CHAPTER XXIV 

 LOADING UP 



" I send it through the rivers of your blood 

 Even to the court, the heart, the seat o' the brain, 

 And through the cranks and offices of man. 

 The strongest nerves and small inferior veins 

 From me receive that natural competency 

 Whereby they live." Shakespeare. 



We have now come to one of the most interesting parts of our 

 study, namely the handhng of the imports in their course between 

 the external and the internal transport systems. As we have 

 seen, the material brought to the body may be divided into two 

 classes. One of these consists of the gas, oxygen, which comes 

 to the port of arrival almost ready for use, and which is passed 

 directly to the inland transport system for transmission to the 

 various cell-communities. 



The foodstuffs form the other class. They are " raw material " 

 and have, as a rule, to undergo some process of manufacture 

 before they can be distributed to the consumer. They are handled 

 by a sjDecial mechanical transport service and are taken through 

 the various factories and then handed to the inland transport. 



In this chapter we are to deal with the importation of oxygen 

 and the mechanism by which it is received at the port, carried 

 overland and loaded on the submersed barges on their way inland. 

 Indissohibly associated with any system of importation is the 

 provision of exports. Any barge travelling empty on the blood 

 stream as on any industrial canal is a distinct loss to the whole 

 community. Every ship that leaves our shores without a full 

 cargo tells a tale of industrial inefficiency. In the body, the 

 output of carbon-dioxide and the intake of oxygen are nicely 

 balanced. As a matter of fact, the regulation of the rate of 

 importation by the rate of exportation is as much a law here as 

 in the realm of Political Economy. 



A separate chapter has been devoted to the mechanism whereby 

 the oxygen is brought from outside into the port. Briefly, by 

 muscular movements air is drawn through filtering and warming 

 appliances into the air sacs, and after a very short interval is 

 expelled into the outer air altered in content. 



In the average resting man, somewhat over 500 c.c. of air come 



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