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Show 1 TucnrncMTAMnincYuracD cinuntv unoMiur aiihcto .o I Makeshift Feet, Imperfect Noses, Poorly Arranged HfHHBHBHHBi H Veins and Other Serious Defects Which Cause HhHBhIhIhHHhR I A Picture Diagram Showing the Location and Nature of Some of tho More Serious Defects Which Would Have to Be Remedied in Order to Put the Human Body's Mechanism on a Par, Physically, With the So-called So-called "Lower Animals." The Feet a Tree Cllmbloc. Nol vVnlklnff. Urfhnnlim. Too Sererr Slrnln on Hie rlrn of the I es. C, D Lack of Protection for the Nuiwrflclal 1-moral 1-moral rterle. Two of the Principal Ihannrls by Which niood l tarrlfd to the Iris. F., i The Kntlre VbOonilnal Wall Kxpoted to Injury In-jury at a Rrult of Mau i I prlchl Portion, at It It In No Other Vertebrate, t; Abenre of Valve, In the Great Abdomln.l Vrlru Whlrh l the Eioii Why a Blow on the Solar Plrxu Often Mnke a Pernon l oll I D.ontrlou. H SeriOiin I.nrk of Valve In thr l.rrat Vein Kn-terlnc Kn-terlnc the Heart from the M.iiomen and the Ixurr I I ml. Where They Are Pnrtlrnlurlv Needed. I Supcr-ahundmoe of Valve In (he A rin Betwcer the Rlbi Whrre Not Needed. J The Month and Jaw. Where Nameron IM.idant- re nave Been Growlnc More i. Serlon Ever Since Mnu lie- , came a fland Feeder. K The Ktc. One of the I Body's Motl Strlklnc Examples of Dad S orkm.mlilr I I, The Nor. Whlrh IToojes a Very Defective Ortun of Smell and Which 1 sQ Toorly (ontruelrd and Arranted That It Forms a Dancerouo DUense- M Los of the Power to I Twitch the Skin a Defect Whlrh Seems Trivial. But 1 i Really Serloos. ' N The Left Bronehlcl Tube Leading otT frum the Wiodplpe at a Fur More Obtuse Ancle I Than the Rleht. So Tliat Mikoi and Disease Germ Firm 1 Easy Way Lnio the Left Lun:. J (C) 1010. Inteniatlons) Feature Serrle. Ina m j " , mn r -I. l j . THE Into Mark Twain more than nnre bemoaned the fact that he was a man and declared that humanity has very little to be proud of And now It appears that there is actually a great deal of truth In what tho famous humorist said ba If In jest. As ? mat'er of fact, man has surprisingly surpris-ingly small cause, so far as his physical body Is concerned, for regarding himself as nature's masterwork and for holding himself superior to what he arrogantly calls the "lower animals " Instead of being be-ing as fearfully and wonderfully made as we are apt to think, man's hody is really a very pre nrious piece of machinery. Tho body is so full of Imperfections and poor adjustments of one part to another that there are actually many disadvantages disadvant-ages in being human A large number of these disad antages are pointed out and explained by Professor Pro-fessor B W. Kimkel, of Lafavette College, In a most Interesting and Instructive article ar-ticle in the Scientific Monthly. To lllus-traie lllus-traie how poor our sense of smell Is as compared with other animals he citon a remarkable experience which he himself had some time ago "I was gTeatly terrified." he says, "at tho sight of my small child calmly sitting upon the edge of a roof to which she had climbed, and, although I had Just returned from m bath, I was conscious of a most fetid odor from my skin Immediately after I had rescued the child from her danger ous porch It was the odor of fear. "Think how vastly our knowledge of people with whom we come in contact would be Increased If we had a sense of pmell acute enough to perceive the pass-in pass-in variations of, our bodily secretions aB I did In this Instance! A real Sherlock Holmes equipped with nostrils keen enough to differentiate between the odor of sanctity sanc-tity and deceit would make the feats of Conan Doyle's Imaginary hero pale into insignificance " Man'6 organ of smell Is defective not only In the way it functions, but also in Its manner of construction and arrangement The little turblnal bones over which the sensitive organ of smell is spread out are much smaller than In our more eharp-f-cented animal cousins, and they are often so deformed as to make little pockets in which the secretions of the nose accumulate. accumu-late. When these secretions decompose they cause serious trouble, and the dlsin foctlon of the nose and the cleaning of these little pockets of their mucus deposits de-posits are Important parts of the nose specialists