Principles of Public Health: A Simple Text Book on Hygiene, Presenting the Principles Fundamental to the Conservation of Individual and Community HealthTuttle, Thomas Dyer
Science
Principles of Public Health: A Simple Text Book on Hygiene, Presenting the Principles Fundamental to the Conservation of Individual and Community Health
Tuttle, Thomas Dyer
Public health
[Sidenote: How the body is like an automobile]
These bodies of ours are built somewhat like automobiles. An
automobile is made up of a framework, wheels, body, gasoline tank,
engine, and steering-gear. The human body has much the same form of
construction. We have a frame, which is made of the bones of the
body. We have arms and legs, which correspond to the wheels of the
automobile. We have many little pockets in our bodies in which fat
is stored, and these little pockets answer to the gasoline tank
of the automobile. We have an engine which, like the automobile
engine, is made up of many parts; and we have a head or brain, that
plays the same part as the steering-gear of the automobile.
The automobile has a tank in which is carried the gasoline
necessary to develop power for the machine. If the gasoline gives
out, the engine will not run, and before the owner starts on a
trip, he is always careful to see that the tank is well filled.
In the same way, if we do not provide new fat for the pockets in
our bodies in which the fat is stored, our supply will soon give
out and our bodies will refuse to work, just as the engine of the
automobile will refuse to work when the gasoline is used up.
[Sidenote: What cells are like]
The automobile is made of iron and wood and rubber, and each bit
of iron and wood and rubber is made up of tiny particles. The body
is made of bones and muscles, covered with skin, and all these are
made up of very fine particles that we call cells. Every part of
the body is made of these fine cells. The cells are so small that
they can be seen only with a powerful microscope. If you look at
your hand you cannot see a cell, because it takes a great many
cells to make a spot large enough for you to see. In Figure 1 you
see a boy looking through a microscope, and beside him you see a
picture of what he sees. This picture does not look like the skin
on your hand, neither does it look like the skin on the boy's hand;
but it is nothing more nor less than a piece of skin taken from
that boy's hand, and it looks just as a piece of skin from your
own hand would look if you were to see it through a very strong
microscope.
[Sidenote: Why cells must not be killed]
The whole body is made up of just such little cells as you see in
Figure 4, and each cell is alive and has a certain work to perform.
It is very important that we keep these cells from dying and that
they perform the work for which they are intended, for if these
cells die or fail to act, the body becomes sick or dies.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. A cell. (a) Cell body; (b) nucleus; (c)
nucleolus.]
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