Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
History
Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
Curiosities and wonders; Encyclopedias and dictionaries; Folklore
Growth produces in the species a somewhat remarkable change in the
mechanical qualities of the bones. This important part of our organism
consists of three constituents--fibre, cartilage, and the earthy matter
already mentioned called _phosphate of lime_. From the fibre they
derive their toughness; from the cartilage their elasticity; and from
the lime their hardness and firmness. Nothing can be more admirable
in the economy of our body than the manner in which the proportion of
these constituents adapts itself to the habitudes of age. The helpless
infant, exposed by a thousand incidents to external shocks, has bones,
the chief constituents of which being gristly and cartilaginous, are
yielding and elastic, and incur little danger of fracture. Those of the
youth, whose augmented weight and increased activity demand greater
strength, have a larger proportion of the calcareous and fibrous
elements, but still enough of the cartilaginous to confer upon the
solid framework of his body the greatest firmness, toughness, and
elasticity. As age advances, prudence and tranquil habits increasing,
as well as the weight which the bones have to sustain, the proportion
of the calcareous constituent increases, giving the requisite hardness
and strength, but diminishing the toughness and elasticity.
While the bones thus change their mechanical qualities as age advances,
they diminish in number, the frame consequently having fewer joints
and less flexibility. The bones of a child, whose habits require
greater bodily pliability, are more numerous than those of an adult,
several of the articulations becoming ossified between infancy and
maturity. In like manner, the bones at maturity are more numerous than
in advanced age, the same progressive ossification of the joints being
continued.
It has been ascertained by anatomists that, on attaining the adult
state, the number of bones constituting the framework of the human body
is 198; of which 52 belong to the trunk, 22 to the head, 64 to the
arms, and 60 to the legs.
TOWER OF THE THUNDERING WINDS.
[Illustration: [++] Tower of the Thundering Winds.]
The Great Wall is certainly a wonderful monument of ancient times; but
it is almost the only one that we read of in China, except a famous
Temple, or Tower, partly in ruins, which stands on an eminence in
the neighbourhood of Hang-chow-foo. It is called the "Tower of the
Thundering Winds," and is supposed to have been built about 2,500 years
ago.
DR. MONSEY BEQUEATHS HIS OWN BODY.
This eccentric person died at the great age of 96, and was for half
a century, physician to Chelsea Hospital. He left his body for
dissection, and a few days before he died, wrote to Mr. Cruikshanks,
the Anatomist, begging him to know, whether it would suit his
convenience to do it, as he felt he could not live many hours, and Mr.
Forster, his surgeon, was then out of town. He died as he predicted,
and his wishes with respect to his body, were strictly attended to.
TEA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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