Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1895 — PHYSIOLOGICAL [ARTICLE]

PHYSIOLOGICAL

Bearded women have been very numerous. The most noted of the number was the famous Margaret of Austria, appointed by Charles V. to be Governor of the Netherlands. She had a long, stiff, black beard, and conceiving the idea that it added to the majesty of her appearance, was very careful of it, and so combed and trained It as to make it seem much greater than It was. The apparatus for keeping the eye moist is complex and efficient. It comprises the lachrymal gland, which secretes the tears, the lachrymal caruncle, a small fleshy body at the Inner angle of the eye; the puncta lac-hrymae, two. small openings at the nasal extremity of the eyelids, the lachrymal ducts, which convey the tears into the nose, and the lachrymal sac, a dilation of the canal. An idea of the Importance of the perspiratory' glands may be gained from their number. On the back, breast and legs there are about 500 to the square Inch; on the neck, face and back of the bands, about 1,000; on the palm of the hand, about 2,700. The total number In the human body Is estimated at 2,300,000, and If the minute tubes were straightened, their total length would be over two and a half miles. They form the sewerage of the human system. The most remarkable Instance erf rapid growth was recorded by the French Academy in 1729. It was a boy 6 years of age, 5 feet 6 Inches In height. At the age of 5 his voice changed, at 6 his beard had grown, and ne appeared a man of 30. He possessed great physical strength, and could easily lift to his shoulders and carry bags of grain weighing 200 pounds. His decline was its rapid as his growth. At 8 his hair and beard were gray; at 10 he tottered in his walk, his teeth fell out. and his hands became palsied; at 12 he died with every outward sign of extreme old age.