Читать книгу The House We Live In; or, The Making of the Body - Vesta J. Farnsworth - Страница 8

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THE WALLS OF OUR HOUSE

LMER: I don’t like to look at pictures of bones and skeletons, mother.

Mother: No; like the framework of a house, they are not pretty, and yet they give shape to what we do like to see. When your father built this house, do you remember how he made the walls?

Percy: The spaces between the timbers were filled with bricks, so there was a solid wall.

Mother: Well, it is that way in the body-house. The bones are all covered over and filled in between with muscles. It is these which make the cheeks so plump, and give the whole body its round, pleasing form. It is the muscles which move the bones.

Amy: But what is a muscle?

Mother: You have seen lean meat, have you not? That is muscle. When boiled it seems to be made up of little bundles of tiny threads of fibers, each wrapped in its own thin blanket. Here is a picture of a muscle. These small threads are not twisted together, but are laid side by side. It takes one thousand seven hundred of them to make a muscle an inch thick in children, but in grown people it takes only five hundred.

Helen: Are the muscles fastened to the bones, mother?

“Muscles of the arm, with their tapering tendons at the wrist.”

Mother: Yes; many muscles are joined to the bones by strong cords, called tendons. The picture shows the muscles of the arm, with their tapering tendons at the wrist. You see our muscles end in these little ropes, or cords, to save room. What a large wrist we would have if the muscles were as large there as in the arm! Now grasp your right arm and open and shut the fingers of your right hand. What do you feel?

Percy: The flesh moves.

Muscles of the hand.

Mother: That is because the muscles of your arm pull back when you shut your fingers, and stretch out when you open them. They are some like this piece of India rubber. If you pull it out, it gets thinner, and if you let go, it snaps back and becomes short and thick. Perhaps you have seen the leg of a fowl cut off at the joint, and know if you take hold of the strong cords you can move the toes up or down. So the muscles and tendons move in our feet and hands in the same way. Every step we take, one muscle lifts the toes in front, and another pulls up the heel behind.

If a person sits still much of the time, he will have weak, small muscles, because he does not use them. That is one reason why people are so very weak after being ill. When we use our muscles, they grow large and strong. You have seen the blacksmith’s arm and noticed how large and strong it is. To use our muscles does not wear them out, but does them good.

Elmer: I should think the muscles were our servants, to do whatever we wish done.

Mother: Yes; and better servants no person ever had. If the brain says, “I want a book,” the muscles of the legs carry the body where the book is; those of the eye look for it; those in the arm and hand lift it; and the master of the house gets what he wants. We can not move or do anything without these servants to help us.

Amy: It must take a good many to serve one who wants as many things as I do.

Helen: I read not long ago there were about five hundred of them, big and little, and that they have many shapes and sizes.

Mother: That is true; and one who has so many servants as that, ought to be able to wait on himself, and help other people, too. Some of these servants, those in the feet, legs, arms, and hands, wait to be told what to do. Others go to work and keep at it without telling, and they will work even though the one living in the house should tell them to stop. When you wink, you do it without thinking, for the little muscles over the eye know it is their duty to keep the eye clean and bright, and they keep at their work even though you should tell them to keep still. Your heart is a hollow muscle, and it works faithfully night and day as long as you live. The stomach is made of muscles, which take care of your breakfast and dinner without a word from you; and there are many more of these faithful servants who work to keep our house in order.

Percy: But don’t the muscles get tired, mother?

Mother: Yes; and when they ask for rest, we should give it to them. We do not need to sit still and do nothing in order to rest the muscles. If we have been studying, it rests them to sweep the floor, hoe in the garden, or work or play. If we have been playing or working hard, it rests us to sit down and read or study. Change of work is better than to be idle. Walking, running, or working makes the muscles grow large and strong.

We must also have plenty of sleep. A boy or girl who works and plays out in the fresh air and sunshine, will be strong and well, while those who sit in the house will be weak and sickly. But it is not best to work the muscles till they are “all tired out,” for using them too much is nearly as bad as not using them at all.

Helen: I read a story not long ago about the king of a tribe in Africa. He did not move about or work, so he became ill. He sent for his doctor, who saw that all he needed was to use his muscles, but he did not dare tell him to go to work, so he made two large clubs, and told the king the medicine which would make him well was in the handles, and if he would swing the clubs each day till his body was moist, the medicine would go from the clubs into his hands, and make him strong and well. The king did as the doctor said. Each day he swung his clubs in the open air, and he soon became strong. He thought he had a very skilful doctor, and praised him for his great cure.

“Giving his muscles exercise.”

Mother: And yet it was only giving his muscles exercise which helped him so much. This shows the importance of using them.

Elmer: Do we need anything else to make the muscles strong, mother?

Mother: Yes; one of the best things to make them strong is plenty of good, plain food. As the muscles are used, they wear out, and must have new timber to build themselves up. You would think it strange if a carpenter brought brick, mortar, glass, and timber to mend a house, and without his help each part should take just what it needed, putting in half a dozen bricks in the chimney, a board in the floor, a new pane of glass in the window, and some mortar in the right place. But this is what the house we live in is doing day and night. When we sleep, the mending goes on better than when we are awake, and it is done so well we do not hear or think of the busy little workmen inside. All they ask is the right kind of food, not too much or too little of it, and they will take the right thing to the right place, and keep the house in good order.

Helen: I have read of some men “training” their muscles. What did they do to train them?

Mother: They were very careful to take only that kind of food which is good for the muscles. They can not use wine, beer, whisky, or tobacco, for these make bad blood and weak muscles. Then they work all they can bear, but not too much.

Percy: But Mr. Blank says it makes him strong to have a glass of beer or whisky.

Amy: And Mr. Blank is such a big man he must have strong muscles.

Mother: To be big is not to be strong. It is well to have some soft cushions of fat between the muscles, but, as a rule, those who have much fat are not as strong and well as those who have less fat and more muscle. Whisky does not make the muscles grow, nor does it make any one strong. Would you like to have me tell you why this is so?

Elmer: Please do, mother.

Mother: Do you remember when we were driving up that long hill yesterday how tired the horse seemed till he was struck with a whip? After that he went much faster, and did not seem tired at all for a little while. The whip was a stim´u-lant to the horse. Whisky and beer are stim´u-lants, too. Mr. Blank works till his muscles are tired, and then, instead of giving them food and rest, he gives them beer, which makes him think he is stronger when he is really weaker. The whip made the horse forget he was tired, but don’t you think if he had rested an hour and eaten some good oats and sweet hay, he would have had more strength than he had after he was struck with the whip?

Percy: I think so; for if we had given the horse no rest and had kept whipping him, after a time he could not work at all.

“LIFT, BROTHER, LIFT.”

Mother: And that is just what happens to the man who drinks beer. Perhaps you have seen a man stumbling along the sidewalk. He is first on one side and then on the other, and we say he is drunk. This means that the alcohol he has taken has poisoned his body so the muscles will not do their work properly. The man can not make his servants do as he tells them; for he has made them all sick, and he is sick. It is a sad sight to see any one drink this poison, and make himself helpless.

Amy: I never knew before that strong drink hurt the muscles.

Mother: And there is another poison about as bad for them, and that is tobacco. If a boy wishes to grow to be a large, noble man, with an active mind, a clean mouth, sweet breath, clear eyes, and strong muscles, he will not touch tobacco. In some countries there is a law against boys using it, because it does them so much harm. Tobacco makes the muscles weak and unsteady. Like alcohol, it makes a person feel stronger when he is really weaker.