.1 WOULD OF BILLIOXS 



711 



vigorous means to stimulate the kid- 

 neys. These remedies, with hot drinks. 

 a sharp purgative, and abund;mt drink- 

 ing of water soon averted the dangLT. 

 In the ease of some patients the ttrca 

 excreted by the skin has actually 

 formed crystals on its surface. 



How many billions, trillions, and 

 quadrillions of cells in the blood, the 

 hair, the innumerable glands of the in- 

 testines, in the liver, the pancreas, the 

 kidneys, the brain, and the skin perish 

 and are replaced every day no one can 

 possibly estimate. That svtch huge 

 armies of cells serve us every day, every 

 liour. every minute of our lives day and 

 night, in sickness and in health, and as 

 a rule in orderly sequence so that the 

 balance of health is maintained, or in 

 case of illness is restored, gives one an 

 idea of the wonderful mechanism of the 

 human body — nay, of the whole animal 

 and even of the vegetable kingdom, for 

 only by the same nice adjustment of 

 number and function of cells to the 

 needs of the body of the man or the 

 animal or the plant can health be main- 

 tained. 



Moreover, the great strength of these 

 minute cells is wonderful. We are all 

 familiar with the bricks or even the 

 heavy flagstones around the trunks of 

 trees on our sidewalks which are lifted 

 and tilted by these same little cells 

 growing slowly but inexorably. I well 

 remember seeing in the old churchyard 

 at Jamestown, Virginia, a full-grown 

 sycamore tree which had split a great 

 bowlder in two. The little tree had 

 found a chink into which it had insinu- 

 ated its slender stem. Then these 

 myriad Lilliputian cells, slowly but 

 steadily increasing in number, had 

 gradually thickened the tree trunk and 

 finally had rent the stone asunder. 



II 



The Orgaxizatiox of the World 



OF BiLLIOXS 



Every plant and every animal, in- 

 cluding man himself, starts from one 



niicroscopic wW which multiplies in- 

 (Icliiiitcly uiiti! the number mounts to 

 millions and hillions. The rapidity of 

 ilii.- gniwtli in siunc instances is almost 

 inconccixalilc. 'I'lic cholera bacillus 

 nnilii|ili('s I'rdni mic to two; these two 

 di\i(lr inid lour; these four into eight, 

 sixteen, and so on every twenty min- 

 uU's. In seven hours, provided it has 

 room enough and food aplenty, one 

 single cholera bacillus would have more 

 than 2,000,000 descendants, and three 

 hours later more than 1,000,000,000, 

 and so on. These 1,000,000,000 in 

 twenty minutes would become 2,000,- 

 000,000; in twenty minutes more 4,- 

 000,000,000. In twelve hours after the 

 first single cell with which we started 

 had begun to multiply, its descendants 

 would number about 64.000,000,000,- 

 000, sixty-four thousand billions of 

 cells. What would the number be in a 

 week or a month ! 



Or again, consider the silkworm. In 

 thirty days after being hatched from 

 the egg it increases in weight 15,000 

 times; that is 500 times its original 

 weight every day. We can get a more 

 impressive idea of what this means by 

 comparing it with a human baby. 

 Were the same rule to hold, a baby 

 weighing seven pounds at birth would 

 weigh 3500 pounds the very next day, 

 and when a month old would weigh 

 105.000, or more than fifty short tons, 

 which, however, could hardly be called 

 "short weight." If you will pardon the 

 abominable but expressive argot of the 

 street, that would be "some baby." But 

 we may be somewhat consoled by re- 

 membering that both mother and nurse 

 would be of corresponding elephantine 

 bulk — made to "fit the job" as the ex- 

 ponents of efficiency would say. 



But this is a gross, unimaginative 

 way of looking at such a phenomenon. 

 'WTien we analyze it seriously, what a 

 wonder world we enter upon ! How 

 these little silkworms must feed, feed, 

 feed ! Think of the abounding life of 

 each microscopic cell. Every one has 