work. Another defect of the human body which at first glance seems trivial, but which is really serious, is the loss of the power to twitch the skin as tho horso does when troubled by flies. The extensive layer of muscle which enables horses and other quadrupeds to do this has disappeared entirely en-tirely from the human species except on the front of the neck and the face and the scalp Instead of being able to drive off insects by a sudden contraction of the skin, as quadrupeds do, man is under the necessity of using a hand or foot As Professor Kunkel points out, doubtless many of our forebears plunged to death or serious injur) in-jur) from the tree tops because they were forced to employ hands or feet to ward off the attacks of Insects. Many of the most glaring mechanical defects in the human body are due to man's present habit of striding about on his leps Instead of crawling on "all fours." Thi3 habit is of comparatively recent development, de-velopment, as is shown by the length of time a baby creeps and the slowness with which it learns to stand erect and walk. In fact, it is so now to man that the body has not yet had tiifte to adapt itself fully to the new position. Man's upright position is directly responsible re-sponsible for several serious disadvantages disadvant-ages in the blood vessels Standing as we do with the axis of the body nearly vertical to the ground, the blood vessels of the legs have to support an unusually tall column of blood. This greater pressure pres-sure is borne quite well by the strong muscular walls of tho arteries and by those of tho deep seated veins, which, aJthough considerably thinner, are well supported by the surrounding muscles. But the walls of the veins which 11a Just beneath the Great Britain Rights Beats-red. Lina Cavalieri's Chin and Jaw (on the Left) Are Far More Beautiful Than Thoie of the Congo Savage Princess (on the Right), but Science Declares That from the Viewpoint of Mouth Hygiene the Latter Are Much to Be Preferred. skin and have no muscle support frequently fre-quently give way under the strain. When this happens wo havo tho condition con-dition known as varicose veins, which are continually discommoding thousands upon thousands of human beings. If our bodies were thoroughly adapted to the upright position tho valves in tho blood vessels would be distributed quite differently from the way they are. These valves are little pockets whose purpose is to prevent the blood from flowing away from tho heart. Obviously they are important im-portant only in veins which have a vertical verti-cal course and in which the blood has to flow upward to reach the heart. Yet we find an abundance of valves in the veins which lie between the ribs, and which, on account of their horizontal position, posi-tion, have no need for them, and a serious lack of valves in the great veins entering the heart from tho abdomen and the lower limbs where they are particularly needed The great veins which bring blood from the legs and kidneys and from tho stomach and Intestines are both without any valves whatever As a result of this lack the circulation cir-culation in the lower extremities and the abdominal organs is retarded and tho pressuro on the veins of the legs sometimes some-times seriously Increased This is particularly unfortunate in the case of the liver, whero the circulation is at best sluggish. There would be fewer cases of liver trouble and fewer diseases of other abdominal organs If tho veins 1 2 3 Tho Defective Bronchial Tubes, tho Left One Leaving the Trachea nt a Far Moro Obtuse Angle Than tho Rifht, Thus Making Mak-ing It Easy for Mucus and Disease Germs to Find Ther Way Into the Left Lung. (And Above) Tho Heel a Soen from Behind of (1) a Chimpanzee, (2) an Australian Savage, (3) a Caucasian. Tho Fibula (F) Plays a Decreasing Rolo While the Calcaneus (C) Tends to Shift Toward the Left in the Effort to Make tho Foot Oripinally Intended for Trco Climbing Better Fitted for Walking and Standing Erect. The Foot's Weakness is Duo to It Not Yet Being Fully Adapted to Man's Erect Position. leading from the different organs were all equipped with valves to relieve the tendency ten-dency to back pressure and consequent retardation re-tardation of circulation. Still another serious disadvantage results re-sults from tho absence of valves in the