A Handbook of Health by Woods Hutchinson (readnow TXT) π
CHAPTER II
WHY WE HAVE A STOMACH
WHAT KEEPS US ALIVE
The Energy in Food and Fuel. The first question that arises in our mind on looking at an engine or machine of any sort is, What makes it go? If we can succeed in getting an answer to the question, What makes the human automobile go? we shall have the key to half its secrets at once. It is fuel, of course; but what kind of fuel? How does the body take it in, how does it burn it, and how does it use the energy or power stored up in it to run the body-engine?
Man is a bread-and-butter-motor. The fuel of the automobile is gasoline, and the fuel of the man-motor we call food. The two kinds of fuel do not taste or smell much alike; but they are alike in that they both have what we call energy, or power, stored up
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Skin. The continuous outer covering of the body, in the deeper layer (der'ma) of which are located the sweat glands, which secrete sweat (a watery, oily substance containing impurities from the blood) and excrete it through the sweat ducts and their openings (pores) in the surface of the skin.
Tra'che a (or trΔ chΔ' Θ§). The windpipe between the larynx and the bronchi.
U'ri na ry system. The organs concerned in the secretion and discharge of urine: the kid'neys (two glands in the abdominal cavity, back of the peritoneum, which receive wastes from the blood, and excrete them as urine), the u re'ters (ducts through which the urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder), the blad'der (an elastic muscle-sac in which the urine is retained until discharged from the body).
VI. Relating to the Nervous and Motor SystemsBrain. The soft mass of nerve tissue filling the upper cavity of the skull. Its cellular tissue is gray, and its fibrous tissue white. With the spinal cord it controls all the sensory and motor activities of the body.
Cer e bel'lum. The part of the brain lying below the hind part of the cerebrum.
Cer'e brum. The upper or fore part of the brain; it is divided by a deep fissure into two hemispheres, its cor'tex (surface) lies in many con vo lu'tions (folds), and its fibres run down into the spinal cord. In this part of the brain are the centres, or controlling nerve cells, of the senses and most of our conscious activities.
Gang'li a (gΔng'lΔ Θ§). (Plural of ganglion). Nerve knots, or groupings of nerve cells, forming an enlargement in the course of a nerve.
Me dul'la. A portion of the brain forming an enlargement at the top of the spinal cord and being continuous with it; the channel between the brain and the other parts of the nervous system.
Muscle (mus'l). A kind of animal tissue that consists of fibres that have the power of contracting when properly stimulated. A bundle of muscle fibres, called a muscle, is usually attached to the part to be moved by a ten'don, or sinew. Muscles causing bones to bend are termed flex'ors; those causing them to straighten, ex ten'sors. The movements of muscles may be voluntary (controlled by the will), or involuntary (made without conscious exercise of the will).
Nerve. A fibre of nerve tissue, or a bundle of such fibres, connecting nerve ganglia with each other or with some terminal nerve organ. Nerves running inward toward the spinal cord and the brain are called sen'so ry nerves; those from the brain and spinal cord outward, mo'tor nerves.
Nerv'ous system. The nerve centres with the sensory and motor nerves and the organs of sense.
Neu'rons. The cells of the spinal cord and the brain.
Re'flex. A simple action of the nervous system, in which a stimulus is carried along sensory nerves to a nerve centre, and from which an answering stimulus is sent along motor nerves to call into play the activity of some organ, without consciousness, or without direct effort of the will.
Spi'nal cord. The soft nerve tissue that extends from the medulla almost to the end of the spinal column, being encased by it. It controls most of the reflex actions of the body.
Stim'u lus. Anything that starts an activity in the tissues on which it acts; for example, light is a stimulus to the nerve tissues of the eye.
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