178 



* KNOV/LEDGE ♦ 



[March 23, 1883. 



what they really mean by tliis, and thpy will see what it 

 amounts to. What sort of law do they understand by a 

 law of nature 1 Do they suj)jioso that somewhere or other 

 in the chain of causation on which weather and weather 

 changes depend there is a place where the laws of nature 

 do not operate in a definite way, but might act in one or 

 other of several different waysl This would correspond 

 to the lielief of the savage, that an eclipse of the sun is 

 not caused by the operation of definite natural laws. 



In point of fact, speaking from the scientific point of 

 view, prayer that coming weather may be such and such 

 is akin to prayer that an unopened letter may contain good 

 news. So regarded, it is proper enough. But prayer pro- 

 ceeding on the assumption that in the natural order of 

 things bad weather would continue, and that in response 

 to prayer it will be changed, is improper and wrong for all 

 who consider and understand what it implies. But then 

 so few do. 



What real difference is there between praying that 

 weather may change and praying that a planet or comet 

 (as men in old times did pray, being ignorant) may take a 

 specified course — except that we have not yet mastered 

 the laws according to which weather varies, while we have 

 mastered those which govern the movement of the heavenly 

 bodies. 



But again I say the question is not in any sense a re- 

 ligious one. Prayer has no more intimate association with 

 religion than an MB waistcoat has. It is, and has long 

 been a customary part of the yarh of religion ; but it may 

 equally be the garb of irreligion ; and there may be true 

 religion without prayer, even prayer of the kind which is 

 proper and right. I do not wish to depart from my rule to 

 let no question of dogmatic religion be discussed here — no 

 question relating to the specific views of any sect, large or 

 small, influential or the reverse — otherwise I might be dis- 

 posed to quote the sayings of one of the wisest teachers the 

 human race has yet known. He left a model of prajer con- 

 taining throughout but one reference to material benefit, 

 and that one not so much appealing for help as expressing 

 contentment with the least possible provision for the passing 

 day. We might also note that the same pure teacher, on 

 the only occasion when he prayed for himself, used words 

 implying submission rather than appeal ; in fact, the words 

 can logically only mean .simple and entire submission, since 

 it could be preposterous to suppose a change of God's will 

 was prayed for. 



The possible influence of prayer in modifying the pro- 

 gi-ess of events is a purely scientific question. On the 

 other hand, the propriety of the prayerful attitude, which 

 really expresses only desire, coupled with submission, is a 

 religious question,— on which (though it is quite outside 

 dogmatic theology, and well within our sphere, which, 

 of course, includes natural religion) I have not touched 

 at all. 



As a scientific question, the matter iias been debated 

 over and over again — with no particular result, because the 

 student of science can only have one opinion on the sub- 

 ject, while the unscientific only thinlc they think about it. 

 Good old Benjamin Franklin was one of the first to be 

 denounced for giving the only possible opinion. But many 

 must have been still more foolish then than several now ; 

 for they positively asked him whether he did not think it 

 sinful to devise methods for changing the predestined 

 course of God's lightning ! 



An Exhibition of Hyffienic Dress! and Decoration will be opened 

 early in June, Bndcr the auspices of the Xntional Ifoalth Society, 

 at Hnmphroy's Uall Knijhtsbridge, W 



"OUR BODIES:" 



SHORT PAPERS ON PHYSIOLOGY. 

 By Dr. Andrew Wilson, F.R.S.E., kc. 



No. VIII. — UOW THE BODY'S DUTIES ARE PERFORMED. 



IN our last paper we saw that the lx)dy was a complex 

 machine, within which continual actions were being 

 executed and performed. Life, in one sense, is merely the 

 sum total of these actions. Our existence is the result of 

 their exact and continuous performance. It remains, how- 

 ever, that we should look a little more closely at these 

 bodily processes. We must endeavour to ascertain how 

 they are performed, and in what fashion they relate them- 

 selves to our daily life. 



The word " secretion " is one in constant use in the 

 mouths of physiologists. They speak of the liver 

 "secreting" bile, of the salivary glands "secreting" 

 saliva, or the " water " of the mouth, and of the stomach 

 " secreting " gastric juice. What is meant, then, hy this 

 word " secretion " ? and what is the use or purport of the 

 function which bears its name ' To answer these queries 

 we must reflect a little upon the demands which life makes 

 upon the body's belongings. In the digestion of food, 

 for example, a considerable number of fluids are poured 

 at intervals upon the food. The digestive system, it wUI 

 be remembered, is merely a tube, opening into which we 

 find certain organs, such as salivary glands, liver, sweet- 

 bread, itc. Now, digestion is largely a chemical process. 

 Certain food-elements are broken down, combined with 

 other elements, and made to assume new forms, in which 

 they can be readily combined with the blood. Hence 

 upon the food there are poured the fluids already men- 

 tioned, which alter and change the food-constituents as 

 nature directs. Take, as an example, the food-changes 

 which occur in the mouth. Saliva — the " water " of the 

 mouth — is poured upon the food at this stage of digestion. 

 This fluid is furnished by three pairs of organs caUed 

 salivary glands, each gland opening into the mouth by 

 a " duct " or tube of its own. When saliva comes in con- 

 tact with any starchy foods, the latter are transformed by 

 the chemical action of this fluid into dextrin and grape- 

 sugar. When saliva is analysed, it is found to consist of 

 water, certain minerals, and a substance (found nowhere 

 in the body save in this fluid) called jtti/alin. It is this 

 latter substance which appears to be instrumental in chang- 

 ing starch into dextrin and grape-sugar — in which latter 

 forms starch, itself indigestible, becomes more readily 

 absorbed into the blood. Hence this substance, pfi/alin, is 

 said to be one of the digestive " ferments " — a name applied 

 to certain bodies which are found chiefly in the digestive 

 fluids, and which produce chemical changes in the foods 

 submitted to their action. 



In the stomach, another " ferment," pepsin,. exists in the 

 " gastric juice." This latter fluid is "secreted" by the little 

 glands tliat exist in the substance of the stomach itself. 

 This ferment has the power of changing nitrogenous foods 

 or " albuminoids " into substances called ])eplanes. In a 

 word, in the latter form these foods are diffusible, and 

 readily pass into the blood. The liver, as every one knows, 

 is a manufactory of liilfi, which is, perhaps, the most complex 

 fluid in the body. Bile is of a greenish-yellow colour, and 

 when analysed is found to consistof water and solids, amongst 

 the latter being bilin, fat, c/iolesfrriii, &c. There seems little 

 doubt that bile when added to the food (as it is added after 

 the food has left the stomach) acts specially on the fatty 

 parts of the food, whilst discharging other functions. The 

 pancreas or " sweetbread " throws pancreatic jttice on the 



