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being, like an animal, is evolved from a small cell—the female
reproductive ovum—after fertilisation by the male some period
before birth, being about nine months for a full-time child.
In order to obtain improved stocks and herds, the best kinds
are used for breeding, so also to obtain more healthy children,
men and women must do all they can to keep themselves
healthy, especially as the sins of the parents are generally visited
upon their children.
The human body can in many ways be compared with a
very complicated automatic machine. It is one which every
one of us has to drive every day and night until the end of life's
journey. One of the simplest comparisons has been with a steam
engine. In order to obtain the most efficient working, the engine
must be regularly fed with the proper amount and kind of fuel,
the refuse must be regularly cleared away, it must have a
sufficiency of water and air, the machinery must be kept clean
and well oiled, it must not be kept out of use, or it will rust
and will need overhauling and repair before it can be efficiently
used again.
One of the most interesting popular descriptions of the human
body in lucid language is a recent publication by Professor
Arthur Keith, M.D., F.R.S., etc., " The Engines of the Human
Body," giving the substance of his Christmas Lectures at the
Royal Institution. He went to the. workshop of the engineer
and selected examples of his inventive ability to illustrate the
creative genius displayed by Nature in the construction of the
human body. For instance the heart is a pump, one which in
the ingenuity of its construction, the delicacy of its regulation,
and the effectiveness of its work, far surpasses any model of
man's invention. The master contrivance, the organisation of
the brain, spinal cord and nerves, is compared with an extensive
telephone system with automatic telephone exchanges.
DEFENCES AGAINST DISEASES.
The animal kingdom abounds with Nature's wonderful
methods of defence, not only against their larger enemies, but
also against their unseen foes, the germs of disease. Man's
ingenuity has also devised many artificial methods of defence
against foes of both kinds, which methods have reached their
climax during the past terrible war.
Medical men have studied the battles which are fought
between the invading legions of germs and the defensive forces
of the body, and have discovered some of Nature's methods, so
that they can assist recovery from disease by acting as Nature's
assistants.
Therefore, when ill, at once call gi a well-trained doctor, as
Nature can be assisted most efficaciously at the beginning of
the disease before much damage, has been caused. Much money
is worse than wasted, because of the harm that is so frequently