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Chapter VI: The Life Fluid.1789
Chapter VI: The Life Fluid.
I
n our last chapter we gave you an idea of how the food we eat is gradually
transformed and resolved into substances capable of being absorbed and
taken up by the blood, which carries the nourishment to all parts of the
system, where it is used in building up, repairing and renewing the several
parts of the physical man. In this chapter we will give you a brief description
of how this work of the blood is carried on.
The nutritive portions of the digested food is taken up by the circulation
and becomes blood. The blood flows through the arteries to every cell and
tissue of the body that it may perform its constructive and recuperative
work. It then returns through the arteries, carrying with it the broken down
cells and other waste matter of the system, that the waste may be expelled
from the system by the lungs and other organs performing the “casting-out”
work of the system. This flow of the blood to and from the heart is called
the Circulation.
The engine which drives this wonderful system of physical machinery is, of
course, the Heart. We will not take up your time describing the heart, but
will instead tell you something of the work performed by it.
Let us begin at the point at which we left off in our last chapter—the
point at which the nourishment of the food, taken up by the blood which