Читать книгу How to live: A manual of hygiene for use in the schools of the Philippine islands онлайн

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Now it is taken up by the blood through tiny canals that reach down into the intestines and absorb it. But it is not really a part of the blood yet. It must be changed still further, so the blood carries it to the liver. Here it is made a part of the blood, and is able to nourish all parts of the body.

All the food that cannot be dissolved is indigestible, and the body must get rid of it. Some of it passes off as solid matter, by way of the bowels; some is got rid of through the urine; some goes out with the breath, as we have seen; and a great deal goes off in the perspiration. This is why we need to bathe our bodies and to wash our clothing. The perspiration brings the bad matter to the surface, where it clings to the skin and the clothing until it is removed by washing.

But this series of boxes, which we call the head and trunk of the body, would be very helpless without the legs and arms to carry them about and to wait upon them. Taken all together, the head, trunk, and limbs form the body. The framework, which we call the skeleton, is made up of bones. These bones are like the framework of a house,—they keep the body upright and support the muscles. In young people the bones are soft and elastic. A baby often has falls that would break the bones of a grown person, but the baby’s bones are not broken because they are not yet hardened. This is an advantage, for children get a great many more falls than grown people do, and it would be hard for them if the bones were broken as easily.