A Practical Physiology: A Text-Book for Higher SchoolsBlaisdell, Albert F. (Albert Franklin)
Science
A Practical Physiology: A Text-Book for Higher Schools
Blaisdell, Albert F. (Albert Franklin)
Human physiology; Physiology
A few simple rules should guide teachers and school officials in
providing proper furniture for pupils. Seats should be regulated
according to the size and age of the pupils, and frequent changes of
seats should be made. At least three sizes of desks should be used in
every schoolroom, and more in ungraded schools. The feet of each pupil
should rest firmly on the floor, and the edge of the desk should be
about one inch higher than the level of the elbows. A line dropped from
the edge of the desk should strike the front edge of the seat. Sliding
down into the seat, bending too much over the desk while writing and
studying, sitting on one foot or resting on the small of the back, are
all ungraceful and unhealthful positions, and are often taken by pupils
old enough to know better. This topic is well worth the vigilance of
every thoughtful teacher, especially of one in the lower grades.
58. The Bones in After Life. Popular impression attributes a less share
of life, or a lower grade of vitality, to the bones than to any other
part of the body. But really they have their own circulation and
nutrition, and even nervous relations. Thus, bones are the seat of
active vital processes, not only during childhood, but also in adult
life, and in fact throughout life, except perhaps in extreme old age.
The final knitting together of the ends of some of the bones with their
shafts does not occur until somewhat late in life. For example, the
upper end of the tibia and its shaft do not unite until the
twenty-first year. The separate bones of the sacrum do not fully knit
into one solid bone until the twenty-fifth year. Hence, the risk of
subjecting the bones of young persons to undue violence from
injudicious physical exercise as in rowing, baseball, football, and
bicycle-riding.
The bones during life are constantly going through the process of
absorption and reconstruction. They are easily modified in their
growth. Thus the continued pressure of some morbid deposit, as a tumor
or cancer, or an enlargement of an artery, may cause the absorption or
distortion of bones as readily as of one of the softer tissues. The
distortion resulting from tight lacing is a familiar illustration of
the facility with which the bones may be modified by prolonged
pressure.
Some savage races, not content with the natural shape of the head, take
special methods to mould it by continued artificial pressure, so that
it may conform in its distortion to the fashion of their tribe or race.
This custom is one of the most ancient and widespread with which we are
acquainted. In some cases the skull is flattened, as seen in certain
Indian tribes on our Pacific coast, while with other tribes on the same
coast it is compressed into a sort of conical appearance. In such cases
the brain is compelled, of course, to accommodate itself to the change
in the shape of the head; and this is done, it is said, without any
serious result.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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