ページの画像
PDF
ePub

replied:- -The moment the hall door opened he was as dead to me. I cannot now distinctly recall my feelings, but I think the bitterness of death was passed, I think I had resigned him.'

Poor Sophia! a very short time after, I heard that the governess and the master were both dismissed, every article of furniture sold, that could be dispensed with, and the money laid out in purchasing bread or even potatoes for the children of those who had spent, at least their married life, in promoting the best interests of their fellow-creatures, both temporally and spiritually. The persecution against the clergy had commenced, and they who had managed to live in a cabin, on a curate's salary, were reduced to want, in a rectory.

Divine grace was the stay of Sophia's soul in a life of trial, and to this was added a depth of abiding affection to the partner of her cares, without which, however animated by the hopes of a better life she might have been, this world would have presented a saddening prospect to her.

I have drawn these hasty sketches from an unknown private life, from the wish, partly, to revive, in my own mind, the sweetness of former companionship, and perhaps, also, to make known to an English reader, that such characters may be found in the dwellings of the persecuted and oppressed clergy of Ireland.

S. B.

[blocks in formation]

Frank. Will you explain to us, mamma, about the blood. I cannot think how it gets into our bodies, nor what it is made of. Is there not a great deal in every person who is alive?

Mamma. Yes, a great deal.

Emily. Does it not move about?

Mamma. Yes, it is always circulating, through the means of tubes called blood-vessels, which are found in every part of our frame, and which are immediately connected with the heart, which is the source from whence they all proceed. But I will

try first and tell you how blood is made. The food which we eat is received into the stomach, where it is prepared by digestion, into a substance fit for the nourishment of the body. Here there is a curious fluid placed, which changes it into a substance called chyme, which passes into the small intestine, and is there turned into a milky liquor called chyle. This is that fluid substance from which the blood is formed.

Emily. But, mamma, do you mean that all that process goes on with every thing which we eat?

Mamma. Yes, my dear, and very much more, which is too minute to be now described to you.

Jane. How wonderful! But what sort of a thing is the heart, and what has it to do with the blood?

Mamma. The heart is properly a large hollow muscle divided into two distinct parts, one for sending the blood through the lungs, the other for sending it over the body. Each side of it has two great cavities, which are called the auricle, and the ventricle. The latter is surrounded with muscular fibres, the use of which is, to contract, so as throw the blood out of this part; or to expand the opening, so as to admit it. The ventricle, on the left side, has an opening into a large tube, called the aorta, or great artery, which, sending off an immense number of branches, carries the blood to every part of the body. The heart is contained in a membraneous bag, which is the strongest substance of that kind, found in any part of our frame.

Frank. You have not told us about the other thing, which you called the auricle.

Mamma. That is also a cavity, which opens at one end into the pulmonary veins, that is, those which are connected with the lungs, about which I will talk to you presently; and at the other, it opens into the ventricle; but there are valves or doors, which divide the one from the other, and prevent any fluid from passing from thence into the auricle.

Emily. What is the difference between a vein and an artery?

Mamma. The arteries are those vessels which convey the blood from the heart all over the frame,

E

and the veins are those vessels which bring it back again. As the arteries reach the extremities, they branch out into exceedingly small tubes, so as to carry the blood into the minutest parts, and having done this, they empty it into very small veins, which meet larger ones, and these again meet still larger branches, till, at last, there are only two large tubes, which empty the blood into the right auricle. Arteries were so called, because it was supposed, formerly, that they contained nothing but air; as they were always found to be empty after a person was dead.

Jane. Then, mamma, have we always the same quantity of blood in our bodies?

Mamma. No, but these tubes are capable of becoming larger or smaller, according to what it is requisite they should hold.

Emily. But what sends the blood out of the heart when it has once got there?

Mamma. The contraction of the fibres, which I named to you before; this is one of the involuntary motions we spoke of, when I was explaining to you about the muscles.

Frank. How often is this done?

Mamma. It depends on the age of the person, and the state of their health.

Emily. How do we know how often the heart throws out blood?

Mamma. By counting how often our pulse beats. If you place your finger, for instance, just above the wrist, you can distinctly feel the throbbing of the artery, and at each of those throbs, a quantity of blood is thrown out.

[blocks in formation]

Mamma. In a man it is thought to be about two

large spoonfuls each time. And this takes place, supposing you feel sixty beats in every minute, how many times in an hour?

Frank. Sixty times sixty. Three thousand six hundred times. Oh! is that possible?

Mamma. In a child the pulse beats much more quickly, sometimes above a hundred times in a minute; how often would that be in an hour.

Emily. Sixty hundred, that is six thousand times. How wonderful that the heart should not be pained or tired, with having so much constantly to do.

Jane. Is it all night, as well as all day, at work? Frank. If our hearts left off beating, we should die-should we not, mamma?

Mamma. Yes, dear, directly.

Frank. You have only told us about the left side of the heart; what has the right side to do?

Mamma. It is formed like the left side, having both an auricle and a ventricle, and these are employed in throwing the blood into the lungs through which it is circulated, in a similar manner to that which I have described to you as taking place in the body, and in receiving it again.

Emily. Will you explain that more fully, mamma, I do not quite understand you.

Mamma. An artery, called the pulmonary artery, receives the blood from the right ventricle, and carries it all over the lungs; just as I told you the great vessel called the aorta took the blood from the left ventricle, and carried it all over the body.

Frank. Yes.

The

Mamma. Then the blood collects again into veins, which unite, and return it to the left auricle. reason why the blood has to circulate through the

« 前へ次へ »