Читать книгу The House We Live In; or, The Making of the Body - Vesta J. Farnsworth - Страница 9

Table of Contents

WEATHER-BOARDS AND ROOFING

OTHER: After your father had filled the framework of his house with bricks, can you tell me, Elmer, how the outside was covered?

Elmer: The walls were covered on the outside with boards, and the roof with shingles.

Mother: That would do very well for a wooden house, but for one that can walk, run, jump, and skip about, such a stiff covering would be sadly out of place. We sometimes smile because the snail carries his house around on his back; but the house we live in must move itself and carry the one who lives in it. How are boards and shingles fastened onto common houses so they will stay?

Percy: With nails.

Mother: Just think of driving nails into muscles! Yet you see our body-houses must have some kind of a covering. It must be thin and strong and one that will stretch. Look at your hands and see if they do not have the very best covering that could be made. Pinch up the skin, and see how thin it is, and yet how well it fits every part of the body.

Amy: And the skin stretches, mother. See, I can bend my knee and elbow, and move my fingers as I please.

Mother: Yes, it is like a close-fitting garment. What we call the skin is really two skins. You see I can put a pin through the outer skin in the palm of my hand, and I feel no pain, and you see no blood.

Helen: Isn’t that all the skin we have?

Mother: No; for under this thick, outer skin is what is called the true skin. It has such fine blood-vessels that if you could see them, they would look like fine network. If you should prick this inner skin it would hurt, and the blood would flow. This shows it has nerves as well as blood. Under the true skin is a layer of fat. This is like a warm woolen garment to keep the body warm. Between the outer skin and the true skin there is some jelly-like coloring matter, which gives it color.

Helen: Is that why some persons are very dark and others are light, mother?

Mother: Yes; your true skin is just the same color as that of the negro and the Indian. The coloring matter under the outer skin is all that makes the difference. This outer covering is made of little horny scales laid one over another, much as a roof might be if it had ten or twelve layers of shingles. The outer scales keep wearing away all the time, and new ones take their places. You know a snake sheds its skin and crawls away with a new one. We shed our skin, too, little by little, but the scales are so small we can hardly see them. If you should wear your under-clothing several days, and then shake it in the sunlight, you would see little scales floating about in the air like dust.

Amy: Isn’t the skin thicker in some parts of the body than others?

Mother: Yes; on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet it is quite thick, while on the lips and some other parts of the body it is very thin indeed. Have you noticed how the skin looks if it is scratched and then heals up?

Elmer: Just the same as it did before.

Mother: But if there is a deep cut or a severe burn, how does it look after it heals?

Helen: There is a scar left.

Mother: This shows that the outer skin and the coloring matter will come back as they were before if they are hurt; but when the true skin is injured, the blood makes a kind of patch, which we call a scar. Another curious thing about the true skin is that it has tiny muscles, and when the body is cold, they draw up and make little hillocks, which we call “goose-flesh.”

But the skin is very useful, besides being a covering for the body. When we were getting dinner to-day, what did we do with the potato parings and other things we did not wish to keep?

Percy: We put them in the garbage box.

Mother: Why did we do that?

Amy: Because they were not fit for food.

Mother: And what do we call that which we do not wish to keep, and so throw away?

Helen: We call it waste.

Mother: What do we do with waste matter? Do we let it stay in the house?

Elmer: No; we throw it away.

Mother: Why would it not be best to let it remain in the house?

Percy: Because it would decay and make us ill.

“One inch square.”

