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The liver secretes the bile, which is carried to the small intestine, as we
have stated. It also stores up a substance called glycogen, which is formed
in the liver from the digested materials brought to it by the portal vein (as
above explained). Glycogen is stored up in the liver, and is afterwards
gradually transformed, in the intervals of digestion, into glucose or a
substance similar to grape sugar. The pancreas secretes the pancreatic
juices, which it pours into the small intestine, to aid in intestinal digestion,
where it acts chiefly upon the fatty portions of the food. The kidneys are
located in the loins, behind the intestines. They are two in number and are
shaped like beans. They purify the blood by removing from it a poisonous
substance called urea and other waste products. The fluid secreted by the
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kidneys is carried by two tubes, called ureters, to the bladder. The bladder
is located in the pelvis and serves as a reservoir for the urine, which
consists of waste fluids carrying with it refuse matter of the system.
Before leaving this part of the subject we wish to call the attention of our
readers to the fact that when the food enters the stomach and small
intestines improperly masticated and insalivated when the teeth and
salivary glands have not been given a chance to do their work properly
digestion is interfered with and impeded and the digestive organs are
overworked and are rendered unable to accomplish what is asked of them.
It is like asking one set of workmen to do their own work in addition to the
work which should have been previously performed by another set of men-
it is asking the railroad engineer to perform the duties of firemen as well as
his own to keep the fire going on an up grade and run the locomotive on
a dangerous bit of road at the same time. The absorbents of the stomach
and intestines must absorb something  that is their business and if you
do not give them the proper materials they will absorb the fermenting and
putrefying mass in the stomach and pass it along to the blood The blood
carries this poor material to all parts of the body, including the brain, and it
is no wonder that people complain of biliousness, headache, etc., when
they are being self-poisoned in this way.
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Chapter 6:
The Life Fluid.
In our last chapter we gave you an idea of how the food we cat is gradually
transformed and resolved into substances capable of being absorbed and
taken up by the blood, which carries the nourishment to all parts of the
system, where it is used in building tip, repairing and renewing the several
parts of the physical man. In this chapter we will give you a brief
description of how this work of the blood is carried on.
The nutritive portions of the digested food is taken up by the circulation
and becomes blood. The blood flows through the arteries to every cell and
tissue of the body that it may perform its constructive and recuperative
work. It then returns through the arteries, carrying with it the broken down
cells and other waste matter of the system, that the waste may be expelled
from the system by the lungs and other organs performing the "casting-out"
work of the system. This flow of the blood to and from the heart is called
the Circulation.
The engine which drives this wonderful system of physical machinery is,
of course, the Heart. We will not take tip your time describing the heart,
but will instead tell you something of the work performed by it.
Let us begin at the point at which we left off in our last chapter the point
at which the nourishment of the food, taken up by the blood which
assimilates it, reaches the heart, which sends it out on its errand of
nourishing the body.
The blood starts on its journey through the arteries, which are a series of
elastic canals, having divisions and subdivisions, beginning with the main
canals which feed the smaller ones, which in turn feed still smaller ones
until the capillaries are reached. The capillaries are very small blood
vessels measuring about one three-thousandth of an inch in diameter. They
resemble very fine hairs, which resemblance gives them their name. The
capillaries penetrate the tissues in meshes of network, bringing the blood in
close contact with all the parts. Their walls are very thin and the nutritious
ingredients of the blood exude through their walls and are taken up by the
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tissues. The capillaries not only exude the nourishment from the blood, but
they also take tip the blood on its return journey (as we will see presently)
and generally fetch and carry for the system, including the absorption of
the nourishment of the food from the intestinal villi, as described in our last
chapter.
Well, to get back to the arteries. They carry the rich, red, pure blood from
the heart, laden with health-giving nutrition and life, distributing it through
large canal into smaller, from smaller into still smaller, until finally the tiny
hair-like capillaries are reached and the tissues take up the nourishment and
use it for building purposes, the wonderful little cells of the body doing this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]