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Chapter XVIII: The Little Lives of the Body.1871
cells are stationary—others remain so until needed, when they manifest
motion—others are constantly on the move, some making regular trips
and some being rovers. Of these moving cells some perform the work of
carriers, some move from place to place doing odd jobs, and others do
scavenger work, and still another class belong to the police force, or army, of
the cell-community. Cell-life in the body may be compared to a large colony,
operated on a cooperative plan, each cell having its own work to do for the
common good, each working for all, and all working for the common welfare.
The cells of the nervous system carry messages from one part of the body
to the brain and from the brain to another part of the body, being living
telegraph wires, as the nerves are composed of minute cells in close contact
with each other, having small projections which are in contact with similar
projections from other cells, so that they are practically holding hands and
forming a chain, along which passes the Prana.
Of the carriers, moving workers, policemen, soldiers, etc., of the cellcommunity
there are millions upon millions in each human body, it being
estimated that there are in one cubic inch of blood at least 75,000,000,000
(seventy-five thousand million) of the red-blood cells alone, not to speak of
the other cells. The community is a large one.
The red-blood cells, which are the common carriers of the body, float
in the arteries and veins, taking up a load of oxygen from the lungs and
carrying it to the various tissues of the body, giving life and strength to the
parts. On the return journey through the veins they carry with them the
waste products of the system, which are then thrown off by the lungs, etc.
Like a merchant vessel these cells carry a cargo on their outgoing trip and
bring a second cargo on their return trip. Other cells force their way through
the walls of the arteries and veins and through the tissues on their errand of
repair work, etc., upon which they have been sent.
Besides the red-blood cells, or carriers, there are several other kinds of
cells in the blood. Among the most interesting of these are the policemen
and soldiers of the cell-community. The work of these cells is to protect