FORMULA FOR THE LESSON ON THE LUNGS AND RESPIRATION.
1. My lungs are the bellows or breathing machines of my body.
2. They are composed of a soft, fleshy substance, full of small air-cells
and tubes. They are porous and spongy when healthy, but in some diseases
become an almost solid mass, through which the air cannot pass.
3. I breathe by drawing the air through my windpipe, along the tubes into
the cells of my lungs, swelling them out, and causing my chest to expand;
then the chest contracts, and the impure vapor in my lungs is pressed out
through the same tubes, windpipe, nose, and mouth, into the atmosphere.
4. I cannot live without breathing, because if the air does not go down
into my lungs, the dark blood in them is not changed into pure red blood,
and goes back through my body dark blood, which cannot keep me alive.
5. If I would have healthy lungs,
I must breathe pure air,
I must live in the sunlight,
I must keep my body clean,
I must wear loose clothing,
I must wear clean clothing,
I must sit and stand erect,
I must keep all parts of my body warm,
I must not change my winter clothing too early in the spring,
I must avoid draughts of cool air,
I must not rush into the cold when I am in a perspiration,
I must not poison my lungs with alcohol or tobacco.
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QUESTIONS FOR THE FORMULA.
1. What are the lungs?
2. Describe the lungs.
3. How do you breathe?
4. Why can you not live without breathing?
5. What is necessary if you would have healthy lungs?
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THE AIR AND THE LUNGS.
The air which enters through the nose and mouth passes into a tube of
muscles and ring-like pieces of cartilage. The upper part of this tube is
the voice-box or _larynx_, covered by a spoon-shaped lid which closes when
we swallow; the lower part is the _trachea_, and the two parts are the
windpipe. The trachea divides into two branches, _the bronchial tubes_, one
for each lung. These tubes divide again and again like the branches of a
tree, and end in exceedingly small sacs or bags. The air in these sacs, or
air-cells, gives _oxygen_ to the blood in the tiny blood-vessels of the
lungs and takes from them the poison, _carbonic-acid gas_, water, and
impurities, which it carries back through the windpipe into the outside
air.
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QUESTIONS ON THE LUNGS AND RESPIRATION.
Of what are the lungs composed?--"Of a soft, fleshy substance, full of
small air-cells and tubes."
Of what use are the lungs?--"They are the breathing machines of the body."
How do the lungs appear when healthy?--"Porous and spongy."
How does the air get into the lungs?--"The air flows through the nose and
mouth, into the windpipe and along the air-tubes, into the air-cells of the
lungs."
What does the air do in the lungs?--"It swells the lungs and causes the
chest to expand."
What do you mean by expand?--"To increase in size."
How is the air expelled from the lungs?--"The chest contracts and sends
the impure air through the tubes and windpipe, the nose and mouth, into the
atmosphere."
What do you mean by contracts?--"Becomes smaller."
What do you mean by atmosphere?--"The air."
Of what use is the air when it is in the lungs?--"It makes the blood pure."
Why can you not live without breathing?--"Because, if I do not breathe,
pure air cannot get into the lungs to make the bad blood pure, and I cannot
live if the dark, impure blood is sent back again through my body."
Why must you live in the sunlight?--"Because the sunlight helps to purify
the blood and strengthen the body."
Why must you wear loose clothing?--"Because tight clothing stops the
circulation of the blood."
Why must you avoid tight-lacing?--"Because tight-lacing crowds the ribs
against the lungs, so that the lungs cannot move freely."
Why should you wear clean clothing?--"That nothing impure may pass into the
body through the pores of the skin."
Why should you keep the body clean?--"That the pores of the skin may not be
closed, but remain open to let the perspiration pass through."
What has the cleanliness of the body to do with the health of the
lungs?--"If the body is not kept clean, the perspiratory pores become
clogged."
What happens when the perspiratory pores are clogged?--"The impure
particles which should pass through them stay in the body, and cause
disease in the lungs or other parts."
Why should you sit and stand erect?--"Because, if I am in the habit of
stooping, my lungs will be crowded, and will not have enough room to move
freely."
Why should you keep all parts of the body warm?--"Because chilling any part
of the body causes the blood to chill in that part, and thus hinders its
circulation."
Why should you not change your winter clothing too early in the spring of
the year?--"I may take cold if not warmly clothed during the cool days of
early spring."
Why should you avoid draughts of cool air?--"Because the cool air blows
upon some parts of the body and closes the pores of the skin, checking the
perspiration, and hindering the circulation of the blood."
Why should you not rush suddenly from a warm to a cool place?--"Because
when warm the pores of the skin are open; if I rush suddenly into the cool
air, these pores are closed too quickly."
Why does stopping the perspiration hurt the lungs more or less?--"The
impurities it ought to carry away remain in the body, make the blood
impure, and produce disease in some part; very often that part is the
lungs."
What harm does alcohol do in the lungs?--"It fills the lungs with impure
blood."
What harm does it do to the air-cells?--"It hardens the walls of the
air-cells of the lungs."
What harm is done by the hardening of these air-cells?--"1. The lungs
cannot take in enough of the gas called oxygen to purify the blood
perfectly. 2. The gases or vapors in the lungs cannot pass freely through
the hardened air-cells."
What happens from this?--"The lungs become diseased."
From what disease do some hard drinkers suffer?--"Alcoholic consumption,
for which there is no cure." See Appendices on Alcohol and Tobacco.
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[Illustration: THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.]
1. The upper jaw.
2. The lower jaw.
3. The tongue.
4. The roof of the mouth.
5. The food-pipe.
6. The windpipe.
7, 8. Where the saliva is made.
9. The stomach.
10. The liver.
11. Where the bile is made.
12. The duct through which the bile passes to the small intestine.
13. The upper part of the small intestine.
14. Where the pancreatic juice is made.
15. The small intestine.
16. The opening of the small into the large intestine.
17-20. The large intestine.
21. The spleen.
22. The spinal column.
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