed, in which a fairly developed frame will not be valuable to him; there are many of these, even the most purely and highly intellectual, in which it is essential to success--essential simply as a means, material, but none the less imperative, to enable the mind to do its work. Year by year, almost day by day, we see men (and women) falter and fail in the midst of their labors; ... and all for want of a little bodily stamina--a little bodily power and bodily capacity for the endurance of fatigue, or protracted unrest, or anxiety, or grief."--Maclaren's _Physical Education_.

[14] "One half the struggle of physical training has been won when a boy can be induced to take a genuine interest in his bodily condition,--to want to remedy its defects, and to pride himself on the purity of his skin, the firmness of his muscles, and the uprightness of his figure.

Whether the young man chooses afterwards to use the gymnasium, to run, to row, to play ball, or to saw wood, for the purpose of improving his physical condition, matters little, provided he accomplishes that object."--Dr. D. A. Sargent, Director of the Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard University.

[15] "It is _health_ rather than _strength_ that is the great requirement of modern men at modern occupations; it is not the power to travel great distances, carry great burdens, lift great weights, or overcome great material obstructions; it is simply that condition of body, and that amount of vital capacity, which shall enable each man in his place to pursue his calling, and work on in his working life, with the greatest amount of comfort to himself and usefulness to his fellowmen."--Maclaren's _Physical Education_.

[16] To this cla.s.sification may be added what are called alb.u.minoids, a group of bodies resembling proteids, but having in some respects a different nutritive value. Gelatine, such as is found in soups or table gelatine is a familiar example of the alb.u.minoids. They are not found to any important extent in our raw foods, and do not therefore usually appear in the a.n.a.lyses of the composition of foods. The alb.u.minoids closely resemble the proteids, but cannot be used like them to build up protoplasm.

[17] The amount of water in various tissues of the body is given by the following table in parts of 1000:

Solids. Liquids.

Enamel, 2 Blood, 791 Dentine, 100 Bile, 864 Bone, 486 Blood plasma, 901 Fat, 299 Chyle, 928 Cartilage, 550 Lymph, 958 Liver, 693 Serum, 959 Skin, 720 Gastric juice, 973 Brain, 750 Tears, 982 Muscle, 757 Saliva, 995 Spleen, 758 Sweat, 995 Kidney, 827 Vitreous humor, 987

[18] The work of some kinds of moulds may be apparent to the eye, as in the growths that form on old leather and stale bread and cheese. That of others goes on unseen, as when acids are formed in stewed fruits.

Concerning the work of the different kinds of moulds. Troussart says: "_Mucor mucedo_ devours our preserves; _Ascophora mucedo_ turns our bread mouldy; _Molinia_ is nourished at the expense of our fruits; _Mucor herbarium_ destroys the herbarium of the botanist; and _Choetonium chartatum_ develops itself on paper, on the insides of books and on their bindings, when they come in contact with a damp wall."--Troussart's _Microbes, Ferments, and Moulds_.

[19] "The physiological wear of the organism is constantly being repaired by the blood; but in order to keep the great nutritive fluid from becoming impoverished, the matters which it is constantly losing must be supplied from some source out of the body, and this necessitates the ingestion of articles which are known as food."--Flint's _Text-book of Human Physiology_.

[20] Glands. Glands are organs of various shapes and sizes, whose special work it is to separate materials from the blood for further use in the body, the products being known as secretion and excretion.

The means by which secretion and excretion are effected are, however, identical. The essential parts of a gland consist of a bas.e.m.e.nt membrane, on one side of which are found actively growing cells, on the other is the blood current, flowing in exceedingly thin-walled vessels known as the capillaries. The cells are able to select from the blood whatever material they require and which they elaborate into the particular secretion. In Fig. 47 is ill.u.s.trated, diagrammatically, the structure of a few typical secreting glands. The continuous line represents the bas.e.m.e.nt membrane.

The dotted line represents the position of the cells on one side of the bas.e.m.e.nt membrane. The irregular lines show the position of the blood-vessels.

[21] Tablets and other material for Fehling and additional tests for sugar can be purchased at a drug store. The practical details of these and other tests which a.s.sume some knowledge of chemistry, should be learned from some manual on the subject.

[22] The Peritoneum. The intestines do not lie in a loose ma.s.s in the abdominal cavity. Lining the walls of this cavity, just as in a general way, a paper lines the walls of a room, is a delicate serous membrane, called the peritoneum. It envelops, in a greater or less degree, all the viscera in the cavity and forms folds by which they are connected with each other, or are attached to the posterior wall. Its arrangement is therefore very complicated. When the peritoneum comes in contact with the large intestine, it pa.s.ses over it just as the paper of a room would pa.s.s over a gas pipe which ran along the surface of the wall, and in pa.s.sing over it binds it down to the wall of the cavity. The small intestines are suspended from the back wall of the cavity by a double fold of the peritoneum, called the mesentery. The bowels are also protected from external cold by several folds of this membrane loaded with fat. This is known as the _great omentum_.

The peritoneum, when in health, secretes only enough fluid to keep its surface lubricated so that the bowels may move freely and smoothly on each other and on the other viscera. In disease this fluid may increase in amount, and the abdominal cavity may become greatly distended. This is known as _ascites_ or dropsy.

[23] The human bile when fresh is generally of a bright golden red, sometimes of a greenish yellow color. It becomes quite green when kept, and is alkaline in reaction. When it has been omited it is distinctly yellow, because of its action on the gastric juice. The bile contains a great deal of coloring matter, and its chief ingiedients are two salts of soda, sodium taurocholate and glycocholate.

[24] Nansen emphasizes this point in his recently published work, _Farthest North_.

[25] We should make it a point not to omit a meal unless forced to do so.

Children, and even adults, often have the habit of going to school or to work in a hurry, without eating any breakfast. There is almost sure to be a fainting, or "all-gone" feeling at the stomach before another mealtime.

This habit is injurious, and sure to produce pernicious results.

[26] The teeth of children should be often examined by the dentist, especially from the beginning of the second dent.i.tion, at about the sixth year, until growth is completed. In infancy the mother should make it a part of her daily care of the child to secure perfect cleanliness of the teeth. The child thus trained will not, when old enough to rinse the mouth properly or to use the brush, feel comfortable after a meal until the teeth have been cleansed. The habit thus formed is almost sure to be continued through life.