PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE 



CHAPTER I 



THE FRAMEWORK OF THE BODY 



The Bones Their Form and Composition The Properties of Bone 

 The Skeleton The Joints The Spinal Column The Growth 

 of Bone The Repair of Bone Changes in the Skeleton Erect 



Posture 



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1. The Bones. The framework which sustains the human 

 body is composed of the Bones. The superstructure consists 

 of the various organs on which the processes of life depend. 

 These organs are soft and delicately formed, and, if unprotected, 

 would, in most cases, rapidly be destroyed when subjected to 

 violence, however slight. The bones, having great strength 

 and power of resistance, afford the protection required. (Bead 

 Note 1.) 



1. Self-Knowledge. " It has been said with truth that the human 

 mind, which can survey the heavens and calculate the motion and density 

 of the stars, finds itself confounded when, returning from these distant 

 journeyings. it enters its own dwelling-place the body. Man's own 

 organization is still among those mysteries of nature which he is least 

 able to penetrate, in spite of his incessant efforts to lift the veil which 

 hides it. In all ages he has sought to know himself. In all times he has 

 studied the relations between his own existence and that of the world, 

 and those universal influences which, though evident to him, are nearly 

 all inexplicable in their action upon living beings." Le Pileur on the 

 Human Body. 



1. The framework of the body? The superstructure? Softness and delicacy of the 

 organs ? How protected ? 



B 17 



