CONCERNING MAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 846, 15 February 1868, Page 9

CONCERNING MAN.

Wonders at home by familiarity cease to excite astonishment ; but thence it happens that many know but little about the ' ' house we live in"— the human body. We look upon a house from the outside, just as a whole or unit, never thinking of the many rooms, the curious passages, and. the ingenious internal arrangements of the Tiouse, or of the wonderful structure of the man, the harmony and adaptation of all his parts.

In the human skeleton, about the time of maturity, are 165 bones. The muscles are about 500 in number. The length of the alimentary canal is about 32 feet.

The amount of blood in an adult averages 30 pounds, or full cne-fifth of the entire weight.

The heart is six inches in length and four inches in diameter, and beats seventy times per minute, 4200 times per hour, 100,800 per day, 36,772,000 times per year, 2,565,440,000 in three score and ten. .and at each beat two and a half ounces o blood are thrown out of it, one hundred and seventy- five ounces per minute, six hundred and fifty-six pounds -per hour, seven and three-fourths tuns per day. All the blood in the body passes through the heart in three minutes. This little organ, by its ceaseless industry, In the allotted span The Psalmist gave to man.

lifts the enormous weight of 370,700,200 tons.

The lungs will contain about one gallon of air, at their usual degree of inflation. We breathe on an average 1200 times per hour, inhale 600 gallons of air or 24,400 gallons per day. The aggregate surface of the air cells of the lungs' exceeds 20,000 square inches, an area very nearly equal to the floor of a room 12 feet square. The' average weight of the brain of an adult male is three pounds and eight ounces, of a female two pounds and four ounces. The nerves are all connected with it, directly, or by the spinal marrow. These nerves, together with their branches and minute ramifications, probably exceed 10,000,000 in number, forming a " body guard" outnumbering by far the greatest army ever marshaled !

The skin is composed of three layers, and varies from one-fourth to one-eighth of an inch in thickness. Its average area in an adult is estimated to be 2000 square inches. The atmospheric pressure being about 14 pounds to the square inch, a person of medium size is subjected to a pressure of ,40,000 pounds. Pretty tight hug!

Each square inch of skin contains 3500 sweating tubes, or perspiratory pores, each of which may be likened to a little drain-tile, one-fourth of an inch long, making an aggregate length of the entire surface of the body of 201,166 feet, or a tile ditch for draining the body almost forty miles long.

Man is made marvellously. Who is eager to investigate the curious, to witness the wonderful, works of Omnipotent wisdom, let him not wander the wide world round to seek them, but examine himself. " The proper study of mankind is man." — Cm. Journal of Commerce.

Losses in the Dundee Whale Fishing Trade. — The Dundee Advertiser Bay a : — The present is said to be the most unlucky year for the Dundee whale fishers that has occurred within the memory of man, and it will be the most severely felt in consequence of the great amount of capital now invested in the screw steamers employed in the whale fishing. , One of these fully equipped is worth about three of the old class of sailveisels, and it is computed that the average loss on each steam whaler will be LSOOO reckoning wages and provisions at L3OOO ; insurance, LIUOO ; and tear and wear, LIOOO. This on ten ships amounts to L 50,000 of actual loss ; but the difference between an almost total failure and a good ordinary fishing can scarcely be reckoned at less than LIOO,OUO. The coincidence of a bad fishing year with the present dull state of trade will add to the gloom of the coming winter. Fortunately, however, shipping is improving ; freights are advancing considerably; and there is not likely to be any want of employment for seamen {or some time to come.