great abdominal veins. In case the extensive ex-tensive blood vessels of the alimentary canal suddenly enlarge, as they often do when the solar plexus Uf struck a hard blow, the blood Is drained rapidly from the brain aud the person falls in a faint If there were valves in tho veins of the trunk to prevent the back flow of the blood nothing of the kind would happep. In a dog or other quadruped the groin j Is deeply seated between the thigh and H'l-' tho abdominal wall, but In man it Is fully exposed and unprotected Just below the groin on the front of the thigh is the superficial femoral artery one of the principal channels by which blood Is car ried to tho leg. Rjj'i'xSi In an animal with the thigh hahitually bent on the trunk this important artery j j lies deep In the crease between thigh and . trunk, where it is securely protected from harm But not so In man With his feet spread in order to give him a broader base and a more secure balance, tho femoral artery Ilea exposed In a most dangerous way. ISP-Not ISP-Not only the groin, with Its important artery, but the entire abdominal wall is exposed to injuty as a result of man's upright up-right position. This large area is wholly unprotected by the body's bony framework. and as If this were not enough, tho whole ' trunk is flattened aud broadened so that It furnishes a larger target for attack and dangerously exposes some of Its most vulnerable vul-nerable parts. rjv- ' In man's feet the unfortunate results of the erect position are even niore numerous . than In some other parts of the body, and tho pain and inconvenience which wc ex- perlenco from these makeshift pieces of mechanism constitute some of the most serious Disadvantages under which human beings arc forced to struggle along. Tho foot of ancestral man was rery nicely adapted to treo climbing, tho heel being set off slightly to one cilo 30 that M the sole could be better applied to the cylindrical trunks and branches. But what was Just the thing for climbing trees 1 proves a 6erlous disadvantage when it comes to walking and standing erect A Slnco man assumed the upright position his heel has moved over somewhat further toward the inner side of the foot In an effort to bring the heel that was slanted for tree climbing squarely on the ground ' for walking. Tho parts of the foot, how- ever, have not yet become perfectly adapted to the new arrangement, and a3 a result there Is a weakness that manifests Itself as a fallen arch in thousands of human beings. This weakness Is largely due to the Ion stretch botween the ball of tho foot and the heel and an imperfect support of the arch on the inner margin of the foot. Jfl When the defect becomes serious it has to bo remedied by extending the heol of the shoe forward along the Inner side of the heel to throw tho sole of the foot inward in-ward and shift the weight of the body moro to the outer side of the foot In the lungs is found a defect which although seemingly trivial. 18 undoubtedly the cause of countless deaths. As is well known, the trachea or windpipe passes from tho mouth or, more properly, ihQ 4fl pharynx to the lungs, dividing into the two bronchial tubes. The right tube leads off from the trachea at more nearly a right angle than the left, so that mucus rolling downward, or disease germs carried down by the air current, find their way Into tho loft lung with greater frequency than Into the right one. As a result of this. In the typical case of lobular pneumonia, the con- flr r gested areas cluster around tho extremity I L sb of tho left bronchial tube more closely BW than around the right. Not a few of the disadvantages of being human are found In and around the mouth Since man became a hand feeder his teeth have grown smaller and become more closely crowded together The wisdom teeth show several unmistakable signs of degenerating. We think our promlnoat chins things of beauty, and we point with pride to tho decided angles which the shortening of tho Jaw 8 has given them as marks of man's determination and ability to accomplish accom-plish great things The Congo savage's receding Jaw may seem extremely udy to us. but science declares that from the viewpoint of mouth hygiene it is far superior to our own much more ai tractive ones. i Man has paid heavily for his superla- live brain but the brain has been .. orth B |
