haust the strength of an individual.
Moreover, iron conditions bodily warmth as it combines with oxygen in a
higher and a lower degree. In the lungs it is highly oxidized by the
respired oxygen, but in contact with the nerve ends it gives itself only
to a part of the oxygen present, and burns a certain portion of the
lecithin to water, carbonic acid and phosphates, thus creating body
warmth to a considerable extent.
In response to the chemical consumption of lecithin a new oil flows down
the axis cylinders of the nerve fibrils, which are arranged like lamp
wicks. The duration of the flow of this oil is, on the average, about
eighteen hours. When the cerebro-spinal nerves refuse longer to perform
their function, fatigue and sleep ensue, and the current of blood leaves
the brain and seeks the intestines. While the cerebro-spinal system
rests, the sympathetic system takes up its task of directing the renewal
of tissue and supplying the nerve sheaths through the lymph vessels,
which draw their material from the digestive canal, with a new supply of
phosphatic oil. Thus the brain and spinal nervous system are prepared
for another day's work. For the fulfillment of these processes, the
magnetic blood current forms the intermediary.
The presence of formic and acetic acid supplies the blood with fresh
electricity to stimulate the nerves. "Under normal conditions," says
Julius Hensel, "this function is assigned to the spleen. This organ
takes the part of a rejuvenating influence in the body in the manner of
a relay station, and does so by virtue of an invisible but significant
device. In every other region of the body the hairlike terminals of the
arteries which branch out from the heart merge directly in the tiny
tubes (capillaries) of the veins, which lead back to the heart again: in
the spleen this is not the case. Here rather the arteries end suddenly
when they have diminished to a diameter of one one-hundred-and-fortieth
of an inch and end in a bulb (the Malpighian bodies). Under such
circumstances the sudden stoppage, particularly the impact of the
magnetic blood stream against the membrane of a Malpighian body,
exemplifies the physical law of the induction of electricity, in
accordance with which the blood that enters the spleen is changed into
plasma and exudes through the membrane of the Malpighian bodies. The
event indicates some fluidity of the red blood cells, which is a change
effected in the body by the impact o
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