WONDERFUL MAN!

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1931, Page 6

WONDERFUL MAN!

BODY A MARVELLOUS MACHINE The human body is often compared to a machine. It is certainly the most wonderful of all machines. It is self 7 building, self-repairing, self-regu-lating, self-oiling. Tha t great expert, Sir Arthur Keith, modestly wrote in his excellent book, “The Engines of the Human Body,” that if scientific investigation was continued for another 2000 or 3000 years we might possess some real knowledge of the body. Even the grandest system of waterworks is coarse and clumsy when it is compared with the endless miles of piping in oux- bodies, through which that most wonderful force-pump, the helaft, send|s the life-giving bloodstream to all parts of the body. Most of the pipes have a movement of their own, whereby they assist the propulsion of the blood, and a most ingenious system of valves ahd stop-cocks neutralises the law of gravity. Otherwise, the bulk of our blood would accumulate in our legs and feet! The eyes act as a microscope for near-by vision, as an adjustable telescope for long distances, and as a photographic camera. The camera shutter is modelled exactly upon the self-acting appliance of the eye. With all our knowledge, we cannot keep clean a piece of glass, if ever so precious, such as the lens of a microscope, without scratching it in the cleaning. The window and lens of the human body, the eye, is kept automatically eJean for the time of one’s life by means of a wonderful slightly

disinfectant fluid, the tears, and the winking of our eyelids, and the water sent down the nose. Our nervous system is comparable to a telephone or telephonic system of extraordinary complexity and efficiency. Countless wires carry impressions from all parts of the body to the brain, and another set of wires sends orders for action to every part. The whole system is linked by a large number of local exchange centres. There are in our bodies the most wonderful automatic appliances for all our needs. We find it difficult to maintain an even temperature in our rooms, notwithstanding our scientific system of heating and the possibility of cooling tlie air by opening doors and windows. Automatic heat regulation keeps our body at an even temperature, whether we are in a Turkish bath or in an ice-house. The huihah body is composed of about 26,000,000,000,000,000 cells. Each cell springs from the original single one. Each acts like a live being, choosing or refusing and digesting its food from the blood-stream, excreting refuse, multiplying, and eventually dying, and doing its allotted work. A set of bone-building cells enlarge the hollow bones of the infant, and a set of bone-consuming cells at the same time widen the inside of the bones to give space to the growing marrow.

Providence has given us the most wonderful body, which is fitted with a marvellous system, of automatic re-

gulation, repair, and disease fighting. If we have any respect for that miraculous work of Providence we should treat it well in accordance with the obvious wish of Providence, and not abuse it by insanitary living and by violating the obvious laws of health. The body if properly treated, reacts by giving us perfect health, a long life, and a natural, painless death at a very advanced age, as a rule in our sleep. A permanently ill-treated body reacts by giving us discomfort, pain, ill-health, disease, and physical and mental sufferings without number. Consequently, we should study the laws of health, and live according to the plain dictates of Nature.