Mother: Well, it is the same way in the house we live in. All the food we eat can not be used, and some parts of the body are wearing out all the time. If the waste stayed inside, we should become ill. In the skin there are thousands and millions of little tubes called pores, which help carry away the waste. If you become very warm, you say you are “sweating,” or per-spir´ing; that is, drops of water come out all over your body. They come through the pores, or little holes in the skin. But we sweat, or perspire, all the time, whether we can see it or not. If the pores of the skin were stopped up, a person would soon die. If the skin is very dirty, the sweat can not get out, and it stays inside. To show you how many pores there are, you may look at this little piece of paper, which is just one inch square. In such a space on the limbs there are five hundred pores. On the trunk of the body, forehead, back of the hand, and on the foot, one thousand; and on the palm of the hand and sole of the foot there are twenty-seven hundred. Each of these little waste-pipes is one-fifth of an inch long. If they were placed one after another, wise men tell us we would have two or three miles, and perhaps even more, of waste-pipes for the body. What do you suppose would happen if they were choked up, and all the waste should remain inside?

Amy: We would become ill.

Mother: We surely would. Sometimes we call it “taking cold.” If we cool off too quickly when warm, or get our clothes wet and do not put on dry ones, or in a warm spring day put on thin clothes, all these things stop the waste-pipes, and we “catch cold,” have a sore throat, and we may have a fever, which shows that the waste is being burned up inside; and the house becomes burning hot.

Percy: Then the pores must be kept open all the time if we would be well.

Mother: Yes; but there is another way than those I have told you by which they get choked up. The waste-pipes leave the dirt they carry out of the body on the skin, for that is as far as they can carry it. The master of the house must see that the skin is kept clean, so the pipes will not be choked.

Elmer: Then he ought to wash it often.

“A thorough scrubbing.”

Mother: I think so, and not only some parts, but the whole house needs a good scrubbing with soap and warm water as often as twice a week, and if he will then take a bath of some kind each day, that will keep the skin clean and healthy. Even rubbing the whole body once a day with a damp towel and then with a dry one, will keep the waste-pipes open, so they can do good work, if there is a thorough scrubbing twice a week, as I have said. We should also be careful to wear clean clothing next to the skin, for there is about a quart of waste matter carried through the pores every day. Can you think of any other ways in which the skin is useful besides being a covering and carrying away the waste?

Helen: It helps us feel different objects. Those who are blind learn to do many useful things by the sense of touch.

Mother: Yes, we learn many things by this sense. You know when you show anything to a baby it stretches out its little hands to “feel” of the object. How do you think such poisons as alcohol and tobacco affect this covering of the body?

Amy: They must make more waste in the body, and so the skin has more to do.

Percy: I think it must fill it full of poison.

Elmer: Does alcohol make the skin look red, mother?

Mother: Yes; that is why a man who drinks beer or other drinks containing alcohol, has such a red face. Sometimes his nose is called a “rum blossom.” The alcohol makes the blood-vessels larger than they should be, and so his nose and face become very red. Bad food is also hurtful to the skin, for it can not be clear and healthy if the blood is not clean. Pimples and sores are caused by bad blood, and they show that better food is needed in the body.

Amy: But you haven’t told us what the roof of the body house is, mother.

Mother: Have you ever seen a house with a thatched roof—I mean one covered with hay or straw instead of iron or shingles?

Elmer: Oh, yes, we saw some when we were out in the country!

Mother: Well, the roof of the house we live in is more like that than like a shingled roof.

Percy: Now I know what you mean: the body-house has a roof of hair.

Mother: And it is a most beautiful covering, too. Each hair grows in a little pocket, which is furnished with a tiny bag of coloring matter and a bottle of hair oil. These give color to the hair, and keep it soft and smooth. If we put much oil on the hair, it causes the oil bottles in the skin to dry up. There is no dressing so good as that which is made in the skin. We should brush and comb the hair carefully, to keep it shining and healthy.

People sometimes lose this beautiful thatch, and we say they are “bald-headed.” In very old people it turns gray or white, and it is like a beautiful, silvery crown. The Bible says that “a hoary head is a crown of glory.” Very small, new houses sometimes have no thatch at all, but as they get larger and older, one grows, and at first it is fine as softest silk. The Bible says that even the hairs of our head are all numbered or counted by our heavenly Father. From this we may see how much He loves and cares for us.