Page:Guide to health.djvu/25

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to the body is the same as that of the steam engine to the Railway train. The gastric juice which is pro- duced in the stomach helps the assimilation of nutri- tious elements in the food, the refuse being sent out b£ way of the intestines in the form of urine and fseces. On the left side of the abdominal cavity is the spleen, while to the right of the stomach is the liver, whose function is the purification of the blood and the secretion of the bile, which is so useful for c^gestion. <

In the hollow space enclosed by the ribs are situated the heart and the lungs. The heart is bet- ween the two lungs, but more to the left than the right. There are, on the whole 24, bones in the chest ; the action of the heart can be felt between the fifth and the sixth rib. The lungs are con- nected with the windpipe. The air which we inhale is taken into the lungs through the wind- pipe, and the blood is purified by it. It is of the utmost importance to breathe through the nose, instead of through the mouth.

On the circulation of the blood depend all acti- vities of the body. It is the blood that provides nourishment to the body. It extracts the nutritious elements out of the food, and ejects the refuse through the intestines, and so keeps the body warm. The blood is incessantly circulating all over the body, along the veins and the arteries.

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