280 THE HUMAN BODY. 



leg, which are not directly interfered with at all, contract 

 and jerk the foot away from its tormentor. Everywhere 

 we find this co-operation among the organs ; and it is only 

 by such co-operation that our bodies are able to continue 

 alive. In JSsop's fable we are told how the arms and jaws 

 declined to work any longer in providing and grinding food 

 for the lazy stomach, and how they soon came to grief in 

 consequence. We might extend the fable, and go on to 

 state how afterwards the stomach made up its mind to 

 digest and absorb just as much food as it wanted for itself, 

 and not bother about supplying those cantankerous arms 

 and jaws, and the moral would be the same : if the stomach 

 ceased to work for the other parts they soon would cease to 

 be able to send food to it, and so it would itself starve in turn. 

 How a Man differs from a Collection of Living Organs, 

 Throughout the body, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, 

 liver, muscles, and skin, all need one another's aid to 

 obtain food and oxygen, to remove wastes, and to avoid dan- 

 gers. This co-operation makes the individual human be- 

 ing ; a mere mass of living organs, arranged together in the 

 form of man's body, but each acting without reference to 

 the rest, would no more make a man than a mob of strong 

 men would make an army. As in the mob the reckless 

 courage of some, the personal cowardice of others, the 

 uncontrolled ambition of a few, would make the crowd 

 nearly useless for military purposes in spite of the merits of 

 its individual members, so in the body ; if the organs were 



Is co-operation between its organs general throughout the body? 

 Is it important? Illustrate the importance of co-operation between 

 the parts of the body. 



For what purposes do the different organs need one another's help? 

 Is the co-operation of organs necessary to make an individual human 

 being? Illustrate. 



